You strike up a conversation with your next-door neighbors and find out that they've got a sweet home-brew set up (albeit the beer currently resides in brewing equipment kept in the bathtub). You happen to let slip that you're rather adept at starting vegetable seeds—and then before you know it, you decide to trade. What a great idea!
Bartering and trading with friends, neighbors, and local craftspeople is a great way to be super-resourceful. We trade tools with friends and neighbors quite often, reducing our own consumption and enforcing good relationships, and we're getting to know our neighbors well enough that we're hoping to actually barter landscaping design skills for fresh veggies later this summer.
It's a system that's been around forever—and yet seems to fall out of sight (and out of mind) in urban settings. We're curious: do you barter with folks in your area? Maybe it's for something as simple as garden tools, or maybe it's bartering with your skills (deck-designing for baked goods, perhaps?).
Find out more about bartering in this article at the Mother Nature Network, and check out these related posts:
• Barter With Thy Neighbor: Learning about Timebanking
• Trade School: 30 Days of Classes, Co-Working, and Bartering
• Work for Food: Volunteering at Your Local CSA
(Image: Sxc.hu)
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Thank you for this brilliant post. I have said for years that this is the future of eco-friendly practices melding with helping people recover from the economic meltdown (not to mention, sticking it to Walmart).
Just make sure you do it under the table. At some point, the IRS does not want people trading services without paying taxes.
I used to be a vet tech (now a Biologist) and once in a while I give out pet behavior / sitting services to our neighbors and they help us with yard work.
We do this alot actually. We have a great family behind us <we live on a corner>. Luckily the hubby is an MMA guy so he can lift ALL hahaha. He's helped us with moving furniture out and in quite a bit. My hubby helped him by running with him as requested and just normal around the house stuff. Its a good investment...neighbors.
Hell, yeah. Often. Especially when I have a bumper crop of citrus.
I don't barter, but I do Freecycle with my neighbors. I've passed on tons of plants from my garden, and received lots of old concrete to use as landscape rock.
we belong to neighborhood share. it's updated annually. folks sign up and list what they are willing to share and what they might need. it's great! we don't own a lawn mower but we've got a great vacuum and that's the "barter" that we do most.
Oh, yes, and not as often as I should, either. One memorable trade involved a few of my surplus pumpkins in exchange for needle felting materials and lessons.
I trade the bounty from my garden or baked goods for rides or borrowing the car from the people that live in my bldg, and friends that live across the street and 2 doors down. Also, my town has a wonderful organized barter system called Hour Exchange Portland. It's the best!
No.. Unfortunately, in my apartment building, the neighbors on all sides of me don't speak English and I don't "know" any other neighbors in the rest of the apartment complex. So until I learn Spanish or move, I won't be bartering.
Bartering is an ancient practice that is being revived to good use today. Since not all goods can be bartered, neighborhoods can also do splitting. They can buy their supplies in bulk at wholesale prices or with volume discounts and split the items and the cost according to their needs. They may use online tools like SplitStuff (http://splitstuff.com). Fortunately today, the internet provides a lot of options to practice collaborative consumption.