A short account of how YuTU connected people in our village
Stephen Champion
2 minutes read
Ian and Jane were decluttering their charming whitewashed cottage in the main street of our village, simply to give themselves more room. Several items were no longer an essential part of their lives – one person’s clutter however could be another person’s inspiration on YuTU!
Someone told them about YuTU, and the concept of reaching out to others really resonated with them. Firstly, they weren’t desperately in need of the cash that selling the items would bring in. Secondly the emphasis was not ‘offloading’ unwanted trash for free, as we see on some community-type pages, but embracing the prospect that their items might bring pleasure to others.
Ian created a ‘YuTU’ offering an immaculate set of specialist carving chisels he had stored unused for many years. Jane posted a YuTU offering a tapestry frame.
Within a short time, Dougie answered the YuTU and took the chisels from Ian. He is a talented woodworker living locally and invited Ian to come and see his new workshop, which was truly inspirational I’m told. They got talking and he asked whether he could make something for Ian in return for the chisels. Ian politely declined but within a few days Dougie appeared with a beautiful oak stool he made for Jane, using his new chisels!
Meanwhile, Jane’s YuTU was answered by Miranda and the tapestry frame now has pride of place in her young daughter Lindsay’s outside ‘workroom’, where she is enjoying learning her new skill.
While on YuTU, Miranda saw my own YuTU – our mower was broken and due to the pandemic the shop was unable to get parts. We were simply losing control of the grass! Thankfully Miranda connected through YuTU private messaging and kindly offered to come and cut our grass for us. When she visited she discovered we kept a few hens. It turned out Lindsay is passionate about animals and though this discovery we now have an arrangement for looking after them when we are away – in return for the delightful blue eggs of course.
The eggs in turn were offered on YuTU during the pandemic to anyone who was struggling to get to the shops. They were left as required at the safe drop off point – the phone box in the village!
These new contacts and friendships were made as a result of posting a handful of YuTUs. But more importantly they were made because people took the time to consider others, and how they could use their spare time or unused items to enhance the lives of people in their community.
YuTU is all about looking outwards – go on – give it a go – you never know where it may lead!
