this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I guess it's easy to be cynical, but no, this is not at all orphancrushingmachine material

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

They pay a subscription for this... Home Depot and Lowes have similar programs that only require a deposit when you borrow the tool, which is refunded when you return the tool. And it's not even a super expensive deposit. But it is only tools.

Rent-a-Center is still a better service, since you could eventually own the thing.

The idea is nice, but the cost is ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Home Depot and Lowe's charge you out the ass for tool rentals...what are you talking about

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think you ahve a fundamental misunderstanding on how the tool libraries and stuff work..

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (7 children)

I'm conflating a tool library and a maker space but the same issues apply to both. Either way, for home projects you end up with a whole lot of extra transportation.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (3 children)

"You will own nothing and like it"

[–] [email protected] 36 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Yeah, that's how libraries work.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

It's interesting how individualism and socialism interact with each other, and how a degree of the latter can promote the former.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm so down for this for items that I don't need indefinitely. It reduces waste.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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. Renting a $1000 tool sounds better than buying a $100 tool and encouraging the race to the bottom.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Sehr stark!

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