Back before technology took over our lives with all its convenience, if we needed to borrow something, we'd simply go knock on our neighbor's door and ask politely. Sometimes, we'd even have standing agreements within our neighborhoods that it was okay to borrow things without asking. Sharing came naturally because it just made good sense. It's like that Miranda Lambert song: "Hey, whatever happened to waiting your turn, doing it all by hand, 'cause when everything is handed to you, it's only worth as much as the time put in. It all just seemed so good the way we had it, back before everything became automatic."

Well, Switzerland's Pumpipumpe is trying to bring a little of that back — forward? — into the information age. Rather than developing a mobile app that assists sharing of goods between neighbors, they've gone old-school with stickers that people can apply to their mailboxes to let others know what they have to lend. It's a simple ploy to encourage more social interaction and sharing between neighbors who are interested in lending and borrowing things within their local community.

The set of stickers — which is free to anyone in Switzerland or Germany (4€ for everyone else) — features images of all sorts of household items that are generally only needed sporadically by their owner. No one is constantly putting their grill, sewing machine, sled, tripod, drill, chess board, telescope, or lawnmower to good use, so why not let a neighbor borrow it?