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Wow! A Vending Machine that Helps You Get Rid of Stuff

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A new vending machine lets you swap your unloved stuff. Might be a good way to repurpose leftovers from your last home improvement project.

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Swap-O-Matic vending machine

What home or garden item would you like to find in the Swap-O-Matic? Leave your comment below.
Image: Lina Fenequito

Instead of throwing out items you indentify in a declutter mission, you might be able to swap them in vending machines designed to reuse and repurpose.

Swap-O-Matic, the brainchild of Brooklyn designer Lina Fenequito, dispenses donated items for credits instead of cash. Whenever you donate something, you get a credit that allows you to give a new home to something found in one of the vending machine’s glass-door compartments.

So far, Fenequito is moving her one and only Swap-O-Matic around New York City, although she is planning someday to station more units around the country.

The Swap-O-Matic is intended to “inspire all of us to rethink our consumption habits,” Fenequito told Gizmag. Buying new, bad: trading and reusing, good.

We like the idea of reusing leftovers from home improvement and gardening projects, and can see donating extra seeds or surplus cabinet knobs to the vending machine.

What would you hope to find in a Swap-O-Matic?

lisa-kaplan-gordon Lisa Kaplan Gordon

is a HouseLogic contributor and builder of luxury homes in McLean, Va. She’s been a Homes editor for Gannett News Service and has reviewed home improvement products for AOL.

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