They do t charge except a coin and it's super good food good volunteers that make it for a good…read morecuase

On a Sunday morning, we wanted to explore the Newtown area in Sydney. We stumbled upon Lentil As…read moreAnything. We saw the menu and said why not. Lentil As Anything looks like a hippy hangout. The people who come here look like students, artists, travelers, vagabonds, and the homeless. The waiter told us all that we see comes from donations. He told us to donate after we finished the meal. The waiter offered us a choice of two drinks: a lemon ice tea or a chai black tea. I ordered the tofu and Joseph orders the curry Dahl. Surprisingly, the food tasted delicious. It seems like the staff took pride in preparing it. Located around cultural stores, Lentil As Anything operates as a nonprofit. So they gladly accept volunteers (volunteer time if one cannot pay for the meal), utensils, fresh produce, coffee beans, tea lights. Lentil As Anything wants an electrician. When in town, come to Lentil As Anything. Volunteer, or stop in to say hi.

As we walk into Reverse Garbage in Marrickville we are met with gigantic paint brushes and pencils…read more The exterior of this recycling warehouse is almost an art installation more so than a shop. "You can't look for something here. You just have to look and hope you find something." I am told when I ask what we are looking for. The answer to my innocent question both profound and vague. We scour the aisles looking for props and set pieces for the music video we've been hired to make. The gigantic dinosaur head is no good, nor are the various blow up hippopotami with back packs on. There are buckets full of circuit boards and shelves full of old digitised and erased film and audio reels. It would seem that everything you could ever imagine would be, at one point or another, housed within these walls. There's a book section out back and I sneak in to have a look, I should be looking for music video props but can't help myself and scour the children's section looking for Seuss. No such luck, there never is. I find 'The Little Match Girl' by Hans Christian Anderson and being that it is in great condition and only $1 I decide to buy it, even though I know that it will make me depressed. A warehouse full of everything you need as long as you don't know what you need.

This place is simultaneously the biggest hoarder of crap and a gold-mine. Depending on what you're…read moreafter. If you're after 20 of the same birthday card, 100m long reams of paper, a never ending supply of pipe cleaners, rolls of carpet and maroon velvet or manikin feet and arms, then you may just be in luck. Or, rather, if you're not exactly sure what you're after then you may be in luck here too. I'm a bigger fan of The Bower, a similar joint next door with a tad more class, but a trip to Reverse Garbage can be rewarding - we bought 50 cardboard drums from Reverse Garbage which we used as seating for a performance and then recycled into punch bowls, a fortress and super-sized bowling pins in the future. Perfect for a themed party, you can pretty much base your theme on whatever you find the most of at Reverse Garbage. NB: Specified items may or may not actually be stocked by Reverse Garbage. But rest assured that similar such crap will be.

This is where you would go if you had to start from scratch…read more The shop occupies an enviable corner location and is as big as three regular shops. It is also right at the top of the shopping strip. In a lower room (just a couple of steps down) is furniture. Good quality lounges, wardrobes, shelves and desks for example. In an ante room was men's and kids clothing, and also women's sleep attire and dresses. Toys were in there as well. A good number of tracks contained the men gear. Denim, trousers, jackets, shirts, tees, ties, belts... There must have been about 100 women's shoes. Half of the main room was also women's shirts only. More space was then dedicated to jackets, costs, tips, belts, scarves, bags and even wedding dresses. Books galore, DVDs, CDs, even Vhs. Vinyl. A back wall houses the house hold items. Everything from dinner sets to decorations. Then there were buckets of bits. For example, one bucket contained button sets (the ones you'd buy at the supermarket). Jewellery as well. I got op shop fatigue in there. Prices were extremely good. I picked up two fashion dresses for $8 a piece.

The Green living Centre is an absolute necessity for the sustainable-minded suburb of Newtown!…read more Specializing in anything from warm farming to bike pannier making, window farms to natural cleaning, this is a powerhouse of eco education. Run by extremely knowledgeable staff and volunteers, the Centre has tons of educational pamphlets and books to kick-start anyone's personal quest for conservation. They're more than happy to sit and chat with you about how to compost or how you can use less in-home energy. My favourite aspect of the Centre is that it hosts workshops on anything "green" you can imagine. Some of the workshops teach skills, while others are "talk and tea" that act as a forum for eco discussion. I've been to a "talk-and-tea" pickling workshop, as well as a DIY worm composting workshop, and both were fantastic! If you're like me and are somewhat new to the whole eco-sphere of living, this is the perfect place to go! No judgement, only encouragement. Stop in and give it a go!

The Australian Red Cross stores do op shop with style. Not a far cry from your neighborhood Vinnies…read moreor Salvos in terms of selection, their design and display put it step closer to classy. I walked off Oxford and into the Paddington Red Cross shop the other day in search of a facincator for the upcoming Melbourne Cup. To my delight, I found a pretty decent selection as well as a good array of inexpensive costume jewelry. With earrings and bracelets at $5 and necklaces $10-$15, you can afford to pick up that slightly tacky, one-time-wear accessory that will likely get lost behind your bed for the rest of time. In the front of the store you will find a rack of new spring dresses. New should be in quotation marks here, but who's getting picky. I also enjoyed the display of colorful hats hanging on a row of sewing machines. With a few small design details and some organizational care, the Australian Red Cross is in the standing for awesome thrift shop in Paddo. And with a good cause to boot? Well done, you.

Buying recycled clothing has never been as much fun as when the Red Threads boutique opened in…read morePaddington. A Red Cross thrift shop, this store has premium recycled clothing from celebrities such as Cate Blanchett and one-new off fashion pieces from top Australian designers like Sass and Bine. This line of clothing is called their Celebrity Threads line. They also have fashionable clothing collected from op-shops and vintage fashion stores from all across Australia. All the items are sold at bargain prices and every cent is donated to fund the work of Red Cross. Buying trendy clothes to bump up your wardrobe for a cause is definitely the way to go. Red Threads should be everyone's number one vintage shop!

As someone with little to no gardening knowledge/skills/motivation, with tight purse-strings and an…read moreappetite for fresh food, I love Norton Plaza Community Kitchen Garden. I often thought that the 'Community Kitchen Garden' signs around Norton Plaza were simply alluding to the couple of planter boxes sitting outside Coles. Then, one day, I decided to follow the signs up the lift to the Level 2 rooftop, where I stumbled upon something lovely. Through the doors and on to the roof I found an open space filled with many more planter boxes full of fresh herbs, fruit & vegetables. Looking around for 'the catch' or waiting for someone to shoo me away from this utopian secret garden I wasn't meant to have stumbled upon, all I found was the inscription "Enjoy, respect and care for our plants as you would your own." When I hesitated still, a man with gardening gloves smiled at me with the hint of a chuckle (pretty sure my mouth had dropped open a little). "Go for it," he said and nodded towards the boxes of parsley and thyme. Catering to kids, this would be a fantastic place to bring your children shopping and indeed to let them enjoy the process of picking fresh produce. It's a fantastic initiative to get kids interested in gardening and to promote kids enjoying and even cooking healthy meals. This place is great if like many inner city houses, you don't have a backyard fit for a garden but like to enjoy fresh home-grown produce - for free. Because what do they want in return? Nothing. The Norton Plaza Community Kitchen Garden is made for the locals, by the locals. They just ask that you make the most of this fantastic commodity and that, if you have the time, you give a little lovin' back in return, in the form community working bees or by joining their Gardening Volunteer Club.