Borrowing- It’s Just Free and Sustainable Sharing
In a time of economic hardship and environmental concern, I am amazed at how often the simplest solutions seem so overlooked. “Borrowing” items from neighbors makes a lot of sense to me. I can’t think of a simpler method of saving my money, time, or resources. Let’s take a quick look at how.
Money - It’s a pretty simple brain child actually. Here’s an example: I cook lobster once a year. Three of my neighbors have lobster pots, and I don’t. Instead of buying one, (and then storing it in my home for eternity), I borrow one from one of my three neighbors, then return it the next day. I’ve just saved the cost of purchasing a lobster pot, and had a nice conversation with my neighbor in the meantime. I also saved a trip to the store (and the gas to get there).
Time - I value my time. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather spend my time walking a couple of doors away (or streets) to pick up a lobster pot from a neighbor than taking my tail to a store to make a purchase. Not only is it quicker to go to my neighbors, but the time I spend chatting with him or her is much nicer than the time I spend saying “excuse me” to people I don’t know while I try to walk around them in the store, or the small chit chat with the cashier (who may be lovely, but probably isn’t going to be my cashier the next time I go shopping). Borrowing an item from a neighbor might save me some time, but it also increases the quality of my time.
Resources - There’s this thing called “supply and demand.” The concept isn’t that difficult to grasp, but it isn’t something we always think about when we buy “things.” When we go the the store and buy “stuff,” we are telling the company that “makes” these things that there is a need, or demand for them. So, I buy a lobster pot, the company says “Hey, we need to make more lobster pots because people keep buying them.” But, on the other hand, if people aren’t buying them because we (as a collective of people) are sharing the ones we have among each other, then the companies who make them have to say “Hey….we’ve got too many lobster pots to sell, and people aren’t buying them, so stop making them…..we aren’t making our money back.” Perhaps they might even say “Hey, sales are down, let’s make 5 lobster pots a month instead of twenty-five.” To many companies, money is the bottom line, so we essentially force them to stop or reduce production because we refuse to give them our money. Either way, less production means less pollution and use of valuable resources.
This is what Closest Closet makes easier for us. This is the place where we, as a collective of people, can connect with one another to share the resources that already exist around us. It starts with you as an individual. You have to be willing to make a commitment to living with less, but the power to make change comes from the collective. We, as a group of committed individuals, create the change we want to see in our lives and our world, and it’s really simple to do. It starts with shifting our perception of “my property” to include sharing and borrowing as a reasonable alternative to consumption. Isn’t that simple?
