@estreethouse TikTok account<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe just kind of kept adding stuff because of the positive feedback we get from every little thing we do,\u201d Adam Rix said. \u201cFrom the little trivia boxes or music boxes. Everyone just always says thank you when they come by. It\u2019s so nice just to see people slow down, talk to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The E Street House\u2019s trinket trade box, arguably its most popular front yard installation, came around the 2025 holiday season. The Rixes fixed up an old, discarded skeleton of a little free library and planted it out in front. Unfamiliar with trinket trading or trinket trade boxes, they thought their new community box could be a place where kids from the neighborhood could find small, fun things or for community members to share ornaments during the holiday season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alongside the couple, Paulette Greenhouse and Zandybel Vega have supported the growth of the trinket trade box. The box had been sparse for its first few months but started gaining more traction after a few of videos were shared on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time I had just been in this decluttering phase of my apartment where I\u2019m just going room by room and cleaning things out of personal need and growth,\u201d Greenhouse said. \u201cIt was a lot of pins, buttons, patches, just tiny random small items that I started putting in a bag with the intention of getting rid of them. So I brought it all and then just set it up. I think by then the box was empty. I just made a stupid little video that I just thought was kind of funny, and my friends would see and just kind of giggle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_3851-1024x576.jpeg.webp.webp\")
Adam Rix, Rachel Rix, Zandybel Vega and Paulette Greenhouse pose together in front of the E Street House trinket trade box. (Magui Martinez)<\/p>\n
An online conversation and trinket trading started between Greenhouse and Vega. Their trades, documented via social media, started gaining more attention from others online, eventually tapping into an active community of trinket traders on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore people started noticing because of her videos,\u201d Vega said. \u201cAnd then, I started posting videos. The word got out, and then more people started coming in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel and Adam started something very whimsical, something very beautiful to share with the community. And then Paulette and I started being part of that. This is our way of giving back,\u201d Vega added.<\/p>\n
What was once an empty box now sees consistent traffic, day and night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings us joy to see people just smiling,\u201d Rachel Rix said. \u201cI wish you guys lived here, because you could then see at like 10 p.m. people are giggling and smiling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A surge of community building and connection has come from the little free trinket trade box, both in-person and online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if when we started doing all this stuff, we had an intentionality of community in mind,\u201d Adam Rix said. \u201cWe just want to put something nice out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are more than a dozen other trinket trade boxes in the Sacramento area, too, including locations in Carmichael, Del Paso Heights, Natomas, Roseville and more. And the people behind them all support each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool because we\u2019ve made friends with the other trinket boxes, and they come and visit and they leave their handmade stuff, their trinkets to support us,\u201d Vega said. \u201cAnd then we go and support them. And it\u2019s like building that community.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are folks who make handmade trinkets and gifts with the specific intention to share them with the community through trading.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when I see handmade things, because you can see the love and the effort and the time that was put into it to gift it to someone,\u201d Vega said. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s the greatest show of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The love and community is not only felt through the act of trinket trading. It is felt through the interactions that happen as a result of visits to the trade boxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was having a bad day \u2026 and I got a knock on my door,\u201d Rachel Rix said. \u201cI come to the door and open it, and there\u2019s this girl. She\u2019s like \u2018I just want to say thank you. I wanted to meet you and say thank you so much for the trinket box.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Trinket trading is a cost-free activity that just about anyone can engage in. People are able to connect and create memories with one another in an accessible and sustainable manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To some, trinket trading is a form of mutual aid. It is the act of sharing resources with one\u2019s community for the sake of connection and community well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the pandemic I was part of a \u2018Buy Nothing\u2019 group on Facebook,\u201d Greenhouse said. \u201cEssentially the rules are respect, and not selling items. It\u2019s just offering up things. I was part of that during the time, and I remember that gave a lot of joy, and that sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worldwide whimsy<\/p>\n
Beyond trinket trading, the Sacramento area is home to other types of sidewalk installations. The region has a plant stand in Citrus Heights and a dog stick library in Roseville, plus a key chain library and a mini art gallery, along with plenty of little free libraries.<\/p>\n
The Worldwide Sidewalk Joy website<\/a> includes an interactive map where you can see all types of installations in the local community \u2014 and all over the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nAcross the country, installations run the gamut from trinket trade boxes, free seed libraries and free art galleries to mug exchanges, free puzzle huts and Da Slippha Library in Maui, Hawaii. Da Slippha Library has your back if one of your sandals breaks or goes missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These local community installations have a long-distance reach when it comes to connection and community building. Rachel and Adam Rix have received trinkets from as far as Texas to stock the trinket box.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone drove all the way from Davis to deliver something from his friend who lives in Texas or something, to make a video about it,\u201d Adam Rix said. \u201cThere\u2019s all these ways people connect and are really deeply appreciative just for something that\u2019s small. It seems like it goes a very long way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone looking to add whimsy to their own neighborhood and nurture community ties can install their own sidewalk joy spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will often see in the comments \u2018I wish I could put this up in my area.\u2019 But they\u2019re worried that someone will steal everything, clean it out, or vandalize it,\u201d Rix said. \u201cAnd those things might happen, from time to time, but even if there\u2019s any setbacks the positive feedback is far, far greater.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Magui Martinez\u00a0is a member of the Abridged Community Reporters program.<\/p>\n