Too much stuff in your closet? Consider renting
One of the nice things about renting is the simplicity of the concept. The benefits of renting are relatively easy for most people to grasp. We save money by renting when we can't affort to buy. We help the environment by sharing the things we already have, reducing production. Makes sense, right? There's another advantage many overlook when it comes to renting -- space savings. Take a second to think about your home. Now, think about your closets. Are they empty? If you're anything like me, they're stuffed beyond capacity -- usually to the point where I can barely shut the door. Some may say this is because I live in a city apartment and have limited closet space, but I think this lets me and others off the hook way too easily. Whether you have 1 closet or 10 closets, chances are you'll find ways to fill them. Why is it so easy for us to accumulate so much stuff? Because this is how we've been programmed to consume. In order to remain savvy, we're forced to upgrade to the latest tech gadgets that claim to be "the next big thing." In order to remain fashionable, we're forced to keep up with the latest styles that fluctuate drastically from season to seaon. After awhile, we end up with a pile of old iPods and shoes that do nothing but take up space, adding zero value to our lives.
Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, touches on the current era of humanity as "the age of abundance" where people have way too much stuff -- more than they'd ever need. He discusses this in the context of the self-storage industry -- an industry built around an over-abundance of posessions. He comments, "What is the unmet consumer need that self-storage is trying to satisfy? It is a problem called too much stuff. Not a problem that affected our parents and grandparents. But the self-storage industry in America today, an industry devoted entirely to finding a place to house people’s extra stuff, is a $22.6 billion, that is a B, billion dollar a year industry. The self-storage industry is larger than the motion picture business in this country." I've also read it's an industry that's growing faster than McDonald's. When we get to the point that our material goods exceed the space we need to functionally live -- to the point that we need to purchase additional space exclusively for housing our idle assets -- we should probably admit there's a problem. You've heard of hoarding, right?
Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, created a documentary called The Story of Stuff. In the video, she presents a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” The documentary may present a one-sided, extremist viewpoint about the lifecycle of material goods, but it certainly opens up a dialogue around how the production of more and more stuff is destroying our lives and our planet. Leonard's primary thesis states, "you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely." We need to introduce a cyclical process -- something that is sustainable.
Fortunately, renting is a cyclical process. You take a material good that has been produced and reuse that product over and over and over, until its value has been fully maximized. More sharing = less production = less waste. I'm not suggesting that renting is the cure-all for our society's obsession with possession. But it's certainly a step in the right direction. What most people don't realize is you can rent just about anything you can buy. From designer dresses to iPhones to Christmas Trees, there's no shortage of rental goods. So next time you need a stereo for a party or a power saw for a home improvement project, consider renting. Your closet (and your planet) will thank you.
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