The trinket trade boom is taking over San Francisco

• The rules are simple: take a trinket, leave a trinket — or just open the door and look.

Inspired by Portland's broader "Sidewalk Joy" movement, the local trend reflects a growing effort to create accessible, community-run spaces that help strengthen neighborhood ties.

• "These are love letters from the person who makes them to their community and the way they're treated is a love letter back," said Rachael Harms Mahlandt, a Bay Area native and Portland-based artist who created a global map tracking these exchanges.

Catch up quick: Deanna Florendo launched San Francisco's first trinket trade box in the Outer Sunset last November after "wanting to do something for our community that felt a bit more personal."

• As a vintage trinket collector, she was drawn to the idea for its simplicity and ease, being that it was affordable to create and could also withstand the neighborhood's coastal climate.
• Soon, visitors were lining up, bonding over their new finds and connecting online afterward to trace their trades.
• "What I love most isn't even the trinkets, it's the experience," she told Axios.
• Now, she helps other residents start trinket exchanges in their own neighborhoods. She's even created a collective via group chat so that owners can swap tips, promote new launches and step in to help maintain one another's boxes when needed.

How it works: For those wanting to start their own, Mahlandt said the barrier to entry is lower than it looks. Many can be installed with minimal tools and in many cases, without a permit, she said.

• Sourcing trinkets can be as simple as cleaning out a drawer, asking neighbors for donations, tapping Buy Nothing groups, thrifting or adding small, inexpensive finds from craft stores.

Between the lines: Florendo played a big role in helping Inner Sunset resident Pam Chueh set up a box when she wasn't sure where to begin — walking her through logistics, sharing supply links and easing concerns about damage or theft, or whether neighbors would embrace the idea at all.

• Chueh mounted her box to the tree near her home in January and within a month, it was overflowing — not because she was stocking it, but because the neighborhood was.

• "Everything is from the community. I never have to replenish it — I actually have overstock," Chueh said.
• She's not only gotten to know her neighbors, she's also watched her block become a destination.
• Recent visitors have driven up from San Jose. Travelers from Canada have made it their last stop before heading to the airport. Some families now build entire Saturday outings around hopping from box to box across the city.

Sea Cliff resident Laura Marie Parsons, who goes by Lampy, is one of those frequent visitors. She is now colloquially known as the "Trinket Fairy Godmother" for restocking the city's numerous boxes with her wicker basket full of tiny figurines.

• She swung by the Outer Sunset location after discovering it on TikTok days after it was installed. The niche community has not only sparked a new hobby, but a network of friends.
• "This has just been something that's given me purpose, community and friends — really genuine friendships," she told Axios.

What's next: Florendo, who is a mother of two, is also currently working on creating a small exchange project for kids — "a place where very young traders can safely go to share joy with their community," she said.

If you go: Find them in Noe Valley, NOPA, Inner Sunset, Outer Sunset, Nob Hill and the Castro, which launches Saturday.