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PrintFor Rent - Your Stuff, My Stuff, Everybody’s Stuff
Renting is the new buying
Photograph by petr/istockphoto
Walk into your garage, take a peek into your attic, or brave the cobwebs of your storage shed, and you’ll find it: that must-have item you simply couldn’t live without—on the day you bought it. Shortly after you realized you really could have lived without it, you consoled yourself by thinking, “I’m sure it will come in handy sometime…”
Craigslist.org is full of these “must-have” items—tools, exercise equipment, carpet cleaners, musical instruments, cameras, and specialty cookware in “like new” or “barely used” condition. In garages up and down your street and across the country, millions of items are stored away, losing their value and their usefulness as time passes, until they finally end up in landfills.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s website, epa.gov, states that one of the most important ways to reduce waste is to consume less. Resisting the impulse to buy not only helps to keep our planet green, it also helps to keep some green in our wallets. Most of us don’t think twice about renting DVDs for a movie night at home, or tables and chairs for a backyard party. If we expand our concept of what items we can rent, we’ll all wind up with less stuff in our garages and our landfills.
A prime example is home improvement tools. Studies have shown that the average circular saw or belt sander is used for only about one hour during its lifetime. Many tools can be rented at local Home Depot stores for much less than the cost of buying them. Several Northern California cities, including Oakland, Berkeley, and Santa Rosa, offer tool lending through their library systems. Any resident with a library card can borrow common home repair tools for free. The city of Santa Clara offers a similar service, but with a very limited inventory—mostly tools related to energy savings, like caulking guns and multimeters (siliconvalleypower.com).
Almost anything you can buy, you can rent. If you are thinking of buying an iPhone but aren’t ready to commit, consider renting one for a week from iphonetrip.com. If you need to rent a video projector, a satellite phone, or a laptop, find them on erento.net. Maybe you want to go camping with your family, but it seems wasteful to buy a tent, sleeping bags, and cooking equipment for only one week’s vacation. Bay Area Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) stores rent every type of outdoor gear, from family tents to hard-core mountain climbing equipment. You can also rent gear online from rei.com or lowergear.com.
Websites like Zilok.com and Rentalic.com connect people who want to rent an item—say a digital camera or a backpack—with people in the same geographical area who possess those items and are willing to rent them out. Consider the possibilities: If you have teenage nephews coming to visit whom you can’t keep entertained, rent a video game system for the weekend. If a new hobby intrigues you, consider renting that sewing machine or expensive camera until you ascertain if sewing or photography truly is your passion.
With sites like Zilok and Rentalic, you can choose to be a renter or a rentee. Pull those “must-have” items you once purchased out of storage, list them for rent, and you’ll give them new life while you earn you a little extra cash.
