"Shareconomy" –
my experiences and why it's good!

Sharing your stuff has become from only a trend in hippie communities to a legit lifestyle.
There are platforms and website which enable you to share or use pretty much everything.

From clothing¹ to cars², apartments³, even houses⁴ or working spaces⁵... but there are also platforms where you can just share or find "whatever"⁶ you want!

And you can find more platforms here^*.

I have already used several sharing platforms and I would say of myself that I quite enjoy sharing/borrowing instead of buying, even though I love possessing. It's a little bit of a contradiction... and to be honest here... in most cases, I do it to save money/spend less, instead of doing it for the sustainability. But hey! At least I AM sharing? Right?

Some examples:
- I enjoy offering my rides on BlaBlaCar to reduce my gasoline costs! Last week, for example, my girlfriend and I decided to visit my aunt in Lyon, France, which is a 6-8 hour ride and the gas to go there and drive back would be around 250€ (including toll)! But luckily we had two persons driving with us on each ride and we were able to reduce our money spent on the ride to ~70€ (including toll)! That's pretty much the cheapest and most comfortable way to get to see places and if you get some cool persons you can have some nice conversations or even make friends!

- About a month ago I joined the platform "Drivy"². You can share your car there so other people can rent it for a day or longer. Depending on the car you have you can even make some really good money. My Volkswagen Golf VII, for example, get's me 53€ per day which is around 38€ if you take the fee away that Drivy wants from you (they also got to earn their money somehow).
And it's great! Because you also get to chose the persons renting your car (so if someone looks like they can't be trusted you just don't accept their request) and your car is completely protected and covered by a big and known insurer.

- I am also a fan of the website "Kleiderkreisel"⁷. Although the platform doesn't let you share or borrow things it is great to give away your old clothes and/or get new pieces for your wardrobe for a (most of the time) small and fair price!

In my opinion, living a life where you share/borrow things instead of buying them new is the only way of "keeping mankind alive" because if you think about it... everything that you buy new somewhere, has to be produced while the things that you borrow or buy second hand already have been produced. And considering that we already passed the "Earth Overshoot Day"⁸ (for Germany though), this is a problem that we all have to address! Right now we are living and behaving in the need of 1.7 earths... but we only have one.