We have a wide range of items which can be useful and practical, but also fun and entertaining. These are our 10 categories:

• Arts and Crafts– from sewing machines to glue guns
• Baby and Children – from pushchairs to baby mobiles
• Events – from projector screens to bunting
• DIY – from drills to ladders
• Gardening tools – from lawnmowers to hedge trimmers
• Household and Garden – from vacuum cleaners to hammocks
• Kitchen Equipment – from blenders to dehydrators
• Leisure and Camping – from tents to metal detectors
• Music, Media and Audio/Visual – from guitars to speakers
• Sports and Games – from golf clubs to roller blades

View our full list of Things here: https://sharefrome.org/things/

We have a criteria for deciding what things we stock. However, if you are looking to declutter, we can take most items and put them in a sale to raise funds:

YES

• Items that are clean, undamaged and in good working order
• Useful items on our system that need replacing regularly (eg sanders)
• Spares for our DIY items such as jigsaw blades and sandpaper

NO

• Car seats and helmets 
• Items that require a large amount of maintenance

SALE ONLY

• Gas and petrol items
• Duplicates of less popular items

If you are unsure as to whether we would like your donation, please give us a call or email. For items that we are specifically looking for, see our Wish List.

We source our Things from local donations, which means we are using what may otherwise be lying around not being used, or possibly even thrown away. This way, we can make the most of the lives of items, by using less things for longer periods, rather than more things for shorter periods. This helps reduce individual consumption, which not only helps the planet but also helps to develop the strength of the community. Sometimes these items come broken, but we try as hard as we can to fix them with our great team of repairers.

Occasionally we will also use the funds raised from your membership and borrowing, local business sponsorship, donations and sales profit to buy brand new or more expensive second hand items that we think will be useful to the community. Examples of these might be carpet cleaners, bell tents, gazebos, PA systems and more.

• If you think SHARE:Frome would benefit from it, have a look at our criteria above.
• Repair it! We have a regular Repair Cafe, where you can bring your broken things. Keep a look on our website for the next event.
• You can also post in a local Facebook group to ask for a repair expert.
• Sell it or give it away online on sites like FreeCycle, Freegle or local online groups.
• Give it to a charity shop
• Recycle it – Look up your closest recycling centre. Check out what materials they accept, and any other restrictions before you make the trip.

Yes! If we think the item will be popular and borrowed often, we’ll either add to our wish list to see if anyone has one they can donate, or we will use our funds to buy a new or second hand one.

We have a pricing formula which considers various factors including purchase price, quality, condition, size, typical loan length etc. Items are priced based on this to ensure we remain financially sustainable. We also have a cap to ensure we’ll well within market value. Subscriber members then receive 25% discount on these prices. Low Income members receive 75% discount, ensuring we are accessible to all.

We ask borrowers to flag any damage they notice as soon as possible. This kicks off the repair process and also ensures the next borrower is not let down. To do small repairs like unblocking the pressure washer or replacing the jig saw blades, our small team of local volunteer fixers will try to do simple fixes. When an item is beyond a quick fix, we decide whether it is more efficient to have it professionally mended or simply to donate/sell or recycle it. We understand that items will break eventually and we don’t charge members for these types of breakages. However we do reserve the right to withhold funds if items are deemed to have been broken by serious misuse or neglect.

All electrical items are PAT-tested before they go out. In addition, as far as possible we test items to see if they work before they ‘go live’ on the catalogue. We ask previous borrowers if items are still in good working order when they return them. We loan all items in good faith believing that they work as intended. That said, things do sometimes fail, we sometimes may not spot an imperfection, and so on. In this case we would of course apologise and offer to refund the credit to your account. Please let us know of all the details so that we can deal with the problem as best we can.