About us

Who

The Library of STUFF is a project of Mullum Cares Incorporated. A not for profit organisation that was founded in 2016 to inspire and enable resource conservation in the Northern Rivers.  You can see all things Mullum Cares at mullumcares.com.au.    

We rely on volunteers to open the Library to our members and undertake all of the inbetween running around tasks required to manage and improve the initiative.

 

What

The Library of STUFF is a community library filled with good quality items that are shared amongst its members. It provides affordable access to items for the Byron Shire community, including individuals, families and Not For Profit organisations including School classes. Whenever possible when we purchase new products we do so locally, supporting and promoting local businesses who stock quality products.

The Library of Stuff operates on the traditional land of the Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land, past, present and emerging, and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

Where & When

The Library is located in the brick shed on the south side of the Mullumbimby Community Hall (formerly the Scout Hall) on River Terrace near Burringbar Street. Please see our home page for updated holiday hours. 

Tuesday 8 – 10am

Thursday 3 – 5pm 

Saturday  9 – 11am

Why

The inspiration for the Library of Stuff name came from Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff mini documentary that details the detrimental effects of increasing consumption of low-quality consumer goods. With cheap, less durable options available, more expensive, longer lasting goods are being purchased less and less and the impact is evident in the increasing volume of waste our communities are producing and climate change.  The majority of emissions generated are directly related to the extraction, distribution and disposal of goods for human consumption.

Sharing & Repairing are decidedly radical acts these days as they directly oppose modern societies capitalist purpose. 

To ‘grow’ our economy with more and more spending.

Subscribe for Updates

It is imperative once you are a member that you receive and read our email communications.  We send them less frequently than monthly so we wont overload your inbox!    We post more regularly on Facebook and Insta if your into either of those platforms.

Sign up to our email list here.

Our Impact

The Library has grown organically with very little promotion as we are constantly limitied by space and volunteer capacity.  In 2021 we received a donation that allowed us to employ our Co Founder, Celine Massa, to work on Amplifying the Impact of our operation in order to demonstrate its benefits to the community and the environment.

We aspire to grow the initiative into a self sustaining operation that is financially capable of employing a permanent co ordinator.  We are a way off this goal and reject the obvious solution which is to focus on growing our only source of income, membership fees.  More members without more stuff would lead to reduced access to items and with the cost of square footage in the Byron Shire we are always restricted by physical space.

More work to investigate other income streams is underway with the University of Queensland assisting with the research.  If you or someone you know is in the position to make a tax deductible donation to help us move closer to a position of financial viability please see our Donation tab for details.  Money comes from selling things and our purpose being  to encourage people NOT to buy but borrow instead presents a unique but obvious challenge to our plight.

Celine’s 12 month role has resulted at the half way mark with the creation of our first Impact Report.   We are delighted to present it to you.

 

Winner of Byron Shire's Community Initiative of the Year Award for 2021

On January 27 the Byron Shire Council announced it’s annual awards that included their Environmental Initiative of the Year Award which went to Bangalow Koala’s.  The judges felt that the Library of Stuff must be acknowledged for it’s sucess and impact both environmentally and socially so they created a new category, the Community Initiative of the Year Award and awarded it to us!smile

Our Stories

Thank you to our Supporters

The following champions have all pitched in recently, to help support the Library so that we can keep on supporting our community. An anonymous member donated two 6 amp Makita batteries, brand new, when she learned that we had lost a box full of Makita batteries in...

Buy or Borrow Good Quality = Acting on Climate Change

People love our Library.  They love the idea of community.  Of sharing and making good quality items accessible to many people who might not otherwise be able to afford to buy them.  Many understand but it also comes as a surprise to others the direct impact of our...

We prepared for the flood but now we need your help : Part 1 Makita batteries

You might have seen our story about Paul, our Inventory Manager and our preparations for flood in late February? We put items back to their normal spot days after that post then decided to go back in and lift it all up again on the Saturday afternoon before the Monday...

Free 6 month membership for any flood impacted locals

If you or anyone you know has been affected by the floods, please become a member of the Library for FREE, for the next 6 months.  We are here to support the community, during the good times and the hard one's. We have so many items available for people to borrow. For...

Paul & Preparedness

Meet Paul. Paul is our Inventory Manager. Paul is pictured in our tool room where we moved all items that would be damaged by flood to higher ground. We know it’s not a question of if but when the hall will flood again and we exist to support our community with our...

The Library wins the Byron Shire Community Initiative of the Year award

We feel very honoured to be awarded the Byron Shire Community Initiative of the Year. Thank you to everyone who has journeyed with us up until now.  We look forward to continuing to support the community in sharing and borrowing, reducing consumption and waste,...

Screen Free Game Restoration Day

Does your game cupboard look like this?  These Summer Holidays are going to be wetter than normal so it's a perfect time to stocktake your games and rekindle your love of them! Chances are your kids might have grown out of some of them and some are likely missing...

Our Impact Report

Drum roll... We are proud to announce the launch of our first Library of Stuff Impact Report, sharing our impact from the last 2 1/2 years. We have been dreaming to create a document like this for some time and are so excited to be sharing this with you all now. Check...

Our tester and tagger

Did you know that it is our duty to test and tag all electrical tools that are lent out? We have a wonderful volunteer, Gus, who does this and has done so since we’ve opened. He’s not very well known in the library community as he often comes in at night to test and...