You’ve heard of little free libraries. But have you checked out Rockville’s trinket library?

Fashion designer Jojo Craven loves trinkets. Her Rockville house is full of them, from colorful martini glasses and salt and pepper shakers to magnets and vintage postcards.

She had a hunch that other Montgomery County residents might feel the same, so she nailed a baby pink toy house to her fence and put up a sign that reads “Trinket Trade.”

It’s like a free little library, but instead of taking or leaving a book, visitors can take home — or rehome — a trinket.

Craven posted about the trinket trade box on Instagram and TikTok in July. Just one day later, the videos had thousands of views and the trinket library was stuffed to the brim. Now Craven has installed a second toy house to accommodate all the trinkets. She’s overwhelmed by the response.

“I could not believe it,” she said. “It’s been overflowing ever since the second day.”

On Wednesday, the trinket trade boxes were filled with an eclectic variety of items, from stickers and zines to Happy Meal toys and mini Barbie dolls to dog bandannas and jewelry. A creepy doll head with yarn hair topped Craven’s list of strangest trinkets.

Craven moved to the area from Georgia in 2025 with her partner and her dog, Halo, her brand’s unofficial mascot. At Shop JOJO Fashion, she designs and handcrafts unique, colorful clothing out of repurposed fabric. Her recent upcycled designs include a tank top inspired by pop singer Zara Larsson and a pair of casino-themed boots adorned with real poker chips and playing cards.

Her online store started as a pandemic hobby. But her designs sold so well at local vendors’ markets and on social media that this month she quit her job as a Salesforce consultant to focus full time on her business and teaching art and music lessons.

As a newcomer to the area, Craven wanted to do more than sell her designs. She wanted to build community and bring color and glitter to her suburban street. And that started with the trinket library.

But what exactly is a trinket?

The question has stirred playful arguments among Craven’s social media followers, some of whom gave her a hard time for putting buttons in the trinket library.

“There has been a little debate on what crosses the trinket line,” Craven said, laughing. “But some of my followers backed me up and said they would love a button.”

For Craven, it’s simple: anything someone considers a trinket and wants to contribute to the collection.

“There are no rules here,” she said.

Unique libraries

Craven’s trinket library may be unique to the area, but she’s not the first to create one. She got the idea after seeing others on social media post about their trinket trade boxes. Unorthodox free little libraries have exploded in popularity, thanks in part to a website called Worldwide Sidewalk Joy. A Portland, Oregon, artist created the website in 2023. It uses a digital map to track specialized sidewalk libraries.

The map lists more than a dozen specialized libraries across Maryland. There’s a free Blockbuster library in Baltimore, a dog treat library called Dogs’ Pub in Annapolis across from Davis’ Pub, a sidewalk art gallery in Bethesda and a felt rat exchange in Baltimore, just to name a few.

“I think the trinket trade is something people have been wanting in the community for a while,” Craven said. “I’ve had so many people commenting, ‘Thank you for doing this; we’ve been wanting this for so long.’”

There have been hiccups, though. A thunderstorm toppled the library and scattered the trinkets across Craven’s lawn this summer, leading her to come up with weatherproofing solutions. But Craven said she’s been lucky to receive an overwhelmingly positive response from her community and credits friendly neighbors and a laid-back landlord for making the free library possible.

Craven sees the success of the trinket trade as evidence of a need for more third spaces for people with similar interests to connect. So she has started hosting free events. On Saturday, she held her second monthly porch fest, an event at which art vendors could sell their wares and local performers could get stage time. The porch fests have been so popular that Craven has had to put interested vendors and musicians on a waitlist.

Craven has also started hosting crafting days at her house, where crafters can bring projects they are working on and socialize. She said it’s been humbling and fulfilling to see people make friends through crafts, all inspired by the trinket library.

“I have people now that recognize me at markets and say, ‘Oh, you’re the girl from the trinket trade!’” Craven said. “I’ve been finding really cool people through it. I love that we’re building creative communities.”

The Trinket Trade Library is at 1015 Veirs Mill Road, Rockville.