Take My Stuff: A Mobile Application for Sustainable Peer-to-Peer Item Sharing

A significant portion of household items are discarded each year, many of which remain in usable condition but are never reused. With the emergence of mobile applications that encourage peer-to-peer exchange of resources, several platforms now exist that aim to reduce such waste by enabling users to pass on items they no longer need. However, most of these systems are domain-specific, primarily focused on food, clothing, or recycling, while general-purpose exchange models remain limited and underdeveloped. In addressing the current gap, this paper proposes a geolocation-enabled mobile application that facilitates general-purpose item exchange between individuals. The proposed platform provides a synchronous experience for both, seekers and givers. It also integrates interest-matched notifications upon learning users’ preferences. In addition, it provides a secure in-app chat between the seekers and givers, where further discussions can be carried out on the item to be given away. The app integrates geolocation services for pickup routing, making the handover process more convenient. A working prototype has been developed to validate the core functionalities and demonstrate the feasibility of lightweight, community-driven item reuse. The app has been tested on multiple users, and it has demonstrated high user satisfaction, offers a user-friendly cross-platform interface, and minimizes the time required to find needed items or give away unneeded ones.