For five years Glitter has done one thing: neighbors pool what they can, and a local cleaner sweeps the litter off the block every week.
That one thing works. But almost every block we talk to brings up something else. The leaves pile up in the drain every November. The weeds in the sidewalk seams come back faster than anyone can pull them. Half the block composts and half of them have a bucket they hate. Somebody is out at 6am with the only shovel on the street.
These are all the same problem. They are jobs that belong to the whole block but land on whoever happens to care most. So we have put five of them on the same footing as cleaning.
The part that does not change
Every new service is priced as a flat rate for the whole block, and neighbors pay what they can toward it. There is no per-household fee. A block with four people chipping in and a block with twenty pay the same total, the twenty just pay less each.
That is the whole idea, and it is why we add services this way instead of selling them door to door.
Where each one stands
Litter cleaning. Available now.
$50 a block per cleaning. A cleaner removes litter and trash from your sidewalks, street, curb line and storm drains, and every visit is documented with photos. Most blocks start monthly and add frequency as more neighbors join.
Shared compost bin. Running now.
$150 a month for the block. A locked bin sits outside a participating home and everyone who joins gets the code. Bennett Compost swaps it for a fresh one every week. Food scraps, meat, dairy and coffee grounds all go in. No plastic, yard waste or trash. One bin can serve fifteen or more households, and the bin goes in once the block has pledged enough to cover it. No pickup day to remember, and nothing waiting in your kitchen until it fills.
Fall leaf cleanup. Running now.
$86 a block per cleaning. Leaves cleared off the sidewalks, curb line and storm drains, so they are not sitting there rotting or blocking the drain when it rains. Most blocks want two or three through the fall, and the block picks its own dates.
Weed removal. Running now.
$50 a block per month. Weeds pulled from sidewalk seams, tree pits and the curb line. This is the thing every block asks about, and the thing a weekly litter sweep does not always get to.
Snow cleanup. Still being figured out.
Sidewalks and corners cleared after a storm, so the block is walkable and nobody is relying on whichever neighbor owns a shovel. We are being straight about this one: we do not have a contractor signed yet. We have three quotes in hand and they are higher than what neighbors have told us they would pay, so we are working on whether clustering blocks together brings it into range. If you want snow on your block, tell us now, because the number of blocks asking is exactly what determines whether we can make the math work.
Trash can on your block. Running now.
$25 a week to empty, on top of your cleaning, plus $700 once to install if your block needs a new can. A public can gives people somewhere to put things, but a can nobody empties becomes its own problem. Yours gets emptied every week during your regular cleaning. If your block already has a can, we can take over emptying it. Because it rides along with the cleaning, this one is only available on blocks getting cleaned weekly.
Nothing happens until your block is ready
Cleaning, compost, leaves, weeds and trash cans you can start on now. Snow is the one still on a waitlist, and telling us you want it is not signing up to pay for it.
For any of them the sequence is the same. You say what you want. We wait until enough neighbors on your block want the same thing to make it work. Then we come back with what it would cost, and you decide.
We do it in that order on purpose. We would rather run a service on ten blocks that are ready than on a hundred that are curious.
Tell us what your block needs
The waitlist is here:
https://www.shareglitter.com/services
It takes about a minute. If you already have a block page with Glitter, the new services show up there as they become available on your block.
And if you want to talk it through, or you are a school, an HOA, a civic association or a business thinking about covering a stretch for your neighbors, email us at hello@shareglitter.com.
