Saturday 11 February 2012

My Neighbourhood Cupboard

I’ve been feeling over the last month that a lot of the decisions I’ve been making about food are less about deconsumerism, and more about general ethical living. However, I seem to have now switched away from food and more towards the general theme of stuff and our minor obsession with buying as much of it as possible.

I’m moving house in a few weeks, and I’ve begun to sort out the piles of stuff that inhabit my cupboards and shelves. I will be the first to admit that I have quite a lot of stuff. I have shelves bulging with board games, vintage cameras and books amongst other things. But I also found myself coming across useful things that I only use from time to time, but don’t want to get rid of because I know I’ll use them again.

And this got me thinking. What else have other people got lurking in their cupboards that I don’t know about? Whenever I need something, I tend to put a shout out on facebook or via text, and usually one of my friends is able to help me out. However, it would be much more simple if there was a centralised listing amongst my friends to avoid having to do this every time.

There’s a lot of things that I would like to be able to use, but don’t really want to have to buy as I know I won’t use them very often. A sewing machine for example. We all like to have all these items that we own, but actually, it’s not necessary for everyone to own their own battery charger or food processor – both of these are items that I use, but only very sporadically. It makes sense and is a much more responsible use of the planet’s resources to try and share items between multiple people.

And thus the idea of My Neighbourhood Cupboard was born. At the moment it’s still a fairly vague idea swimming around my head. Currently it exists in the form of a google document, able to be shared amongst my friends. There are several categories of items, and each item states the owner, whether it’s currently available to be borrowed, and any notes or conditions (for example, I have a printer that I’m happy for people to come and use at my house, but I don’t want people to take it away with them).

A friend pointed out that there’s a risk of an item getting broken or damaged, and this is a potential problem. Inspired by the website Ecomodo (which does something along these lines, but is more about “hiring” items than lending them without charge, I added in the possibility of people asking for a deposit for an item. For example, if I was lending out my apple press to someone I don’t really know, I might ask for a £20 deposit which they get back when they return the item in one piece.

I appreciate that there are some similar things up and running, such as Ecomodo, and the toolshare section of Freeconomy, but I think there’s definitely a place for this at the more local and neighbourhood level, bounded by the circle of trust that comes from knowing the people involved. So the idea is still at the early stages at the moment and I’m not really sure if it’ll work or take off at all, but I’m feeling really inspired to try and share my things and find a practical and efficient way of facilitating this.

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