Whilst Vinko and his family were living in Brisbane, he was living in one of the big old rambling Queenslander’s with downstairs space. He started making use of his space to create furniture and soon needed a drop saw to get the job done. Rather than buy what he needed Vinko looked for rental alternatives. It was at this time he stumbled across Open Shed.

Little did he know he was about to get the warmest welcome ever- he was both the first QLD member and the 100th to join Open Shed! Here is his story.

What is it about collaborative consumption that appeals to you?

Collaborative consumption allows us to have access to a lifestyle we may not have thought possible. It encourages you to make a bigger investment at the time when you are purchasing something for yourself because you can buy better quality tools and equipment at a higher price with the knowledge you can rent out what you own to others. Here is a way of making money out of what we have. Not only that but it is so much better for the environment to pool these resources across a community. I think collaborative consumption gives us the ability to upgrade our lifestyle, gives us the freedom we need to do things and also the ability to connect with new and different things through people power.

What kinds of things have you listed on Open Shed?

I’ve listed a few things. I’ve listed my DSLR camera, a handsaw and drill, and tried to think about the things I own in terms of what other people might find difficult to track down or just so generic they would get a lot of use because it would be easier to borrow them from a neighbour as opposed to make a trip to the shops. I also saw another member was chasing down some racquets to play tennis via a Wanted Listing and I rented him mine. The best thing to come out of that tennis rental is that I found he was a genuinely nice guy, we found a mutual interest and enjoyment of the sport and so we’ve talked about meeting up and having a game ourselves.

Tell us about a time one of the items you have listed on Open Shed has saved your bacon

I needed to get my pink slip done and at the time had an old Suzuki Sierra. I needed to remove the engine cap to get ready for the inspection and had to go out and buy an entire rubber socket set in order to use just one tool to get the job done. So I have listed that on Open Shed to save someone else from all the running around and the extra expense associated with getting their hands on that one tool.

What do you say to people that worry about things like stuff being damaged

My experience is a little bit different because the damage angle just doesn’t occur to me. I grew up on Croatia and being a Socialist Republic, everything about pooling resources, sharing across the community and working as a community together is the natural way we do things. Even so, I am not worried. The way I see it, it’s actually very rare that your trust could be abused. In fact, I think if you guard yourself, it’s more likely people pick that up and feel as though they cannot trust you. So I follow the line that as I don’t have anything hide or give people any reason not to trust me, they have no reason to abuse that trust. The bottom line is we don’t need to own all these things. We don’t need to think people will do the wrong thing. If you connect with people they are no longer a worry.

What kinds of adventures would you like to see your items go on?

I wouldn’t mind seeing something of mine go skiing in Queenstown. Would love to hear the stories of the adventure and see the pictures of my stuff in action!

If you could hire anything in the world off Open Shed, what would it be and why?

I’m in Sydney now and I’m still chasing down that drop saw. I would also love to get my hands on an iPad. I do a lot of demos for work and an iPad I could rent on a casual basis would be really helpful and something I would make a lot of use of.

Why do you think it’s better to share then buy?

I think we have the power to change the view of the economy and the world view on ownership. It wasn’t always a case where everyone owned everything and didn’t share it. It made sense in the past to own things of better quality and to look after them and share them across a lot of people as opposed to many people owning lots of stuff that would wear out. Things are changing. Access to things is once again starting to trump ownership, which is great.

Now that we have got online communities to connect through, we’re breaking down the barriers we put in place. We can meet up and trust someone with the things we own and build on that trust throughout the community all because we have a reason to get to know each other again.

The environment will thank us for it. Sharing and collaborative consumption is a much more efficient way to do what we need to do. It’ll force companies to get rid of planned obsolesce and go back to building things to last because it means people will buy the high end things. Having the things that last a lifetime will become popular again and we can all enjoy the things we want through sharing the rich tapestry of choices available to use at any given time as opposed to having to scrimp, save or do without doing it on our own.

To rent some of Vinko’s items or help him finally get his hands on that drop saw or iPad, head here .

This blog was brought to you by Unashamedly Creative. Unashamedly Creative is the nom de plume for creative Sydney copywriter and strategic freelance marketer, Rebekah Lambert. Rebekah is passionate about Open Shed- check out her listings!