Sharing is Good - Beth Buczynski - Part 3

Sharing is Good - Beth Buczynski

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 127

  May 7, 2017 

Book 36 - Sharing is Good - How to Save Money, Time and Resources through Collaborative Consumption

Beth Buczynski (2013)
 Part 3 - pages 55-165
Reading Time - 1 hour

There are all sorts of different ways that we can share, and that can seem a bit overwhelming at first. The trick is to start small. To start viewing things as items to be exchanged. To start viewing friends and neighbours as resources. There is, naturally, a risk in everything. There can be accidents, misrepresentation, theft and vandalism. But those who participate in the sharing economy say that those are minimal.

The last 85 pages of the book list all sorts of different sharing economy options. Ideas and sites where we can exchange Goods, Skills, Time, Housing, Transportation, Food, Space or even Money. Everything from couchsurfing to bike sharing, to yard sharing, crowdfunding, freecycle, etc. I know personally, I find a lot of useful stuff on Kijiji - particularly their Free section. We've found firepit blocks there, firewood, kindling, rocks... It is a cool resource and it's nice to know that we are keeping stuff out of the landfill. I also realize that there are a lot of different ideas out there. One of them really intrigued me... the idea of a church or some other community organization having a Tool Loan Cupboard.... where you can donate your tools... and then borrow them when you need them. On the other hand... we borrowed a post-hole digger from a friend last April (2016) and still haven't returned it! Oops!!! Time to start digging those post holes and get that thing back to its rightful owner and off my guilty conscience!