My house, my car, my boat – for a long time, everyone wanted everything, now we are suffocating in excess. Yet we can simply share many things and use resources responsibly. One thing you should share with your friends is your expertise in sports betting.
Books
There are books you want to read again and again, but most of them gather dust on the shelf after the first read. Borrow books from good old libraries, give your own to friends after reading them, or send them on a journey by BookCrossing.
You can also find and swap used books in public bookcases.
Garden
Some people have a garden and too little time to look after it. Other people have none and enjoy tending a garden or growing fruit and vegetables together. For older people, gardening sometimes becomes too much, and they are happy to have life in their garden. And sometimes you need someone to look after the garden while you’re on vacation. These are all good reasons to share your well-fenced green spaces with others.
You can do this with garden sponsors, for example.
WLAN
Almost everyone has their own WLAN router. This is quite absurd, especially in multi-party houses. Simple sharing would be so obvious, but the law in Germany makes it difficult. The so-called “Stoererhaftung” (Breach of Duty of Care) states that anyone who shares their Wi-Fi with strangers is liable for illegal downloads. Telekom and Kabel Deutschland offer a light version of Wi-Fi sharing. Customers can make their connection available to others for surfing on the move, but only if they are also customers of the respective provider.
Freifunk takes a more non-profit approach: The association aims to establish independent networks beyond telecommunications providers.
Tools
The average usage time of a drill is a miserable 15 minutes over its entire lifetime. Nevertheless, almost every household has one. Tools are excellent parts of objects!
Apps and internet platforms can help you find people willing to share in your area, or perhaps there’s a rental store nearby?
Food
Of course, we are not suggesting that you break through every bread roll once and share it with others, although this idea also has merit. It’s about not simply letting surplus food go bad. Over a billion tons end up in the bin every year!
The Foodsharing platform is fighting against this and offers clever ways to share food.
Newspaper subscription
Hot off the press today, out of date tomorrow. The best-before date of daily newspapers is extremely short. That doesn’t make sharing easy. But maybe you and your neighbor have different reading habits. Someone who reads in the morning on the way to work is a good sharing partner for someone who reads in the evening on the sofa. One less newspaper in the paper bin every day protects the environment and conserves resources.
Everyone knows about shared apartments
, so we probably won’t surprise anyone with this. But it is precisely this matter-of-factness of shared flats that we find remarkable. Strangers often share something as intimate as living space. Although charitable considerations often play less of a role than financial means, shared flats show just how far collective consumption can go today.
Car
Our cars spend most of their time standing around motionless and when they are being driven, there is usually only one person in them. In other words, cars are predestined for sharing. Many people have now realized this and use various options such as car sharing or carpooling.