Lessons from @StoopingNYC on creating communities of care online, finding balance through creativity and amazing NYC finds
Today's podcast guest are the hosts of @StoopingNYC, a supportive online community of “stoopers” which share free things left out on NYC stoops and sidewalks, all shared through the account run by a couple living in Brooklyn
@StoopingNYC has reached over 250K followers through its several daily posts where community members across the five boroughs can find unique and nice things for their home. The account has been featured in numerous news outlets including NPR, Vogue, and Time Out. They have developed a community where folks share their stooping successes, including the creative projects they have turned out of items that were left for the trash. In this episode we talk about what it means to build an online community which actually serves a community, how creativity builds balance in our daily lives, and the many unique things that have come to their accounts straight from NYC streets.
Full Interview Transcript:
Apologies, as always, for any typos / grammar errors in transcription - cons of a one man shop :)
Jack: Welcome back to the creation stories podcast, where we demystify the creative process and make each day a day to make, if this is your first time listening, please do us a favor and review the podcast. Your rating helps us get noticed and reach new listeners and guests to bring on the show and also would love if you subscribe to the podcast to get updates, we try and push out a new episode out each week.
And it really means a lot to me when you give us a shout out on social media. So thanks for those who have already done so. Today's episode is a special Valentine's day, week feature as it's the first time I've had a married couple on the podcast, our guests today are a couple behind the famous Instagram account at @StoopingNYC
you might be wondering what stooping is. Stooping is when someone finds an item, maybe it's furniture or art that has been left at a stoop or on a sidewalk as designated for trash. But that is picked up and given new life in someone else's home. The couple behind this account started this initially to document a phenomenon that they loved about New York city with their friends and family.
And it quickly grew to a following of 250,000 followers on Instagram. And has been featured on NPR, Vogue, timeout, and many other news outlets in this podcast, they talk about developing an online community, which truly is a community they talk about finding balance in their life with having a creative outlet and how it has brought them closer together as a couple, they were absolutely lovely guests and I hope you enjoy learning about their story. As much as I did, please welcome our Stoopers to the creation stories podcast.
Jack: I actually first heard about you guys because my friend just got a couch there off the account pretty recently, a few weeks ago. Well, I had followed, but I hadn't really thought As an interview topic. And I was like, this is just so cool that people are doing this as a service essentially in New York.
And the couch was really beautiful. This blue couch, and I
Stooper 1: Was it velvet? We get a lot of blue velvet couches.
Jack: Yes. I'm shocked. Why do you think blue velvet is being tossed out? I have one literally right next to me, a cheap Walmart version, but I love it. I think was like good.
Stooper 1: I mean, it's so funny. We literally, we joke that we have a blue or green velvet couch every single week. I don't know if we're like going through trends that are being recycled and coming back to life or, but yeah, we definitely, we get a lot of them.
Jack: That's funny. I really love the couch and it seems like, I think you guys also posted, she had a picture of it in her apartment and looks really nice now.
So it was very useful, but it also made me just think, I know you post a lot of the stooping successes just as an interview topic. And so really excited to, and thank you again for taking the time I want to start just by asking with whatever lens you're comfortable with. Whatever range, a little bit about the two of you how you decided to launch the accounts.
As I know you originally started it for friends and family, but even if this was something you had as a hobby before, and then I think as a follow-up, I'd love to know a little bit about why you've chosen to keep yourself anonymous in a world where On Instagram, you really want to put yourself out there as a brand.
So I just find that really interesting too I'd love to hear about that.
Stooper 1: Yeah. Well, to tackle the first part of the question, we started stooping NYC. Almost three years ago now, I think it was the summer of 2019. Some background on us we're a couple, we are newly married. At the time we were not married and I'm Canadian and was working on getting my visa and coming to the U S and so My partner in crime here and his little boy used to take a lot of walks around the neighborhood and he'd always call me and describe the weird and crazy and almost like jaw-dropping things that people would just put out to giveaway. And for me that was like so different because that just doesn't happen quite as much where I'm from in Canada.
And so we joked you know starting some sort of an Instagram handle for, as you mentioned, our friends and family would kind of thought like our moms would be the biggest engagers, quite
honest.
And we, we we thought it would be like a fun creative outlet. Like we'll like walk around the neighborhood, take some pictures, write some funny captions and call it a day. And I would say pretty quickly after launching it, people just started, , finding it across their explore pages and it really became something that people jumped on too. So I would say within a month of launching it, we were no longer taking the photos anymore and people just continue to submit us the albums and it's sort of grown from there, which is amazing. And then on the anonymity piece, I mean, I think the beauty that we find those stooping and you mentioned it like, you know, in a world where everybody is trying to get clout from ideas they created online, we think that there's something kind of magical about this just being about the furniture. It's not about us. We're not very exciting people. We don't have very exciting backstories.
And I think that it's almost more amazing that people are coming to a place and they're able to engage with a community of like-minded people who are sort of after the same thing. I think it's also sort of counterintuitive to what social media can do in terms of tearing people apart.
I think we've built a beautiful community that for the most part is very positive and very encouraging of one another. So we feel super, super lucky for what we've created.
Jack: Yeah, that's a great point. And I think it is such a gift to be able to do that on a platform, which as you said, I think people can find so divisive of course, but it really is cool to see different models of how it can be used to, to engage with your community and I think the Instagram account just does so much for that. I think in terms of people submitting things that they find, not just, grabbing it for themselves or telling their friends, they also want to share this cool thing they found with the account. And I think that's really special and something that, I'm thankful for. I've definitely been looking, but I think it's hard without a car to get a lot of the great stuff that comes with the account.
Stooper 1: We've seen some insane stooped journeys. Like people take stuff on subways and city bikes
Stooper 2: Skateboards
Stooper 1: Skateboards Yeah.
Jack: Yeah Ooh, that's a good idea. Skateboard is a good one. I need one of those, kids wagons
Stooper 1: I've never been like so impressed with how coordinated people are that when I see some one on a city bike, like holding a coffee table with one arm,
New Yorkers never fail to impress
Jack: yeah. Seriously. , anytime you see that on the subway, it's always like, how are they doing, like how did they get it in through the gate?
Stooper 1: You know, the interesting thing too, is since we started, we've had a lot of people who have approached us about the idea of like turning it into an app.
What if you created an app and people sign up and they can mark stuff when it's gone. And I think the one thing that we love about it being on Instagram it kind of like democratizes the experience and it makes it fun. And we're not asking people to go out of their way and download something new.
There's something that is really easy about engaging with this community of upcyclers that we really like about where we lives.
Jack: I'm sure you've had a lot of different people approach you with things like the app, as you mentioned, or just in general, different ways to monetize.
And it seems at least from reading some of the interviews that you've done in the past and looking at the Instagram that's just never something you've done at least on a big scale that I would have noticed.
Stooper 2: I would say we've done it on zero scale actually. It just hasn't been something that we've been interested in, to be honest with you, we just think as soon as that, and if we did that, it wouldn't, it just wouldn't feel right to the community and I think that, that at some point we may want to try to find a little bit of money to pay somebody to help once we have a little bit, just because of time and we feel bad with volunteers.
But honestly it hasn't been something we've really looked into. We think that there could be something that sort of sits adjacentto it from like a content perspective, whether it's a show or something like that. And that's something that we've explored a little bit.
Jack: Yeah, that's really interesting.
And I think , frankly, just remarkable in terms of even with people I've had on the show, or just talking to so many of my friends who try and do this to generate income. And I think as you say, It could be tough with something that you've really started and focused on the community to maybe feel disingenuous shifting into that.
But I have to commend you guys cause I think that it's hard to resist because you have such a great following.
Stooper 2: Well, I mean, I think that trying to monetize it sort of goes against everything that the platforms stands for. So I think that's a big part of it, again, and like I said, maybe at some point we would do like a crowd raise or something if people had, you know, a little bit, because we do have a lot of followers, but it would be strictly to be able to pay somebody to help us or people to help us.
Jack: Well, I'm sure also an outsider like me even viewing the Instagram, it's like, oh, you're just posting things but there's so much work that goes on behind the scenes. I'm sure that just takes up a lot of hours. And I know that from other interviews that you have jobs, other priorities, how are you balancing that?
Are you pretty disciplined around your schedule around like, okay here's when we're going to check the account, post new pictures, is it more flexible? Do you trade off responsibilities? How have you managed that while also keeping up with the millions of other commitments going on in your life?
Stooper 2: , I mean, first of all, it really doesn't take long it really doesn't it, you know, and maybe it's because we're so witty, we're so creative and witty that it just comes to us so quickly. But you know, , honestly, it doesn't take long at all. And we do it in sort of bursts and we don't get to every DM. Because if we feel it's been a couple hours, we feel like it's probably gone and , we just don't want someone to go there if it's never been there, you know?
I think we sort of, we do it in bursts. We honestly don't really plan who does what sometimes on the weekend whoever's sitting shotgun will do it, we'll talk that. But honestly, we believe in, I think having a creative outlet actually makes us more balanced and better as our personal and professional.
Jack: Yeah, that's great. And definitely something I can relate to and align with I think even doing the podcast for me is the reason I started it was for that, that creative outlet.
Stooper 2: It's also a nice thing for us together as a couple, it's something that we really, really enjoy.
Maybe if we did try to monetize it we wouldn't enjoy it as much. And now, every night we do a Stooped review before bed. We don't look during the day and we laugh at the captions. We write in the comments that people say and the gifs that we use and it's a nice thing together
Jack: Yeah, I love that. I was actually going to ask how collaborating with your partner has gone and I think obviously for you two, it's worked well since you both have a similar interest in this, because I can imagine, obviously for me, if I try and think about doing a creative project with my boyfriend, as much as I love him, I think he probably go crazy if he had to work with me on anything creative. And so I'm very impressed by that as well.
Stooper 2: Well, I think that the good thing is that we were doing it most of the time independently of each other. I think we both feel really responsible to the platform and in the community. I think that that gets hard sometimes, if we can't get to it for a little while, we feel guilty to be honest with you, because , we know people are looking and sometimes people are taking legitimately they're making it a project for the day.
Jack: Yeah.
Stooper 1: Coming into the city to stoop, yeah.
Stooper 2: So that feels like a little bit of pressure to us. 'cause we don't like letting anybody down. So I think that like, we both feel pressure to get it done and if neither of us done it, we sort of feel a little bit anxiety over that. So that brings the point of like having, making sure at some point we get a little bit of assistance.
Jack: I think that's interesting. Do you think that pressure is more. Positive pressure. Are there times when it's negative? Because I think that can also be obviously a motivator when you feel like obligated or obligated is maybe a strong word, but you're doing something for your communities that might push through some of the times when you're like, oh, I have so much going on at work. I don't really want to do this today.
Stooper 2: It's a combination of both love it. We love it. We love the utility of it. And we love the creative piece of it. I think there's the balance of both. And like I said, it doesn't really take a lot of time and I think doing it is a stress reliever.
It's the problem of when you haven't done it for a couple of hours or something like that, or 5:30 and you've been on there in the morning at lunch and night, and there's a gazillion DMS in there and you feel a little guilty. And I think it's really that piece when you open up the inbox and it's overwhelming how you feel in your work and you see a full inbox when you come back and it's anxiety provoking.
So I that's the only piece to us that is a little bit stressful, but Honestly it's worth it.
Jack: Yeah. I can imagine. It's funny you mentioned that cause I lived with that same it's kind of like cheesy metaphor here, but cleaning your room, right. I can think of my room right now is a total disaster.
And the fact that it continues to accumulate a bit, makes me want to do it less. . It's kind of principle, but how do you get through that? Is it just giving yourself permission, like, look it's okay that we didn't do as much normally we're so on top of it, some days we're just not going to get to everything and that's okay.
Or how do you get through or do you go back and say, okay, let me see. I'm going to try and address as many of these as I can. What is your approach in getting through that discomfort or maybe sense of guilt?
Stooper 2: I can start there. I think there's two there's two or three things there.
So I think first of all, if we don't get it to it within a few hours, we won't post, usually two hours are cut off and then we, we will tell people usually, sorry, we couldn't get to it. And one of the most amazing things is that the reaction of people every single time is like, oh my gosh, do not worry about it.
. So I think that for us, that significantly helped. Because the community really is understanding. And we also have a sense of what things get taken and what people like. And don't actually, we don't post everything anymore anyway.
. I think it's a combination of like the amazing pieces of the community. And then honestly, we, I think we're at peace with the idea that not everything is going to get posted.
Jack: Right, right. That makes sense and it's, it's good that I'm sure after a few years, you kind of develop a muscle for that too and that sense of acceptance, which is good. I know you talked a bit about the walks with your son, but also there's just a general interest in stooping. Did you know there was a term to this when you started, did you have an interest in furniture? How did that come along?
Stooper 2: I think that the concept of stooping has been done forever in fact we hear that from people being, I was stooping in the sixties. Right. I think that we coined the term. Oh, interesting. , and I, and I don't know. I had never seen it before and I, I could be wrong. But I kind of do think we coined the term.
Jack: I wouldn't be surprised actually, as you mentioned that, because really when I have brought it up before to people who don't live in New York, they're like, what is stooping? Like, oh, sitting on stoops where I've said, and I'm like, no, no, no.
Like as I was talking to my parents, for example, about doing this, oh, I'm so excited about this podcast coming up. There's this Stooping . And they were like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And then I send them and they're like, oh, that's so cool. You know, but I think you're right. I don't know if that is, and it does feel sometimes, obviously this happens in other places, but what, at least with the account, it feels distinctly New York.
Right. And I think that's also really beautiful.
Stooper 1: Yeah, I definitely think, I mean, I say this all the time being like a transplant to New York there is, and we've had a lot of, you know, people that have reached out to us and wanted to try to start similar accounts in Toronto and Paris and Amsterdam and other cities around the US and some of them do okay. But no Account has really taken off the same way stooping NYC has. And I think that has everything to do with the fact that New York is New York. You know, it's a very transient city no one apartment is like another. And it has, I mean, to me, it strikes me as both a Rite of passage and the way New Yorkers pay it forward to put their stuff out on the street versus immediately resorting to trying to sell it.
Right. And, and I think that because there's sort of , the culture of movement here, I think it lends itself incredibly well to. Just amazing things that get put out that, we then have the honor of being able to post for other people.
Jack: Yeah. . I love that. And it's really cool I liked the point you make about it being a transient city as to why it works so well here because people are always moving in and out, obviously COVID we saw so much of that. I am curious as a transplant too, but now it sounds like you've been here for awhile. Do you feel more like a true new Yorker?
Because I feel sometimes true New Yorkers, will give people shit for, for only living in New York for two years before moving on. But I think there is so much of our population here that is like that. But how do you feel on that the transient nature.
Stooper 1: I mean, totally. I feel like I definitely feel like I am more of the new Yorker than I have been before.
And I think it's interesting, we were saying this the other day, when we were driving through our home borough of Brooklyn, there's so many different ways to live in this city and there's so many amazing demographics that have settled in New York. And I think that that's the beauty of the city is that you can be far away from home and it can still feel like you found a piece of home here.
And so, I definitely feel like I've become much more of a New Yorker also thanks to running stooping NYC. And now knowing almost every cross street across the five boroughs so yeah
Jack: Yeah. You definitely see more of the city than most people on a daily basis, at least through the Instagram. Right. So I think that's cool and on the community piece, because we've talked about this a bit already, but on the Instagram you've really have built a digital community that I think is, as you've mentioned, pretty unique within social media.
And you've talked about other Stooping accounts, maybe not having the same success, but what about for other, I think a lot of the lessons that you have in terms of making something community oriented could be useful for someone starting a mutual aid organization or something like that. I wonder what kind of tips you would give and in terms of building an account that is truly for the community.
Stooper 2: Well, you know, I mean, I think it's like anything it's as a utility, you need it. And it needs to be something that's solving a problem in someone's life first and foremost. And then the second piece, I think it doesn't hurt that. I think we're pretty engaging. In fact, the craziest thing is, is that only about 60% or a little bit less than 60% of our following is from New York.
Wow.
Jack: Yeah.
Stooper 2: Thank you, Instagram analytics, by the way. So while first of all, I think the idea of New York being a little bit of a romantical place with stories within stories and stooping being one of those stories within the city has caught on as a piece of real content and meaning, and then the utility behind it and the success story of before and after is something that the people really love. And so I think that in this case it has the utility, , the character of New York City. And then it has the, the sort of the, the storytelling of the before and after some of, both of both a piece of furniture and then even a home, elevating a home.
Jack: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and totally agree with the storytelling piece, because I think it's funny I like what you've both done in terms of building a kind of ongoing stories as some of them Simple as like showing someone's stooping success or how they've changed.
They're super creative with what they originally picked up or even the, the high heel shoes, a shot.
That's right. I mean,
Stooper 2: Even to the point where some of our most popular posts are a stooping successes. Yeah. Be capturing contest and see and by the way, , you don't win anything and see Honestly, probably like the funniest, the funny items, like the less utility items, but the funnier items that get posted are probably the other most engaged posts.
Jack: I love that because as we're talking about, it just makes me think about how you've done a really amazing job at building the digital community, which lives on top of your actual community. I think the point that only 60% are from New York, just shows that it does really resonate with people even who may not have ever done this in their life has never seen it.
But participating in some of those online little events, just to feel they're part of a community, I think is something super special that you all have done, especially during COVID over the last, however long now, almost two years that , I think just really resonates with people when they are feeling.
One of the other things that I wanted to talk about is just thinking about. It being kind of obviously a hobby for you all. It's been a huge success in a creative outlet. Wondering if you have advice for other folks who, whether it's an online community, whether they are creators at large, how someone could build in some of these hobbies into their life while also managing their day jobs there's probably a lot of people like myself who are risk averse of unfortunately need to make some money and to make their way in the world, especially in New York. But I think it's also a city that attracts a lot of creatives. And so how you have balanced that I think any tips on that would be super helpful.
Stooper 2: Well, I think it's a little bit of what I said before. I think it's a couple of things. I think that the balance making sure that your, again, I think this probably makes us better at our actual jobs and and having a creative outlet and the feeling of giving back and I think that's all really positive to life and fufilling, right. And then I think again, making sure that what you're doing is something that as a utility and is needed and there is a community for, so I think that, how big can our, , I mean, 250,000 plus feels really big, but there's plenty of. The guy who holds the sign outside has like gazillion followers. I mean, you know, due to the sign. I don't know how big this community actually is or actually can be, but in some communities, might be a thousand and some might be 10,000 might be a million, I don't know.
But I think that making sure that there is a community for it. No. How big or small, the idea, going into it, thinking that, I mean, we were doing this strictly as like a fun creative outlet at the beginning. And there was a need for it and I think it got better and bigger because we looked at it as a creative outlet and we had, we had the want to, you know, write funny things and have fun with it. And I also,
Stooper 1: I think to add to that, the beautiful thing that we've kind of been able to crack the code on with stooping is this intersection of like what a need and a want is within the broader community. The authenticity that we try to maintain with what we're doing. So we talked about from a monetization perspective, but like that flows through our general approach to everything we do on the handle. we're never trying to to be anything that we're not, you know what I mean? We've sort of maintained the consistency of posting schedule and witty captions and every single person. Exactly. Yeah. Tagging everyone who submits like the stooping success show off at the end of the day, because I think that there's something beautiful about something authentic to the community that's helped build it.
Stooper 2: The other thing I'd add, is that just as a piece of the tip , I know it was said earlier, but it would have, it is very easy to think of this as an app. And you can really think about that, like, yeah. But the problem is, I don't think it would've taken off.
And because everybody already is in Instagram, they're already there. We are a community within a huge community. . And I think that it, if we hadn't done it there, it probably wouldn't. It probably wouldn't have.
Jack: Yeah, it makes sense. Since you have access to so many people who are here and I'm wondering, just having this conversation also reminded me of this book I read how to do nothing by Jenny. Odell have either of you read that book.
Nope.
I think you might like it because it talks a lot about the attention economy of social media. And she talks at the end about some different forms of social media that can be employed to be more community oriented and someone just from models.
It's actually very. Similar to what you guys described around sharing something that is useful to someone or that could benefit someone in a tough spot. And I think that it's quite literally what your account gets at, I think whether it's someone new moving in, who needs a couch for their living room, who is super young and broke,
or whatever the situation might be to the point of utility that you've brought up a couple of times as well.
Stooper 2: I think the other piece that I should, that we probably should have mentioned it is a little bit, it is a game of it is kind of gamified. There is a scavenger hunt aspect.
There's a race you feel like you want, when you get something you feel you're like, there's a whole sense of excitement. Yeah. You feel like you want.
Jack: Yeah, definitely.
Stooper 1: And I see, I mean, we've even throughout the last three years, we've had multiple Stoopers that have been like, I showed up and two other people were there and I was sad I didn't get it, but then I helped someone carry it home and it just continues to reinforce like the type of human beings that are positive and wonderful and part of this.
Jack: I love that. That's cute. That's really cute story. It's so against the narrative in the media or commonplace about new Yorkers generally. So I think it's it's good to hear these things also for people.
Stooper 1: Totally. There is very much again, like not to use like play the transplant card, but I think when you first moved here, are ready for, and assume that new Yorkers are going to be tough and it's going to be hard to live here. and I'm not saying that that's not the case in some ways, but I do think that this, the Stooping community is so beautiful because you see people who are like hard New Yorkers who have been here for, their entire lives that are like, we used to do this and call it thrifting like four years ago.
And those are the same people that are excited to see the stooping success of a 21 year old college student that's six months into living in their first Manhattan apartment. It's like something that's just beautiful about the ecosystem of all the people who have ended up here and how the furniture is given a second life .
Jack: Yeah, that's cool. And I totally agree with you on the transplant part. Not, not quite the same, but I'm from Michigan. So I think that's about as close to Canadian, as you can get from a U S state. Exactly like diet Canada has is what I've referred to it as before But it's definitely funny, you know, you come in with that in anticipation.
I don't know about you, but when I go home and people are like, I don't know how you could live there with folks who have maybe been there a weekend or never been there at all. They think, of course there are times like anywhere you live, where it's just, it is hard someone says something shitty, but I think there's so many wonderful stories of that, that I love that you all give more attention to because it does make me joyful to see, and I think it's sweet.
Like. People who get something also, even on the Instagram account will respond to comments like, Hey, is this been picked up? And they're like, sorry I already took it better luck next time. They are also helping out the community in that way.
Right. So you guys don't have to I it's just cute to see. Alright, one more question before I get into a couple of rapid questions, but to wrap up, , you mentioned the word upcycling. Was that something that you all intentionally thought of as the account in the first place?
Or was that something that you learned as you were doing this as like, oh, that's what this is in a way. How did that come up in your lexicon? And what does that mean for you?
Stooper 1: To be completely honest. I mean, we did not, I mentioned that at the beginning, we did not start this account with any intention other than to basically amuse ourselves and our families.
And I think that We built such a diverse community of people who have different reasons for why they do. So, we have the people who like to refurbish furniture and we have the people who, are just trying to furnish their first apartment in the city. But then we do have a lot of upcyclers, and a lot of people who are very passionate about saving things from landfills and making sure that, things are reused before they're sent to the dump. So that's definitely something that I think we've been educated on a lot more since we started. We now follow a lot of other handles that are either doing similar things to us or people who are going at it on their own and trying , to refurbish some of these things before they post them to show people the potential of what some of the items could be.
So I think we feel really lucky to have sort of side community of people who also follow us and who are educating us as they're educating the rest of our community on how people can be more involved in the movement.
Jack: Definitely those are ones I really like to see, it's pretty amazing to see some of the folks artistic talent around that too.
I'm sure you guys are still amazed by that even after seeing so many,
Stooper 1: it's crazy that like creativity that people have, someone sent us a video, I think it was like last week. And it was a guy, an artist who had just moved to the city and he found a mid century modern coffee table and painted and lacquered the entire thing and painted almost it was some like crazy fun design on the top of it. And it looked incredible and the community went nuts for it. So I
Jack: I
loved that yeah
Stooper 1: people are just so impressed by what is other people do.
Jack: Yeah. That one was really cool. I thought that was. Insane to see. And he did a nice job. The artist is a cool job of also displaying the process which was just really fun to watch. I'll have to, I'll have to share that to the Instagram because I think people just love to see that that. But I want to close with a few rapid questions and you both may have different answers to these questions.
So feel free to trade off if it's the same that's great too. But obviously the first thing I have to ask is the favorite thing that you've seen come through on the Account.
Stooper 1: I'll say mine was the pink Smeg fridge.
Jack: Oh, wow.
Stooper 1: It was amazing.
Stooper 2: That was amazing.
Stooper 1: And like in brand new condition, I think
seems like it was beautiful.
What would you say yours
was?
Stooper 2: I don't know. I like the old school video games, the pop up
there was a week where we had a street fighter and a buck commander with me the same day or two days. And they both worked. Wow. Yeah.
Stooper 1: I think the other things that we both really like are the items that have fun stories behind them, or interesting stories. one of the first things we ever had with a great story, was a girl who put all of her ex-boyfriend's stuff that he refused to come and collect out on the street and said, , my ex's trash could be your treasure, which was amazing.
We had an amazing artist. It was actually a story that kind of went viral. And it was during the pandemic. He lived in the upper west side. He couldn't afford to stay in New York. And so went to move back to Puerto Rico and all of the art. He can no longer take out on the street. Someone sent us a picture.
We posted it. And stoopers went and got it. And one of the pieces happened to have a card on the back of it that had his details. And so we also then were able to track him down. We were able to post his Venmo's so people could properly compensate him for this amazing art that he had left when he couldn't take it back home.
And it was just like wonderful moment of Making something that was potentially a really like sad story in the middle of the pandemic and kind of turning it into a beautiful moment.
Jack: Yeah. That's amazing. That's so cool.
Stooper 2: That was, that was by far, the most special thing that I think has happened.
I also like any time that anybody gives us like a funny sign or something like that, it gives us, it makes it easy to do a fun caption. So yesterday, somebody put out a shredder and they put a sign over. It said, hello, I am a shredder. I shred stuff. You should take me home and do some shredding.
And it gave me the ability to write the caption. I just can't figure out what this is or what you use it for. And because of that engagement, nobody really wanted the shredder probably, but it was a humongously engaged post just because of the funny sign. And it gave the ability to write a fun caption and people jumped in also .
Hmm.
Jack: That's really funny. Yeah, crack. Correct.
Stooper 2: I am mad that somebody commented, not a shred of doubt. I'm so mad. I didn't get that.
Jack: That is good. That's good. I was going to ask it. That was going to be my next question was the funniest thing you found? Are there any other funny, either items or funny memories that you've had while doing this.
Stooper 2: I mean so many I mean, , we've had crazy neon signs, like sexual neon signs.
Stooper 1: We had a pair of fake boobs, like two weeks mean a lot of sex toys
I mean,
beanie baby collection then. Yeah. I
Stooper 2: mean, funny art that like we've had just a million different.
Hysterical thing. And we've had a really great blend of very needed, very special things. Very beautiful and just absolutely hysterical. But there's so many, I mean I looked at this year, I think we posted 12,000 times on posts, not inclusive stories. Wow.
Jack: Well,
Stooper 2: 12,100 posts.
Jack: I'm surprised Instagram even like, lets you post that much
so it's gotta be some
Stooper 2: I have been worried about that before. All right. Yeah.
I have been worried that like we'll get flagged for like being, you know, abusive or something. And
There was a whole stoop bear . there's this bear that would constantly show up on the man, but it always looked like, I think it's like an Ikea bear, but it would always show up on stooping for a long time. We called it stoop bear and it always looked drunk or like a mentally
hung over.
And and we had a whole stoop bear thread for awhile. That was a.
Jack: Wow. I hope someone else, later will restoop that so I can see it again.
Stooper 2: It's come back many, many times.
Jack: Oh, good, good.
Stooper 2: Hashtag if you ever want to look,
Jack: that's good. Yeah, I think I can send an alert for that.
Now I should know that better than I do, but that's a good,
Stooper 2: and we've also done, like, there's been like really old school porn vHS's in a bin. I mean, those were people had hysterical comments on, so it's been really fun.
Jack: That's great. And the last one, it's just, I think obviously the Puerto Rican artist is a great answer to this, but are there any other moments that have made you just really proud of the work that you two are doing? Because I think it is something that is obviously such a gift to the community and I'm sure has had a lot of moments where you're like, wow, we are doing a cool, good thing here.
Stooper 2: There's been a lot of times when we've connected people wh ere there's been items that they lost somehow and we've sort of been, had to go find those items for them. There's been pianos that have gone to community centers and clothes that have gone and food that have gone
We didn't know about the community were fridges that were all over the city. And we were able to really help share those with a lot of the community and have them share it. So there's been people who haven't been able to afford furniture and have reached out to us and are just trying to make ends meet. But also want to put nice things in their home and they've reached out to us about being able to do that through us and like what else, what else could you possibly ask for?
I got goosebumps saying.
Jack: That's great. No, thank you. These are just such fun stories. And I also think I know we don't have the video on, but I've been smiling this whole interview because they think it's just, it's such a fun topic. I love the Instagram. I think you guys are both so funny, but also just I'm the funny one by the way.
Right, right, right. Of course. But. I think
Stooper 2: by the way,
sometimes, sometimes I try purposely to write like her just because our mothers think they know us so well.
Stooper 1: I mean, the kick that we get out of each other's gif work and the captions at the end of every night is amazing. Like we will sit and do these Stooped reviews and I'll read his caption or he'll read mine. And we're both like, that was amazing
Stooper 2: If the stooped community wants to make us smile. All they, have to do is put a laughing emoji on one of our captions.
And we're like, we feel like it gives a million dollars.
Jack: That's better. That's the furthest your monetization has gone is
Stooper 2: The best currency we can get is the laughing emoji
Jack: that's good. That's good I'm going to just start doing it to every post just give you a daily serotonin boost in this weather lately. I think we all, we all could use it a little bit,
Stooper 2: but it doesn't stop stoopers.
Jack: Yeah, it's true. I still see it a lot, especially like last weekend when we had the snow storm I saw you guys posting some, it's pretty funny.
Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Again, I just wanted to say thank you so much because it's, it's been really fun for me and I think it's really refreshing to talk to people who are doing this as a creative project, but really doing it for their own balance and just their own sense of self purpose and, and finding value out of it beyond it being something you're really thinking of how do we monetize that and change this into something we can do, which is valid for a lot of people but I think it's nice to get the perspective of you guys who really just enjoy it from yes, your creative side, but also doing something for the community, because I think it's a really unique and creative voice. And I think it's a huge inspiration for me as well. I think there are times obviously where you post a podcast episode that doesn't get as much views or whatever. It is nice to have that mindset of like, well, if, if someone really learned something from the guest, that's really worth it as well. And I think that's what you guys have talked about in your motivation. So I'm really grateful and I hope someday we'll connect again.
Stooper 2: Thank you, sir. Thank you. That's great. We look forward to sharing it.
Jack: Jack again here. I'm so grateful to our lovely stoopers for the intentionality that you put behind creating meaningful online communities within places that are often pegged for doing the exact opposite, which I think is so special. And I'm especially grateful that they're doing awesome things in my home city of New York.
Hopefully you find something cool on their account if you live in New York city let us know if you find anything great. As always just a reminder to subscribe and review the podcast. Thanks to COMAmedia, whose music is licensed under creative commonsfor the podcast, and thanks to all of you and make today a day to make.
