positive change: a closer look at closest closet

(  ♥)  
 

Today's post is the first in a new segment on Positively Present called "Positive Change." Posts labeled "Positive Change" will be featured periodically on Positively Present and will highlight the people, websites, and organizations that are striving to make the world a more positive place. As we all know, there is a lot of negativity in our world today and it makes me incredibly happy when I notice those really making an effort to make the world more positive. This first post focuses on the organization Closest Closet, which strives to "help you and your community save money and the planet by working together to conserve resources and share items and skills for free."

 

It was a few weeks ago that Joanna, creator of Closet Closet, contacted me to share information about her website with me. As she suggested to me in her initial email, there is a close link between her brainstorm-turned-reality site and Positively Present. Living a a positive life in the present requires a great deal of introspection and understanding of one's self, but it also requires that one be open to the idea of sharing the world around him or her with others. Life, when you think about it, really requires a lot of sharing. We share space. We share things. We share ideas. We share a great deal with the people around us. But, as Joanna has noticed, we could be sharing even more than we already do. According to Joanna, "Closest Closet unites members from any community around the globe to "share" household or business items and skills for free. Members can also recycle unwanted and recyclable materials directly to the local people who need them. The more items and skills shared, the less a community needs, thus building strong, self sustaining communities at no cost. As a byproduct of shared goods, the need for mass production of new goods decreases, and global carbon emission rates drop."

I don't know about you, but to me, that sounds like an awesome idea. Why wouldn't we want to share more with the people around us? Why wouldn't we want to get rid of the things we no longer use and lend them to others? Why wouldn't we want to offer our skills in exchange for someone else's skill that we might be lacking? To me, it sounds like an ideal situation. Closest Closet, "the one-stop web service for communities," allows its "members connect with neighbors or local businesses to borrow or lend items, give away unwanted items directly to those who need them, collect or save recyclable materials for others, or ask someone near them for help with a particular task, all for free." For free! How awesome is that?

How does it work? Well, as Joanna puts it,"Closest Closet works when 'requiring' that all members 'share' ten items and/or skills, in any combination of their own choosing with classified ads. In a community of 100 active members, that provides 1,000 items and/or skills remaining listed at any given time. By requiring members to participate, we remind people that we all have something to offer our communities, no matter what society has said about what our skills are worth. It also teaches us what it means to live in a community, and reminds us that we are all responsible for giving and taking." When it comes down to it, Closest Closet is all about giving and taking, which is what all of our relationships should be about.

Already, Closet Closet has an powerful and positive impact on the communities using its services. Joanna notes that "members are volunteering to provide skills such as reading to children at libraries, hosting tea parties, providing child care, teaching cooking or sewing, providing meals to the elderly, painting, photography, and more," and "members have made items such as books, college textbooks, baking supplies, craft supplies, party supplies, games, tools, pet supplies, and even space for use available to their communities." In addition, Closest Closet also positively impacts communities in other ways, including...

  

• Community Impact: The service will enable communities to remain sustainable by combining the contributions of its members. It encourages people to work together and utilize one another as a "lifestyle," not as a passing trend.By only offering directory services to locally owned and operated providers of goods, services, or foods, we encourage even more community strength by supporting our local economies. As businesses become involved as members, they also have a unique opportunity to connect with the communities they serve.

   

• Economic Impact: Families, individuals, communities, and businesses will be impacted as contributions are made and received free of charge, thus alleviating the financial burden of making purchases for items only needed temporarily, or skills needed occasionally.

• Environmental Impact: By sharing more physical items within communities, we become self-sustaining. A self-sustaining community purchases less. By purchasing less, a simple supply and demand effect would suggest less mass production. Less mass production means less global carbon emissions forced upon our environment.

Clearly, there are many layers to the impact of a site like Closest Closet. When asked what was the defining moment that led Joanna to make this innovative dream a reality, she replied,"I knew that there was something lacking in me, something that was missing. It was this feeling like I didn't 'belong' to this community that I am in, or any community for that matter. But then I realized that a lot of people probably felt like that, because we are in a society that competes with one another to have more and be better than everyone else. It's exhausting. I wanted to live in another country. I initially thought that I wanted to start my own 'intentional community.' I soon realized that the idea of living intentionally is so new to people, that maybe my mission in life was to get people to wake up and realize that EVERY community has the potential to be an 'intentional community.'" Joanna's idea of an "intentional community" really stuck with me. When I read those words, I really thought about them -- and her idea of Closest Closet -- and I thought, hey, this is really cool. This is the kind of thing we could all be involved and really, truly benefit from. 

As you can see from this post, Closest Closet can have a truly positive impact on the world and it's something we all could take part in and benefit from. Want to participate? Check out www.closestcloset.com and also check out the Closest Closet Blog. And for the most up-to-the-minute info, follow Closest Closet on Twitter @ClosestCloset. 

 

Do you know of any organizations, websites, or people
who are working hard to make a positive difference in the world?
Comment below, send me an email, or leave me a tweet on @positivepresent
 and tell me about the positive influences you're seeing in the world. 

Comments

[Phil - Less Ordinary Living]

PP -

Closest Closet is a brilliant idea - I'm seriously impressed. Love the sustainable nature of this and the community aspect too. I'm going to think about how to do something impressive in my neighbourhood.

Phil

[Derrick]

Such an awesome idea! An intelligent plan for societies to realize just how effective and necessary this will be for the future.

[positively present]

Phil - I'm glad you liked this idea! I really think it's great too and I was hoping that people will be inspired by the positive change made my Closest Closet. Sounds like you were, which is great!

Derrick - Definitely! It's a great idea and I hope that it inspires others. Thanks for the comment!

[Joanna]

Thanks for this so much! What a great testimony to Closest Closet too, you couldn't have done a better job.

Thanks Phil. If you want to get started in your area, we'd love to have you start sharing! And Phil- I've been hosting "Free Markets" in my area, and I found it to be an awesome way to get people involved. Let me know if you'd like to get started with one near you, and I'll share with you how I got started.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I can't wait to see how Closest Closet rolls out in the future! :)

Blessings!

[positively present]

Joanna - Thank YOU for starting such a great organization. I'm so happy that I could feature Closest Closet in the first "Positive Change" segment. Thanks for stoping by and commenting!

[J.D. Meier]

> Closest Closet is all about giving and taking, which is what all of our relationships should be about.
Well put!

[positively present]

J.D. - Thanks! Closest Closet is a great reminder of how we can all get along and work together if we learn to give and take.

[Cinn Fields]

This is very cool, kind of like freecycle on steroids. I live in an intentional community and we do this kind of sharing inside the group in a more informal way as part of our lifestyle - we have a 'red barrel' where people put things they don't want, and everyone "goes shopping" there!