Why sharing beats buying for your neighbourhood
Borrowing instead of buying means fewer things made to sit idle, more space at home, and money that stays with people nearby. Here's how to start.
4 min read
Think about the last thing you bought for a single job. A wallpaper steamer, a hedge trimmer, a fancy dress costume, a baby bouncer that was outgrown in a season. Chances are it's still in your home somewhere, and chances are someone on your road has one too.
Sharing is an old idea. Neighbours have always lent each other ladders and lawnmowers. What's changed is that most of us no longer know which neighbour has the ladder. Nearby is our attempt to fix that for Dublin, and this post is about why we think it's worth doing.
We've kept this post free of statistics. There are plenty of figures online about waste and consumption, but many are hard to trace to a reliable source, and we'd rather not repeat numbers we can't stand behind. The reasons below don't need them.
Fewer things made to sit idle
Everything we buy has to be made, packaged and delivered, and eventually it has to go somewhere when we're finished with it. That's true of a drill, a tent or a pressure washer, whether we use it every day or twice in its life.
When a whole street buys one of each, most of those items spend most of their time doing nothing. When a street shares, fewer items can do the same amount of useful work. Each one gets used properly, rather than bought, used once and stored.
That's the simple case for sharing. It isn't about giving things up. You still get the drill for the afternoon you need it. There just doesn't need to be one in every press.
Good for your home and your pocket
Sharing also helps closer to home.
Space. Plenty of Dublin homes are short on storage. Every rarely used item that you borrow instead of buy is space you get back for the things you use all the time.
Money. Borrowing is often cheaper than buying for a one-off job. On Nearby, borrowers pay the lender's listed price plus a 12% service fee, and bookings of seven days or more get 25% off the rental price. See our pricing page for details.
Earnings for lenders. On the other side, lenders keep 88% of the rental price. That money goes to a person nearby, not to a warehouse somewhere else. Payment goes through Stripe when the lender accepts, and reaches the lender's Stripe account then.
Better quality, used more. When things are shared, it's easier to justify owning a good one. A lender with a well-made tool that gets rented out regularly gets more value from it than one that sits in a shed.
Getting to know the people around you
The part of sharing that's hardest to measure may be the most important. Borrowing something means meeting someone. It's usually brief: a chat at the door, a quick demo of how the thing works, a thank you when it comes back. But those small exchanges add up to a neighbourhood where people recognise each other.
Nearby tries to make those exchanges easy and fair on both sides:
- Every member confirms their email, and members can choose to verify their ID through Stripe Identity, which shows a badge on their profile.
- Borrowers and lenders message each other on Nearby to agree the details.
- Reviews are left after rentals, so good borrowers and lenders build a track record.
- Lenders are protected by the Nearby Guarantee: if an item is accidentally damaged or stolen during the rental, Nearby may, at its discretion, make a goodwill payment to the lender of up to €2,000 per item. It's not insurance, but it makes it easier to say yes to lending.
How to start sharing this week
You don't need to change how you live. Small steps are enough:
- Before you buy, search. Next time you need something for a single job, check what's available near you first.
- Look around your home. Find one useful thing you rarely use. The ladder, the tent, the steam cleaner.
- List it. It takes a few minutes to create a listing with photos and a fair daily price.
- Lend it well. Agree times in messages, show the borrower how it works, and check it over together when it comes back.
- Tell a neighbour. Sharing works best when more people nearby are doing it.
Nearby is live in Dublin now. The more people who lend and borrow, the more useful it gets for everyone around you. Browse items near you, or list something you own and start sharing.