Sharing Is Caring: Co-op Websites

Sharing Is Caring

As more and more apartments are built, the traditional concept of houses and neighbourhoods no longer apply.

Apartment dwellers can be faceless and quiet. Sometimes you might bump into a familiar face sharing the lift with you. Some are friendly while some prefer to keep to themselves. Is this a vision of the future or will the sharers and community sort start fighting back to bring community back into our lives?

Children use to play out on the streets together. Neighbours would swap recipes and borrow items that they needed. Nowadays, with the fear about children being kidnapped or injured, the helicopter parents who hover over their kids, the bustling lives that we lead, the long hours that folks work and all the technological gadgets that keep us voluntarily addicted indoors, we no longer socialise as much with our neighbours.

If you ran out of sugar, which one of you readers would feel comfortable enough to knock on your neighbours door and borrow sugar? If you were going away on holiday, would you be comfortable enough to give your house keys to your neighbour to help with tasks such as feeding the dog and watering the plants? If you have a child, do you feel confortable enough to ask them to mind your child for 30 minutes while you pick up something from the local shops?

It's no wonder that social sharing through swapping and community gardens are making such a comeback. There are folks out there who wish to engage in sharing, renting, borrowing, bartering and giving their stuff away for free. They wish to reconnect with their local neighbourhood, to help and be helped in return should they ever need help.

Sharing Can Be Financially and Environmentally Smart

By sharing or giving away items that you no longer need you can reduce land fill. Sharing items you don't use frequently or simply trading your skills for someone else's skills are ways that you can be environmentally friendly whilst also saving you some money.

Sites Where You Can Share

• Neighbourhood sharing: thesharehood.org
• Sharing work spaces: the-hub.net
• Travelling: airbnb.com
• House swaps: houseswap.com
• Social lending to peer groups: lendinghub.com.au
• Trading sites where you can buy or get stuff for free: Ebay.com or gumtree.com.au

 Just a reminder to be wary and be diligent. Where there is kindness and generosity...dodgy people are lured out to take advantage of innocent, genuine folks...caveat emptor and sharers beware.