We Americans have been taught that when we need something — even if it’s something we won’t use often — we should immediately go online and buy it.
Well, I am here to request that you unlearn that behavior. Instead of buying more stuff, how about borrowing it from friends? I borrow things that I only need once or twice a year. I am not talking about borrowing something you need every day. It’s the items we rarely use that we can get creative with, like a pick up truck or saffron.
For example, I am on a half-Ironman relay team, and I am the swimmer on the team who swims 1.2 miles in open water. The races require that I have a wetsuit. But I don’t own a wetsuit.
I could have run out and bought one, something I would need one or two times a year for my races. But my friend, who also does triathlons, already had one. And she is very generous with it. She lends it to several women, who trade it back and forth for our races. Luckily, we never do the same race — because that would be awkward to share the wetsuit.
Even though we are all different sizes, the full wetsuit seems to fit us all perfectly — just like the pants in the 2005 movie about teenage girls, who trade a pair of jeans during their summer vacations while they flirt with cute boys.
Unlike the movie, we of the wetsuit sisterhood pass it along in carpool. No hot guys involved.
My point is, it’s time to rethink our knee-jerk consumer reaction every time we need something that we’ll rarely used. Does a friend already have it? Would she lend it to you? Do you have something you could lend to others and get it out of your house for a bit?
Comment, and let me know things you have borrowed or could borrow in the future.