Washingtonians have been going online to get in touch with their neighbors for years—but now, a new social media site is tapping into the popularity of community listservs.

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Every other house in Alison Cuellar's neighborhood has joined the site, Nextdoor.com. She says it has never been easier finding a lost pet, getting a recommendation for a plumber, or selling an old piece of furniture.

The next time working mom Cuellar needs a babysitter, she'll be logging onto her neighborhood's own social media site.

With up to the minute local postings, Cuellar says it sure beats the way neighbors used to stay informed—with a traditional newsletter.

“We’d pull together the content, and run to the print shop, run 320 copies and deliver them door to door to save postage. So this is a much better solution from that, the information is much more timely,” Cuellar said.

Cuellar started her neighborhood's private site through Nextdoor.com—a site in use by 13 neighborhoods in Arlington and Montgomery Counties, plus D.C.

“I know more about my neighbors, I know who the expert gardener is in the neighborhood,” Cuellar said.

The site is trying to break into the area’s thriving network of community listservs.

The parents of one of Nextdoor.com’s founders live in Cuellar's Arlington neighborhood, which is how she first found out about it. The free site launched nationwide last October.