Here’s a thought. When it comes to all the stuff that you have in your home have a think about how often you use it. Is is every day, is it once a week, or every couple of months?
Wouldn’t it be more logical to start sharing, borrowing, or hiring some of the more less frequently utilised things you have around your home. It would certainly be less resource intense and better for the environment!
Take tools for example. When I needed a nail gun to build my picket fence around my front orchard, I didn’t go out and buy one, I simply went down the tool shop and hired one with a compressor. Once I was finished with it, I gave it back. It was so much cheaper than getting my own.
Same goes for when I needed an impact drill to put some of the garden beds together. I asked my friend Jake over who had all these tools already and paid him in home-brew beer. In fact he actually helped put the beds together, because I wasn’t sure how to use it.
There was another time when we wanted to go on a family trip. I had too many people to carry in my Honda Civic Hybrid, so I hired a larger people mover for the weekend. I knew that I didn’t need that sized car all the time, so hiring was the way to go for this one-off need.
Another example are trailers. You know, the ones that you tow behind your car and use once in a blue moon. Not only that, they take up valuable growing space in one’s backyard. Hiring would be the logical solution as long as you didn’t have to drive a country mile to find one.
So why do people buy stuff they only use every so often or only once in its lifetime. Well, let me take a quote from a very interesting documentary titled Zeitgeist: Moving Forward at around the [1:41:20] mark.
Many forget that it’s isn’t the good that they want, it is the purpose of that good. When we realise that the purpose of the good is only as important as its utility we see that external restriction or what we might today call ownership is extremely wasteful and environmentally illogical in a fundamental economic sense.
As Spock would say, its illogical Captain!
So what’s the solution?
Well there are a few solutions that you could take to avoid ownership of a seldom used item.
You could even go car-less if you live in larger cities. For instance you could use a car share scheme like www.carnextdoor.com.au. It’s a neighbourhood car sharing scheme available in Sydney and Melbourne which is much cheaper than owning a car. There is even a cool app that helps you locate cars near you!
Why not hire tools and equipment from a reputable hire company or even ask you friends and neighbours if they have the tools you need. At least with neighbours you can trade things for the use.
Source: https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/shopping-for-services/services/articles/consumer-sharing
Or you could check out a site like www.networkhire.net, a not for profit business who is trying to reduce the amount of wastage and blatant giving-in to consumerism. You can even put your own seldom used item on the site and make a bit of money from home!
What about food? Got too much of a single fruit or veggie? Why not try using a site like www.localharvest.org.au. It has a map of other people like you who has too much produce and wants to either give it away or swap it for something else.
Got a spare room that you are not using? Why not list it on AirBnB? You might just enjoy the company and get a steady income stream in the process.
Too many clothes in the wardrobe, and want a new look? Why not check out the Clothing Exchange. You can take some of your clothes to an event and swap for new albeit slightly used ones, or swap online. Its a great way to freshen up your style!
You could take it one step further and join the Community Exchange System. It’s a community-based exchange system that provides the means for its users to exchange their goods and services, both locally and remotely. There’s sure to be one near you. You can even trade time and effort in return for goods without using money!
These are only a few suggestions, so why not chime in with some more in the comments section below. I’m sure there are many more ways of sharing that I have missed!
I so totally agree with you Gav, especially about hiring things. As for lending your tools that would be great if A. they looked after the tools and B. they returned them, which is often not the case.
True Lynda, but I suppose you have to trust them and follow up. Something I’m not worried about doing. I think my Dad told me once, that never lend anything you don’t want back!
I absolutely agree Gavin, but we find two problems. One we seem to always be the people lending, and find that others don’t look after our gear, return things broken with no effort to fix and replace, and that makes us reluctant to lend again or to organise to buy something in a collective. AND when we hire things, we have the same problem, the gear hasn’t been looked after and you don’t know what you’re going to get. If everyone took more responsibility for looking after things, I would absolutely rather borrow/lend/share than have expensive and bulky items sitting around doing nothing 🙂
Yes Liz, it is a sad fact that people don’t look after gear as well as they should. I blame the throw-away culture that enforces the no-care mentality.
Hey Gav, this is my first response to one of your posts, although we’ve never met and at the risk of sounding like a stalker, I feel like you and Kim are more or less kindred spirits if not friends lol! I do hope to attend a hard cheese making course (please plan another) of yours someday and have already purchased a soap making kit from you, much to the delight of myself and my partner Andy! And a couple of friends too who I’ve swapped bars with lol!
Today I respond because I too was thinking about sharing in the last couple of days. Like Lynda D I worry that not everyone has the values of my Dad who taught me to always return things borrowed in a better condition than when you got them. I also have my Mama who successfully used the barter card system in her consulting planning business, which I’m not really familiar with, but I do like the concept of barter.
I dislike the practice of buying things that are going to clutter up our home with little use, and so I really like the idea of hiring, borrowing or sharing items that will only be used occasionally! Thank you for your thoughts and ideas, as always, you make the life I dream of seem probable more than possible!
Kind regards
Amy
Hi Amy, you are most welcome! Glad you liked the soap kit and your idea of a hard cheese course has given me some ideas. I have your email address, so I will let you know what I come up with re the course. Always willing to teach other budding curd nerds the skill.
Gav x
We have a trailer which has been worth the expense to purchase (it was 2nd hand though) but it’s just a standard low trailer. This weekend we have several large items to transport to the transfer station and needed some goat transport yesterday too so rang a friend with a larger cage trailer which we have borrowed. No exchange was worked out but since they’re all sick at the moment I have a pot of chicken stock on the stove which I will make into chicken noodle soup for them all (and throw in a bottle of red for them too) to say thanks.
alcohol seems to be the go-to thanks for loaning something too. Love the home brew trade!
I also agree with Lynda though. Not everyone treats your things as well as you would like them to. And the old adage of “if you can’t afford to lose it, don’t lend it” is also worth a mention. 🙂
Good swap Jessie. Alcohol is always great currency. Hard labour for a dozen home brew beers always goes down a treat.
Hi Gav,
some great ideas here. In my neighborhood (large country town) we’ve done quite a lot of lending and borrowing – ladders, drills, kitchen scales etc…Like Lynda I was initially a bit worried that perhaps people wouldn’t take care of things. I actually loaned my mower to a nieghbor for two years after noticing his lawn was getting long. He returned it in great condition when he moved out. What I love about sharing is you don’t just zip next door and pick up a ladder, you usually have a good chat while you’re at it, and it just creates a great feeling all round. Yes, there’s a chance something could be damaged but it certainly wouldn’t be in every case and think of the money you could save by not buying everything yourself.
I also have given away quite a bit of stuff with no expectation of anything in return. In one case, a friend who I’d given some furniture to sent her partner around to fix my window ( the frame was rotting and needed to be held together until I can replace it.) Another time they came for a cuppa and he asked for my tool box so he could fix my dripping kitchen tap.
Other neighbors share extra garden seedlings, and this year I’ll be able to share seed potatoes. It’s a lot more fun than going to the shops.
Madeleine.x
That sounds like an amazing community to live in Madeleine. Lots of sharing going on and thoughtful neighbours!
Great post Gav.
I am part of our local produce swap and very soon I will be swapping some of my social media skills for yoga classes with my yoga instructor. Its a win win for us both! In a nutshell, sharing is good!
That is outside the box sharing Emma! Yoga for social media skills, I like it.
We share a lawn mower between two households…and lawn clippings too!
Great sharing!
Hi Gavin, I’m relatively new to the blog too but so far have really appreciated your insights and the great advice! One sharing community I’m getting more involved with is Ripe Near Me, which I’m guessing would be similar to Local Harvest (locals sharing extras from their gardens & tagging edible plants on public property). I, too, love the idea of sharing stuff around so people can get use out of things – I’ve never thought it worthwhile to buy something that won’t really be used much after…
Lovely to have you onboard Mariela! Yes, I believe Ripe Near Me is the same sort of thing as Local Harvest. Both are great concepts, and I will definitely be using them this summer if I get a glut.