Oh no, you didn’t buy all of your Christmas gifts yet and now: LockShutdown! But no worries, neither you or your friends need to own all the things you need. You also can rent them, and thanks to Fairleihen, many things even for free!
In fact, you could turn this Christmas into an event of freeing some of your things (while still keeping them), that way making a nice gift to the public. But let me start from the beginning…
Fairleihen is a free platform, already existing since 2013. It allows everyone to create a profile and put up things that they are willing to rent to others.
And since then, a lot of things got added:
- Tools: drills (even with impact), scrapers, various meters (distance, electricity), levels, many other tools
- Travel: tents, air mattresses, pumps, bikes (incl. accessories like helmets, pumps, lights, bags), travel guides, luggage scales
- Sports: table tennis equipment, frisbees, various balls
- Household items: irons (incl. boards), kitchen scales, (smoothie) mixers
- Pet accessories & transport boxes for dogs and cats
- Media: DVD players (and zillions of DVDs), board & card games
- Music instruments: guitars, trumpets, keyboards
I found it amazing to click through all these things a realize I could rent for free if I really need to – all I need to do is to register and then contact the owners.
It also makes sense to register an account right now, even if you don’t need anything. But having an account, you can mark items with a star, e.g. that drill around the corner that you don’t need right now – but that you want to find quickly again once you need it.
In fact, many of these things you only need a few times of the year, like pumps, tents, table tennis rackets – so why actually buy them? It’s much more sustainable if the same thing can serve many people and only needs to exist and take space a way once.
And in case you wonder if there’s any of these things nearby – another view on the same database provides the online map SharingCityBerlin: Just zoom into your neighbourhood and find out which things to rent are only a few meters away.
So there’s such a big choice to rent – and you can make that choice even bigger: All you need to do: register, take some photos of your things that are not yet on Fairleihen (or maybe not in your area) – and make them available to others. What a simple way to increase utility and value of things, without spending any money.
How to register
- on the website, click the door icon in the upper right corner, or: click here
- fill out the form below Du bist NEU bei Fairleihen?
