San Francisco has more than 50 hills inside its city limits, and Nob Hill and Bernal Hill are two of them. When Zelbi opens in San Francisco, you take one photo, and the claimer collects the item on a day and time you choose.
Skip the donation drop-off in San Francisco
Recology's San Francisco bulky item program takes old furniture, appliances and mattresses from the curb. Buildings with 5 units or fewer get two curbside collections a year at no additional charge, and each unit in a building with 6 units or more gets one no-charge collection.
Recology's page suggests giving usable items to nonprofits first. When Zelbi opens in San Francisco, the item can go to a neighbor instead: take one photo, Zelbi writes the listing, and you pick the day and time.
Free furniture pickup in San Francisco
Recology's appointments cover up to 10 items, set next to the curb without blocking the sidewalk. Cancellations are due by 12 p.m. on the business day before pickup.
With Zelbi, the giver sets the time an item goes outside, and the claimer confirms it in the app. San Francisco gets 73 rainy days a year, with the rainy period running from November through April.
Free stuff near you in San Francisco
In the SF-Oakland-San Jose metro, searches for "donation centers near me" run at 1K-10K a month, and "freecycle" and "buy nothing" draw the same range.
Facebook free-stuff groups show the scale. One named for San Francisco has tens of thousands of members, and a Bay Area group has more again.
Items on Zelbi are free. The only charge is a $2 platform fee, paid by the person who claims an item; giving something away costs nothing.
A simpler alternative to Craigslist free, Freecycle, Buy Nothing and Trash Nothing
Free-stuff groups are already active in San Francisco, with tens of thousands of members across them. Craigslist's region page covers a San Francisco subarea, coded sfc. When Zelbi opens in San Francisco, each listing starts from one photo and each claim ties back to an account.
One photo to start
Zelbi writes the description from the picture, so a bookshelf needs a single photo and no paragraph from you.
Accountable claimers
Every claim sits on a Zelbi account with an authorized payment, so nobody arrives anonymously.
Address kept back
Your exact address is shared only after the claim's payment is authorized, and only with the person who claimed.
Zelbi is an independent app. It is not affiliated with Craigslist, The Freecycle Network, the Buy Nothing Project or Trash Nothing. Their names belong to their owners.
Moving or decluttering in San Francisco?
Census figures count 371,841 households in San Francisco, and a 2025 estimate puts the city at 826,079 people, down from 873,965 in the 2020 census. When one of those households moves, one photo of each item starts a listing.
Last spring, SFSU's University Housing set move-out day for Saturday, May 23, 2026, starting at 10:00 a.m., for every community except one. When Zelbi opens in San Francisco, anyone clearing a campus room in a move-out week can photograph the desk and let someone nearby claim it.
Bring Zelbi to San Francisco
When Zelbi opens in San Francisco, the things you're done with can find a new home from Calle 24 in the Mission to Lincoln Park in the Outer Richmond.
Join the waitlist