Green Idea: Community Toolsheds

For some communities, it's more than idea, it's a reality. Community tool sheds provide a place to borrow garden tools, often for free. Imagine the benefits of borrowed tools beyond purely the cost —from storage to maintenance, it just make sense...

Granted, we use our shovel a few times a week. But our wheelbarrow far less often. Some community toolsheds are only available for groups to use to improve their park or neighborhood, like Park Pride community toolshed in Atlanta, GA. But others, like the Mount Rainer tool shed in Maryland, has a collection of hand and power tools that can be used at no cost by residents, businesses, and community groups of Mount Rainier, Maryland, to help improve their property.

Here are a few community toolsheds I found via the Web. Do you know of any others?

Wilmington Delaware
Mount Rainier Community Tool Shed (Maryland)
San Antonio, Texas
Park Pride Community Tool shed - Atlanta, GA

Image: Laura Johansen via ThisOldHouse.

Comments (1)

Portland has two that I know of: the Northeast Portland Tool Library and the North Portland Tool Library. They are open only to residents of the neighborhoods around them -- though both N and NE Portland are quite large areas.

To our south, Oakland and Berkeley each have tool libraries as well, both of which are run by the public library (the regular one, with books and so on!) in their respective cities.

posted by RubyJane on June 22nd 2009 at 5:02pm
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