There’s a great initiative in London called the ‘Library of Things’. The idea is simple: people can rent useful items from their local high street.
This is especially helpful for items that are are expensive and used infrequently. For example, Maru and I recently hired out a heavy duty carpet cleaner. We’d never own one ourselves, and the cost of getting someone in to do the work was 10x the price of hiring the machine.
The best part about Library of Things is their thoughtful user-centred design. The reservation process is quick, seamless, and all online. You get a 6-digit code that you take down to your local library, and entering this code opens a cabinet with your item inside. You can rent anything from a sewing machine, to a pasta maker, to a hedge trimmer.
There have been lots of community-sharing-type ides over the years, but they typically lack the momentum to reach escape velocity; often suffering from a lack of items and discoverability of the service. Library of Things have nailed it in a simple and elegant way. It’s a great example of a service that delivers a lot more value than its cost.