The average power drill gets used for about 13 minutes in its entire lifetime. You buy it for $120, drill six holes to mount a TV bracket, and it lives in the garage for the next decade. Maybe you pull it out once more to assemble some flat-pack furniture. Then it sits there collecting dust until you move house and donate it to Vinnies.

This is absurd. And a growing number of communities have decided to do something about it.

Community tool libraries — also called tool lending libraries or maker libraries — work exactly like book libraries, but for tools. You sign up, pay a small annual membership (usually $50-100), and borrow tools as you need them. Power saws, drills, sanders, tile cutters, pressure washers, carpet cleaners, camping gear, even sewing machines.

Where This Is Happening

The concept isn’t brand new. Berkeley’s Tool Lending Library in California has been running since 1979. But the model has exploded in the last five years, particularly in Australia and the UK.

Melbourne now has at least three community tool libraries operating across different suburbs. Sydney’s Inner West Tool Library opened in 2024 and already has over 400 members. Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart all have versions in various stages of development.

The pattern is similar everywhere: a small group of neighbours gets frustrated with the waste of everyone owning duplicate tools, finds a cheap space (a shipping container, an unused room in a community centre, a corner of a men’s shed), and starts collecting donations. Word spreads through local Facebook groups and community noticeboards, and within a year there’s a functioning library.

Why This Works Better Than You’d Think

The obvious objection is: won’t people wreck the tools? Won’t things go missing? Won’t it be chaos?

In practice, the damage and loss rates are remarkably low — most tool libraries report less than 2% annual loss. There are a few reasons for this.

First, the membership structure creates accountability. You’re borrowing with your name and contact details attached. It’s not anonymous. If you return a drill with a burnt-out motor, everyone knows who did it.

Second, the community aspect matters. These aren’t faceless transactions. You’re borrowing from your neighbours. Social pressure is a powerful motivator to return things in good condition. People actually tend to return tools cleaner than they borrowed them.

Third, most libraries carry a modest damage deposit ($20-50 per item) that covers wear and tear. Anything beyond normal wear gets billed to the borrower. This rarely needs to happen.

The Economics Are Compelling

Let’s say you’re renovating a bathroom. You need a tile cutter ($200 to buy), a rotary hammer drill ($250), a pipe cutter ($60), a multitool for cutting plasterboard ($150), and a wet/dry vacuum ($200). That’s $860 in tools for a project that takes two weekends.

At a tool library, you’d borrow all of those for maybe $20 total (or free with your annual membership). Even accounting for the membership fee, you’ve saved $750 on a single project.

Now multiply that across a neighbourhood. If 200 households each avoid buying $500 worth of rarely-used tools per year, that’s $100,000 staying in the community. And 200 fewer drills being manufactured, shipped, used once, and landfilled.

The environmental angle is significant. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that sharing economy models for physical goods could reduce resource consumption by 20-30% in the categories they cover. Tool libraries are one of the purest examples of this principle in action.

What’s in a Typical Collection

A well-established tool library usually has 200-500 items. The core collection typically includes:

• Power drills, drivers, and impact wrenches
• Circular saws, jigsaws, and reciprocating saws
• Sanders (orbital, belt, detail)
• Specialty items: tile cutters, stud finders, laser levels
• Garden tools: hedge trimmers, chainsaws, brush cutters
• Cleaning equipment: pressure washers, carpet cleaners, steam cleaners
• Diagnostic tools: multimeters, thermal cameras, moisture metres

The most popular items, unsurprisingly, are the expensive specialty tools that people need once or twice. Pressure washers, tile cutters, and carpet cleaners are checked out constantly. The items that sit on shelves longest are basic hand tools — because most people already own hammers and screwdrivers.

Some tool libraries have started expanding beyond tools. Board games, camping equipment, party supplies (marquees, speakers, fairy lights), and kitchen appliances for catering are all showing up in library inventories.

How to Find (or Start) One

Check your local council’s community directory first. Search “[your suburb] tool library” on Facebook — many operate primarily through social media groups. The Australian Tool Libraries Network maintains a loose directory, though it’s not always current.

If there isn’t one near you and you’re interested in starting one, the barrier to entry is lower than you’d expect. A shipping container, a spreadsheet for tracking loans, basic insurance, and a couple hundred donated tools is enough to get started. Most successful libraries began with fewer than 50 items and one enthusiastic organiser.

The hardest part isn’t logistics. It’s convincing people that the thing they’re looking for might already exist in their neighbour’s garage — and that sharing it makes everyone better off.