View Full Version : What do you share?
I was perusing this site
http://www.shareable.net/blog/most-shared?page=0%2C3
and was thinking about what we share and who we share it with.
Families share of course, but do you share anything else with anyone. I mean do you and a neighbour share a lawnmower? You and a co-worker a car? Relatives share a sailboat etc.
I proposed sharing a lawnmower with a neighbour the other day, but I think we need different types.
I am interested in any and everything shareable.
For a while, a few of us shared a "beater truck" - no one really needed a 7 mpg hauling vehicle that smelled like horse poop all that often, but it's delightful to have available for the few times you do. Since it was a die hard old beast and dirt cheap to run and insure, it wasn't a big risk and we all shared in the insurance and gas. - We also all paid $100 to be part owners of it.
It can be a lot harder to trust people with stuff that's more fragile - I lent a gas weed whacker with scythe in exchange for a kitchenaid mixer for a weekend, only to find the people who borrowed it had been using it to cut down small trees when it - oops - broke. I basically got handed a broken tool and a "sorry, it didn't work for us." No s**t, really? >:(
As far as positive ideas,
I do a "brunch bunch" and own the big coffee maker, which gets loaned out for every event. Someone else has a few lovely big platters, a cake plate and cover, a punchbowl set. Three of the ten or so people doing this have really good houses for holding events. I think we all wind up contributing about evenly in one way or another, and no one has to own it all.
My closest neighbor and I share a lot of things - yard tools, sewing machine, books. We also "share" a cell phone account and internet access.
We share a cell plan with my DH's rellies but I am not in love with that because we are the ones that have to do the checks and stuff for it. But overall I think we all save money.
We borrow and lend some items to my SiL and BiL who live a few doors down but I feel awkward asking sometimes. Not sure why that is. They use our battery-powered lawn mower if their grass is too high for their non-power one, and we will use things like their grass seed spreader that are only needed once in a blue moon.
More than once they have come into our house and taken something without telling us! THAT kind of sharing I DO NOT like! Hasn't happened in a long time, though, so that's good.
DH and DFiL have a boat together and a camper together.
A coworker of mine and her husband's brother, I believe, own a cabin together. It is very successful for them. They are from the area, and the cabin is big enough that everyone can be there whenever they want to be there. Also I THINK they paid for it up front so the risk of someone bailing on their share of the payments at some point is moot. Works for them, anyway.
My DM is willing to share her Cricut with her scrapbooking daughters when we would like. I have it right now. But I have not contributed anything to it, so it's really just me borrowing it. Well, I can't say that, I suppose I did buy a new mat and blades for it a while ago.
Interesting thread. I look forward to seeing what more ideas are out there.
A neighbour came over at 3am and set up his generator to provide electricity essential for the sump pump when our generator quit during a massive storm. We share a log splitter on occasion. I provide home made bread and they provide butternut squash so we share whatever we have that is needed from what is surplus.
Nothing materialistic per se, just neighbourly help/support.
We often share the big gardening things like rototiller, broadfork, etc. One neighbor and I share a pressure canner and a grain mill.
We share our gardening truck with a few friends. They have their own set of keys and know to just take it whenever the need arises.
We share our:
yard/gardening tools
Baking supplies (pans, mixers, etc.)
bikes
step stool/ladder
canoe
Really, basically anything we have is available to borrow. Friends have the key to our house and are welcome to come get anything they need. We don't need to give prior permission or be home when they come by. Neighbors are welcome as well, although they don't have keys so we would need to be home.
This is so generous. Is your whole neighbourhood like this?
We share our gardening truck with a few friends. They have their own set of keys and know to just take it whenever the need arises.
We share our:
yard/gardening tools
Baking supplies (pans, mixers, etc.)
bikes
step stool/ladder
canoe
Really, basically anything we have is available to borrow. Friends have the key to our house and are welcome to come get anything they need. We don't need to give prior permission or be home when they come by. Neighbors are welcome as well, although they don't have keys so we would need to be home.
My neighbors are very generous, as are our friends. A neighbor across the street and I are constantly sharing baked goods. I bake often, and never just for my family. I always make extra and share with neighbors, friends, and co-workers. As to borrowing of things, we have a friend's hand sander at our place right now, they have our wheelbarrow. We have an electronic key pad on our front door which makes it easy for others to come and go if they need to borrow something. Heck, my house is the drop off points for my kids' friends as well. There is never a day when one of their bikes or backpacks is at my place. I live downtown and near the high school so the teens will drop off their stuff here to store for the afternoon. On most days I also have at least a couple other teens at the dining table doing homework. Our house is not a quite one:-)
treehugger
5-5-11, 12:24pm
We share a pickup truck with my father-in-law (we pay the insurance; he pays everything else). I share a cell phone plan with my mother-in-law. I share a Costco membership with a friend's daughter.
Kara
We own a few things with one set of neighbours - a wheelbarrow, a big roaster, some muffin tins. We joke about who will get custody of what, should one of us move. :) There is also the understanding that if one person has something, the other person won't buy one - for example, she has an angel food pan and I have popsicle moulds, they have croquet and we have bocce. If one of us is having a big crowd over in the summer, that person is free to come over and get extra patio chairs, the roasting sticks, whatever. Neither of our families drink coffee, so our coffee maker is available for gatherings. Their kids come over and use our trampoline. The list actually goes on forever. We're lucky.
We like to share space in our house with our 20-something relatives who are trying to get started in life. We have had 6 or 7 of them live with us over the course of the past 13 years or so. They typically stay for about a year and then move on. Our children have come to expect to have somebody young and fun around -- they are like older brothers or sisters -- and get irritated when we don't have a boarder.
there are several organizations that can help share -- and i'm hoping to get a few of these going in our neighborhood here.
first, there are organized groups -- there's a tool and toy library run by the salvation army (and of course, a regular library run by the city), but i'd also like to see if groups like these can be developed here Seven Ways to Own More by Having Less (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/08/30/7-ways-to-have-more-by-owning-less/). I'm particularly interested in Landsharing, as well as Goodsharing (eg, I'd love to make some sausages, and I'm going to see if my friend will host a "sausage making party" because i have recipes and she has a machine!).
i looked into the local ZipCar, and it's actually not functional for our needs. If i buy a car and use it the way that I want to -- which is minimally -- I will pay about half the cost of the zip car. so, that won't work for me. I wish it did, though, let me tell you! Instead, i'm going to buy a car, and then share it with some friends -- they'll just pay for gas for their use and then a "token amount" as a rental. This is just so that we can do the warrant of fitness and such with minimal cost. I'm going to learn to change the oil myself and what not (god help me).
Most of our sharing runs along the lines of childcare and food. Over the years, I've been involved in a home-based cooperative preschool, weekly dinner cooking swaps, garden produce sharing, and date night childcare exchanges. We do share less regularly used tools as well, such as ladders.
yes, i'm trying to set up child care shares in my neighborhood -- something that would exist every week so that DS isn't always on the bus. but we shall see. :)
Kib wrote, "I do a "brunch bunch" and own the big coffee maker, which gets loaned out for every event."
This just reminded me of a "funny if you can manage not to cry" instance recently when the mother of a friend passed away. Someone contributed her big coffee maker to the after-service gathering at someone else's home, but wasn't aware there was a leak in it. When another lady and I ended up being the first ones to arrive at the house to start the coffee maker and de-Saran-Wrap the cookies, etc., we arrived to a counter and tile floor SOAKED with water. The home owners hadn't arrived yet (fortunately they'd left the front door unlocked), and you should have seen us running around their home, searching for mops and towels! They also had a bunch of teapots, so we kept making coffee in a small coffee maker and pouring the coffee into teapots while the next carafe brewed!
Thank GOD no one tried to plug that big coffee maker in! Electrical current, metal containers and water do NOT mix! :)
chrisgermany
9-16-11, 3:27am
Does this count?
I just gave my baby bassinette to a co-worker to use for her newborn for some months.
It is the one my parents put me in 53 years ago!
My parents shared it with my aunt to use for my cousins, some family friends of my parents used it for their kids, the basked was turned upside down for some years to make a chair in my teenager room, then it was used again as bassinette by my friends when they started with their own babies.
Recently my niece used it for her 2 babies.
As I have no kids, it is great to know about all the little ones that have slept in it.
It is like this one, but more rustic:
http://www.engelundbengel.com/oxid.php/sid/x/shp/oxbaseshop/cl/details/cnid/ffc4d7a1fd054bb33.78705668/anid/65444ad40a29078a3.83938984/Stubenwagen---Th%E9ophile%26Patachou/
fidgiegirl
9-16-11, 7:03am
We just lent out a shopping basket for my sister in law to use a flea market. She was going to buy one but we had one hanging in the garage that's gone unused for years, so DH told her to save her money and use ours.
They will be lending us a tool in the next weeks.
Works well to live nearby.
rosarugosa
9-18-11, 9:58am
I think it's very cool that my sister and her ex-husband still co-own a timeshare. They split the maintenance fee and take turns using it on alternating years. They are poster kids for amicable divorce.
We used to share a Sam's membership with friends, but only did it one year. We have gobs of tools that we lend out to whoever needs them (friends and family). And you know what's better than having a tractor? A neighbor with a tractor. He mowed our back field, we gave him a stock tank, etc. Cool new neighbors! We like to barter.
I suppose the biggest thing we share is a house with my dad. He pays the mortgage, gas, electric and taxes and we pay the association fee and internet and pay for food and household goods. It's cheaper for everyone.
I have offered as of this week to share my washer and dryer with my friend who lives in an apartment. Coin operated laundry is a hassle and she's over here weekly anyway. It just makes sense for her to get her laundry done here. I make my own laundry soap and spent about $1 for 3 months worth, so it doesn't cost much. I ran the idea by Dad since he pays the utilities and he thought it was a good one.
We live in a neighborhood that was built as an experimental concept in the 1960s with shared pools, tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball court, playground, sandbox, and many gardens.
We are always sharing tools back and forth with neighbors. I have a bookshelf I call The Library and people are free to borrow my books.
We share childcare with the neighbors too, but informally. I like the meal swap idea.
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