Submitted 6 months ago by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to technology@lemmy.world
The theory is simple: instead of buying a household item or a piece of clothing or some equipment you might use once or twice, you take it out and return it.
With the size of housing units they build in condo buildings these days, who the fuck has any room to store appliances?
Plus, we live in an era where we produce too much shit anyway and it’s damaging the environment. So by sharing stuff like this, it means we need to produce less.
Indeed, also it’s much nicer to use a shared high quality tool than to buy an el-cheapo disposable tool.
Even something simpel like a crowbar. I once borrowed a (shorter) professional crowbar after struggling with a (larger) cheap one. The thing I was trying to pry came out like butter.
Even though physics dictates that a shorter lever should be inferior, it just had a much better design and grip.
Better for our wallet, sanity and environment.
Yeah but was it any good for killing head crabs?
This is an outstanding idea for an apartment community. It addresses space issues, cost concerns, and largely prevents abuse from the get-go because you know where all your borrowers live.
In great Montreal area it’s more and more enormous, condo 1000sqft+, thousands of them, that people cannot buy because they are too expensive, I don’t understand the system
Yeah they built these big ass luxury condo towers downtown and most of them are empty. I know because I can see in them from my office building.
Some argue this allows richer people to move out of smaller units therefore freeing them for others. But instead you have international investors coming in to buy them up as a real tax haven. Or the rich will simply buy them but keep the old ones and rent them at a premium. It doesn’t help at all.
*cough* Maestria *cough*
This sounds neat until it’s run for profit.
There is a business in my town. There’s probably one like it in your town. They rent power equipment. Anything from pressure washers to bobcats to bouncy castles. And as a man who has needed to drill precisely 8 holes into a concrete slab in 37 years, there is a genuine value proposition in renting a hammer drill for an afternoon compared to buying one.
This week’s rental for me:
Not going to buy those things or pay someone to operate them. It’s a good deal.
Rentals seem extremely expensive in my area. $100/day for a shitty 4" wood chipper, $300/day for 6" chipper. For some tools, it’s often about the same price or cheaper to buy a tool from Harbor Freight than to rent.
How would that ruin it?
Modest profit isn’t an issue, but most businesses of more than a certain size accumulate MBAs like some kind of parasitic fungus. They then proceed to wring out as much money as possible in the short term while destroying the business in the long term.
If it’s just a local guy making 5% or so a year off his one rental shop, that’s no problem.
In a purely profit business, you price things based on how much people are willing to pay for them.
That translates into things never being priced as being “worth it”, but almost worth it, and definitely not worth it for people with tighter budget
There’s a local store that rents outdoors gear (climbing stuff, camping supplies etc), it’s for profit and it’s great. Would be way cooler if it were a library, but the local business is totally affordable and easy.
So, the key is to run your business for loss. Wait, that’s called a charity, not a business. How is this thing supposed to work?
Libraries don’t make a profit, AFAIK. Non-profits and co-ops are things too.
Wait is this trying to suggest just renting is the same thing as a library?
The benifit of a library is you share the cost as a group and get some fractional use of it. Like books that you only really need access to for small amount of time.
Its not the same as say Amazon owning the book rental space and choosing, without any choice on your point, on what books are there or who could get access to them.
Tool libraries are libraries, not rentals.
So no, they aren’t saying renting is the same thing as a library. They are saying libraries offering more services are a great way for you to save money by not buying a tool you only need once or for a day here and there over the years.
I agree with the first part, but they are using the terms interchangeable of renting and borrowing. Talking about renting and subscription in the same vain as borrowing.
I just don’t want the very cool idea of a library economy to be conflated with the “you own nothing” subscription/rent everything economy.
They both have similarities but the actual ownership matters IMHO or else you get rent seeking/enshittification.
Growing up, there was an association in my area for common ownership of different types of machinery and other equipment for its members. You paid something like $10 a year, and for that you got to borrow all kinds of things you might need as a home owner, like a wood chopper/splitter, high pressure washer, trailers, leaf blowers, cement mixer, scaffolding etc.
I always thought that was brilliant.
“You will own nothing and like it”
I’m so down for this for items that I don’t need indefinitely. It reduces waste.
It also allows people to use much higher quality products. She’s pulling a power tool out in the picture and goddamn, there’s some garbage tools out there, even from quality brands.
It's interesting how individualism and socialism interact with each other, and how a degree of the latter can promote the former.
Everything as subscription.
Yeah it is seem to be cheap now, until you become dependent on it.
On the flip side, when you lost your job, cancel your home subscription and become homeless.
Oh, I assumed this article was going to be about public libraries. Often public libraries will have things for checkout, like gardening or cooking equipment. Yeah, this is somewhat distopian. These companies will probably make bank off of this. It should be public. We need a larger library system for much more things.
Not sure I agree that it’s dystopian. Imagine how much less waste there would be. People with less crowded storage/garages/houses with less junk they use rarely. Like, I have this scroll saw I’ve used for like one project. Why the fuck do I own this thing?
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
I remember when corner stores rented DVDs, this could be another business for them. But…since they haven’t adopted it I guess it really isn’t that profitable. Power tool prices have come down in price and size.
Ubik was right
What could go wrong with depending on such a service?
Rental washing machine? Bad, because I always need this. Rental baby clothes? Good, because it is a temporary need. Rental tools? Good, because it is a temporary need. Rental dinnerware? Good? I can see a few cases where this becomes useful. Rental Photoshop? Bad especially if you use it professionally and the terms of the contract are subjective to change.
Obligatory Library Socialism Link: librarysocialism.org
I’ve rented things like carpet cleaners, floor polishers, chainsaws, splitters for the chainsawed wood, generators, a bunch of weird things from a rental place down the street that seems to have at least one of anything I could ever need. It’s awesome!
Not having to maintain a bunch of shitty two stroke engines is phenomenal.
Kinda off topic, but this reminded me of the lawn mower I bought a few summers ago. It was on sale for like 200, it was an electric Li-Ion battery though.
It was my first Li-Ion mower, but not the first electric and the first electric was just…shitty…pros definitely did not put weigh the cons so I was hesitant, but bit the bullet anyways because that first electric had to have been like 15+ years ago so things must have improved
So glad I did, this MF is so damn quiet, I don’t even need hearing protection AND I can mow at like 9PM because it’s so quiet that the barking neighbor dogs are louder AND I don’t have to fuck with gas and oil. I even picked up the same thing but the trimmer and weed whacker version at a thrift store. So now I don’t have to fuck with has and oil and MIXING them just right for 2 strokes.
Even with the big battery they’re still lighter than the equivalent 2 stroke.
Tl;Dr FUCK 2/4 stroke engine equipment, I’m never going back lmao
I’m hoping to have bought my last engine. maybe there will be another ICE car or motorcycle in my future, I don’t think I’ll ever own another airplane and I’m 100% done with gas powered lawn tools. I’ve got a set of electric lawn tools that do a fantastic job and they don’t pack their sinuses with their own shit all winter so they work when it’s time.
And my father has fought me tooth and nail the entire way. “You sure you don’t want the gas one? It’s slightly bigger! Let’s get the gas one.” Dad, why are we here for the second year in a row buying a string trimmer? “We can’t get the old one to start.” Wrong. We’re buying a new one because we can’t get the almost brand new one we bought last year to start. Now what chemical did you consume in the 60’s that makes you think a nearly identical one we buy this year will be any different? “Ohh come on.” This one works almost exactly like a power drill. When’s the last time you put a battery in the power drill and spent an hour failing to get it to start drilling? “Sigh I guess.”
It’s lighter, quieter, runs on a battery system we’re already very invested in, starts every time, requires less maintenance and fueling is a lot more convenient. Every electric lawn tool we’ve bought bar none works great.
Torque from a high voltage electric battery lawnmower motor just can’t be beat in my experience. Just chews up things that would make a similarly priced gas engine stall.
Yeah I love my 40v job too!! I can crush the lawn in record time on a single charge and its whisper quiet.
My mid life birthday gift was an electric zero turn mower. Already had all electric yard tools. Will buy Tesla or best option in couple years. Never going to a gas station again!
So indeed, fuck gas
What the fuck is this rent-a-center propaganda?
How stupid are we?
Pretty dumb. I thought this would be about lending libraries -_-
Tf are both you talking about. The article talks about Tool Libraries and The Library of Thing at length. It name drops a few subscription services for reused baby clothes and kids toys but those are still temporary items people need.
Rent-a-centers core business model consists of predatory loans for household appliances that you need continuously. This article talks about rentals for things you only need for a short period of time.
Stupid enough to wake up in this world. It didn’t happen in one day.
It’s nice however let’s assume that it is the main consumer model. Then everything becomes possibly 20 times more expensive as companies need to keep same profit and now 20 people share the thing. It’s not a solution to capitalism
The companies who have 20x the mark up necessary to survive will quickly see new businesses occupy the space to undercut them.
Yeah, this is the one piece a lot of people miss: in any decently competitive market, individual firms have effectively zero power to set prices; they must instead accept the prices determined by the market.
Knowing that, the solution to that sort of corporate BS, then, is to ensure markets are competitive by busting monopolies, lowering barriers to entry, and getting money out of politics to reduce the effect of lobbying.
Hmmm I wouldn’t be so sure… It depends on their position in the market and how well they lobby the government
It’s not a solution by itself, but a library economy can form part of it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYa3YzVtyk
A friend of mine who lived in Berkeley in the early aughts was a member of her local tool library. I thought it was a brilliant idea. You just had to be live in the community and getting your library card was free.
At one point my roommate needed a drill to complete some home improvement, so I got the drill, committing to be the drill guy the buddy that had a borrow-able power drill.
Curiously, when I moved, I needed to reduce my stuff drastically, so my roommate inherited the drill.
Yeah I borrowed a bunch of hand and power tools from the Oakland public library when I lived there in the 2010s. They also had a shit ton of video games
When I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s, we had a toy-library across from our house. You could rent all kinds of toys for a week, extend if needed, and return it when the kids got bored with it. Good times.
They also had LEGO, and every piece had to be accounted for on return.
They went out of business when people started buying their own GameBoys and PlayStations.
My public library had toys for rent when I was a kid. You could check out Teddy Ruskpin and Power Wheels and full sets of sports equipment to use in the park next door. Then the neighborhood got hit by the late 80s financial crisis and the program was cut. And then they spent an enormous amount of money on a computer lab. And then an Adult Learning Center. And then they decided too many poor people were near the library, making it unsafe, so people stopped bringing their kids there. And then it got defunded. And now its abandoned.
Libraries used to have all sorts of cool high end shit in them. Now they’re so heavily deferred on maintenance that people don’t feel safe working inside.
Real shit.
We had a rental thing for toys in our old neighbourhood, but you paid for it with currency made from helping at the nearby petting zoo.
We had the same, and it rented video game console and games, it was great.
Renting stuff makes sense, but there are still lots of inherent problems with tool libraries and the like.
They’re great for a carpet shampooer or chainsaw you need once a year, but if you actually want to fix and build stuff around the home then booking a tool, taking perfect measurements, hauling your stuff over to a tool library, building it, hauling everything back home to check it, is simply an infeasibly onerous process. The instant you make a mistake and need a different tool, or check a measurement, etc, you’re wasting hours of time, which is most often the biggest limiter for home projects anyways.
You also don’t get to learn on the same tool and build up instincts and understanding of how it behaves.
I think you ahve a fundamental misunderstanding on how the tool libraries and stuff work…
I don’t see how going to the library is such a big hurdle? The closest library to me is less than ten minutes drive, and on the way to a lot of stuff. I don’t know this seems like a kind of insane objection. If you’re poor, it’s not like you’re just gonna spend $200 on a new tool anyway because you can’t. In my experience I’m more likely to just try to make do with the crappy alternative I have available.
This take just seems really privileged. The biggest barrier for a lot of people isn’t the time - it’s affording the tools in the first place.
I mean if you’re trying to learn to be a competent handyman or build a bookcase maybe yeah, but I just need a screwdriver set for like 30 minutes to put something together.
You had it, then you lost it. It’s for those things you need only once a year or two years or never again.
There is a “tool library” sort of service (for profit) operating in my area. The prices are absurd—people are charging like $20/day for a tool that would cost $100 new. My projects often span multiple days, especially if there’s an unforeseen delay—which there always is because I’m a good engineer but a shitty carpenter.
I don’t use the service. I’m all for communal ownership but it still has to make sense.
Not sure if dystopia
There’s a company in Brentwood Tennessee and online that rents very expensive camera lenses.
So you can borrow a $3000 lens for say $200 for a week.
The issue with renting is, of course, just like apartments (or flats if you will), the producers of the items will see the opportunity to inflate the retail costs of the items, the more they see their sales dip due to renting, which will make the price of renting the equipment greater .... and so it goes
The one in Chicago is great. They also had a huge collection of free seeds this spring.
i thought this was called having neighbors? Nonetheless, i’m not complaining. Less waste is better waste.
Priced out of living in communities where you have friends and family to share things with? Hooray! Now you can pay us for that stuff in addition to your increased cost of living!
/c/orphancrushingmachine
This is great! I’ve rented things from home improvement stores, and it’s often half the price of actually buying said thing. Hopefully this can get the price down a bit.
Our library in the last place we lived (Midwest of the US) let you take pans from their large collection of cake pans. It was actually really useful.
For anyone in Germany: connect.oclc.org/bib-der-dinge
ok this is an amazing idea
I should start my own rental thing. I tend to buy what I need for DIY projects and I’m on the build up of tools phase. I can pretty much build my own house if I wanted, or fix anything in my car. So I got a number of toys just catching dust most of the time. But toys are fun.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Warm coats, swimming costumes, sleepsuits, sandals – all can be borrowed for a monthly subscription from any number of services such as Bundlee, Lullaloop and thelittleloop, amongst others.
Clothes rental for children is one of the latest chapters in how “libraries of things” are becoming an increasingly common way to save money, space and waste.
“In summer we see a lot more garden items being used: strimmers, hedge trimmers, lawn mowers, tents for adventuring, ice cream makers and gazebos for barbecues,” says Trevalyan.
“Our data shows we’re increasingly opting to shop second-hand, or rent items for a short period of time, rather than buying outright.
Not that I would have ever spent that much - the clothes I borrow from brands such as Bobo Choses and Tinycottons are much pricier than I’d ever be able to justify, which is part of the service’s appeal.
Meanwhile, companies such as Baboodle let you hire bulky equipment - for example, travel cots, bouncers, buggies and high chairs - so that after a few months of use, you won’t need to buy a semi-detached home with a garage to store it all.
The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Many of the libraries in my area have all kinds of rental things you can check out! Books, audiobooks, music, video games and movies of course. But they also have a whole tools and homegoods section. Need a weirdly shaped pan for a 1-time birthday cake? Check it out and return it when you’re done. Need a drill to hang shelves in your new apartment? Same thing. It’s pretty awesome. For me personally I love to bake, but I simply do not have room for every type of pan. I only make angelfood cake once a year or so, and those pans are huge. I just use the library one and then I don’t have to store the thing all year!
If you haven’t been to your local library in years, you should make a trip there. You might be surprised what they have these days!
As a Dutchman, do other countries not have rental places everywhere? Over here every diy store has a rental department, I'd guess this is universal?
Durandal@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Always check your public library. The ones in m area have these which cost you nothing to use because they are supported as public services.
Always support public libraries.
runswithjedi@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yep, our library has a 3D printer and they’ll make anything you want for a very low cost, like a couple dollars. I’ve never tried but I want to. What should I ask them to make? Any suggestions?
Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 6 months ago
A 3D printer
new_guy@lemmy.world 6 months ago
A car
ExperimentalGuy@programming.dev 6 months ago
You can make nice little self watering pots with a 3d printer and the right filament.
Those extending swords are really fun.
There are also 3d puzzles you can make.
You can also print models you’d like to paint as minis. You just need the model, sandpaper, primer and some paint.
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Ultra specific storage cubbies for your favorite 5 tools. Label tags. Cabinet door knobs. Print in place toy cars with rolling wheels and doors that open. Compliant mechanisms. A coin sorting device. If they can print flexible things, phone cases.
Do not expect anything 3d printed to be food safe.
nailingjello@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
Take a look at your hobbies and go on Etsy to find accessories for them. High chance is someone is making and selling a 3D printed item.
For example, an Apple Air tag case/holder for your bike.
Drigo@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
Go to printables.com or thingiverse.com (I personally prefer printables) search for whatever your hobby is. And print something for that.
Salix@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
You can search through here and make something that looks interesting to you
www.thingiverse.com
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It helped me to know that checking out items helps the library.
I always thought of it as being a consumer of library resources, but the fact that the books/movies/library of things items are being checked out helps them prove that their services are useful to the community.
QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Always support your public libraries, and watch out for companies that want to take this over:
fair.org/…/a-for-profit-company-is-trying-to-priv…