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Johnson County's Free Store helps residents, county save thousands

Johnson County's Free Store helps residents and county save thousands
Johnson County Free Store
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KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers the cities of Shawnee and Mission. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.

The Johnson County Free Store helps residents save money while protecting the environment. The program gives away items that could have ended up in landfills.

According to a monthly consumer survey by the University of Michigan, consumers' five-year outlooks for household finances were the lowest in over a decade for October.

The Free Store, located at 11231 Mastin St. in Overland Park, allows residents to drop off usable household items like paint, cleaners and yard chemicals. After being sorted by hazard type, these items are offered free to anyone in the area, even if they're not a resident of Johnson County.

Johnson County's Free Store helps residents and county save thousands

Drop-offs are appointment only, but no appointment is needed to shop in the store.

"One person's trash is another person's treasure, in a way," said Brandon Hearn, an environmental health specialist for Johnson County.

The process is straightforward: residents bring in items they no longer need, county workers sort them into different hazard categories, and everything usable is made available at no cost to consumers.

Gary and Karen Galvin are regular visitors to the Free Store. They use the free stains and paints for their charity work through Flourish Furniture Bank.

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Gary and Karen Galvin

"What's great is they're free here," Gary Galvin said. "We just use them the way they are, and really, it's helpful for us. It saves us quite a bit of money on refurbishing furniture."

Hearn said the savings can be significant for individual consumers, too.

"It adds up," he said. "If it's just one thing, that might be $2 or $3, but sometimes this stuff, especially this yard stuff, is expensive. That might be $30, $40, $50."

According to county data from 2024, the Free Store helped the county save around $15,000 in disposal costs, while nearly 800 consumers saved thousands. The store and its associated program also kept 75,000 pounds of products out of landfills last year.

"We're trying to reduce and reuse and recycle," Hearn said. "Those are great tag lines, but when it's tied to giving something else that someone can use, that really makes it a little more real."

Johnson County Free Store

For the Galvins, the Free Store is both personal savings and environmental responsibility.

"We've also used it for our home. Let's say, recycling our paints here," Karen Galvin said.

The couple said helping their community through the program is rewarding beyond the financial savings.

"It doesn't go back down in the earth someplace so we get to drink it later," Gary Galvin said. "You know, it's really what we need today."

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