Most of us have too much stuff. It drains our wallets; its manufacture takes a toll on the planet; and it occupies so much space in our homes and lives that many of us need to rent storage spaces to keep it.
Worse, much of it is often stuff we rarely if ever use. “Bought it because I needed it once for a task I was doing.” “Didn’t really need it, but it was on sale!” “I got a better one, but kept the old one because I might need it sometime.” Sound familiar?
If so, maybe it’s time to discover – or rediscover – all the things you can borrow from a library so that you don’t need to buy it:
And what’s on offer? These days, public, community and church libraries offer much more than just books, DVDs and CDs:
- Hand tools, garden tools and power tools – here
- Musical instruments – here
- Household items like novelty cake pans – here
- Board games – here
- Sports equipment like skates, skateboards, snowshoes or pickleball sets – here
- E-bikes
- Toys (imagine a ‘new’ toy every couple of weeks – a kid’s dream!!) – here
- Power monitors (so you can measure power usage in your home, and learn where to save)
- Access to paywall-based media outlets or subscription-based resources like magazines or Ancestry.com
- Seed sharing (often a limited-time spring initiative)
So the next time you’re tempted to buy something, why not first pause to ask: ‘could I get this from a local library?’ Cheaper, convenient and better for the planet!
Thanks to subscriber Karen F for suggesting of this Green Idea!