Say Goodbye to Hyper-consumption!
" TIME Magazine calls collective consumption one of the 10 ideas that will change the world. But the thing about collaborative consumption is that it thrives on critical mass. You need punters to post their stuff or skills to create a marketplace. So we’ve listed a few of our favourite sites for Sydneysiders. Pay a visit to one or two, share something or sign up and make a new friend along the way.
1. Go Get / Flexicar / Green Car Share – gives you all the benefits of a car, without the hassle and expense of owning one. Access a network of locally parked cars for an hour or days at a time. When finished, just return to a dedicated parking bay and avoid the hunt for a car park! Or visit DriveMyCar rentals to borrow your neighbour’s car when they don’t need it.
2. Open Shed – make money from the things that sit idle in your house; think drills, ski gear, lawn mowers, or bikes, and rent those things you don’t have room to store or use once in a blue moon. Who could pass up an Abba fancy dress costume for a mere $2 a day?
3. Friends with Things – a little like Open Shed but things are shared for free and the focus is on keeping things local.
4. SpaceOut – brings together people who are looking for cheap local storage space with those who have spare room in their home or business.
5. Find A Uniform – lets you search or list a huge array of second-hand uniforms ranging from school tunics and Scout uniforms, to ballet shoes.
6. Yoink / Freecycle / Ziilch / OzRecycle – great sites to get free things from people near you and give away stuff you don’t need.
7. Jayride – travel A to B by carpool, rideshare, bus, shuttle, relocation cars and more or share your journey and make some cash, get to know your neighbours and commute faster in the transit lane.
8. MeeMeep – connects people on the move to people with stuff to move. So if you’ve got stuff to move, you can save time and money. And if you’re on the move, you can earn a little extra money.
9. Divvy – puts the fun back in parking by connecting people who want to rent out their driveway, apartment parking or garages, with those who need to find a parking space.
10. SwapItBaby – the place to swap what your small people have outgrown, for what they need.
11. Landshare – connects those with land to share with those who need it to grow food.
12. Airbnb – fantastic global site that matches people seeking holiday or short-term rentals with those with rooms to rent. Rent out your spare bed for a month or your entire flat while you’re sunning it up on Easter holidays.
13. Quiverizer – you can’t get much more apt for Sydney than the world’s first surfboard-swapping site!
Our list is by no means exhaustive, so if you’ve got sites that you love to visit that aren’t on our radar, please let us know in the comments below. Also, stay tuned to our site for upcoming Green Village workshops on collaborative consumption."
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