It’s too bad tool-banks (communal or otherwise) aren’t too popular. One alternative (for seldom used things) is renting tools from home improvement centers/large hardware stores. Even auto parts stores have rentals or loaners for a deposit programs.
I've rented tools from Home Depot and regretted it. The prices they charge are sufficiently high that you're typically better off buying instead of renting if you think you're ever going to use that tool again at all. Or, even cheaper still, is buying the relevant tool used off Craigslist, in which case you can generally use it for free, and sell it back for what you paid for it if you don't end up needing it again.
I sometimes wonder what percentage of a piece of green land between houses is taken up by fences and garden sheds. We'd all get so much free space back if there was a communal shed. Problem is, you have one sunny Saturday then everyone wants the spade. (Writing from perspective of terraced houses in Britain.)
An almost equivalent model to renting is buy used/sell used. Because they biggest value loss of anything new happens during unboxing, the average loss between buying used and selling used is the transaction cost plus an approximation of actual wear and breakage. You won't get charged for not returning by this-and-that date.
Of course, if you are a tool hoarder like me you won't ever get further than buy used, but I guess that would still be "less stuff" than buying new.
On a related note, my favorite business that does not exist would be a chain of second hand stores that deals in all that "beach vacation crap" (inflatable rubber things, objects to enjoy and/or deal with sand/wind/sun etc) that tends to get hauled home just to die silently in an attic. It would absolutely have to be a chain to make experience transferable between destinations.
It doesn't have to be complex to be useful. I had a small plumbing project, needed a pex crimper. My local plumbing store will loan it to you for free if you buy the parts there. There is no schedule, no set time to return it. If it is there, you can have it. If not, you can wait, they will call you when it comes in.
Ah, the wonder of old-fashioned hardware (etc) stores. I bet your local store could not only lend you the tool but also give you useful advice on using it, or on your project in general.
What a loss to our communities as online retail drives them out of business. If I can get my supplies from Amazon for 20% less, but then have to buy the tool that I could have borrowed from the local store, and spend twice as long doing the job because I didn't talk it over with the experienced guy behind the counter, have I really come out ahead?
All the chain car parts stores rent all the specialized tools they sell. You put down the cost to buy the tool and get your money back when you return it.
