Visit Community Forklift’s nonprofit warehouse on a Saturday afternoon and you’ll find a wide range of shoppers: there’s the couple tackling their first renovation, hoping to find enough tile for a small powder room; a contractor looking at an original Victorian fireplace mantle for their client's row home; a twenty-something eyeing vintage pieces for their first apartment; and a small business owner looking for low-cost materials to use in building out their new space.

If there was ever a place where the old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” comes alive, it’s in this Edmonston, MD, warehouse overflowing with salvaged and surplus building materials and home goods.

For nearly twenty years, Community Forklift, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has been a pillar of the DMV community. A place where those across the broader metro area visit to source salvaged materials and secondhand furniture; or to sustainably donate stockpiled, surplus and gently used building materials to reduce waste and landfill use.

“Six hundred million tons of construction debris are sent to landfills annually in the United States alone," Community Forklift Executive Director Trey Davis explained. "Community Forklift sees this as an opportunity to redirect those materials and turn them into a community benefit. We connect supplies with people who can use them, and we divert more than 170,000 items from landfills through our warehouse every year.”

By making donated building materials and home goods available to the public, Community Forklift gives residents, local businesses, and building professionals a place to give supplies a second life. Those supplies could be tile, cabinetry, furniture, lighting fixtures, appliances, or quirkier items, like a church altar reused as a kitchen island or a life-size equine statue.

Beyond Community Forklift’s central initiatives, the organization has created two programs—the Home Essentials Program (HELP) and the Community Building Blocks Program (CBB)—which, together, have distributed over $1 million in free materials to individuals in need and community groups. Through these two programs, Community Forklift works to give those in our community who are most in need access to a comfortable space.

Visit Community Forklift online, or join the organization’s newsletter, to learn more about how to donate and shop. Visit the warehouse any day of the week (see the website for hours).

Locals can also join Community Forklift for their monthly First Fridays event, where the warehouse is open late for live music, food and drinks, local artist and vendor booths, and discounts on salvaged and surplus home goods and building materials. Check out the Community Forklift events page for more detail.  

Photos Courtesy of Community Forklift.