Barter: if we all lived together in a flutherworld, minutes away from each other, what would you barter?

I could teach beginners Spanish, bake some desserts, help your kids with math up through algebra, hook a rug, run some errands.

What I need is a gardner, someone to cut back the bushes and trees in my yard, and pull out some weeds. I would love a facial once a month, and also my house cleaned once a month. Oh, and I need a handyman to do a little this and that around the house.

I’d barter, offering my creative self.

Cookies, dog walking services, housekeeping, portraits or paintings. I would barter for car repairs and eggs.

I will gleefully barter organizing the Flutherworld Bartering System so that we could indirect bartering. Jellies could bank hours so they can get the services they need if the jelly they helped can’t provide them. I will gladly come up with other things if I can do if it means I can get help with housework, maintenance and gardening if jellies don’t want a central system.

I can offer interior painting, yard mowing and weed-eating, entertaining children, tutoring in literature, geocaching guide…

I need an underground sprinkler system and tree-trimming

Coconuts!

Pens. I have way too many of them.

@weeveeship writing pens? pig pens? play pens? female swans? Just teasing.

I could barter primary grades tutoring, catering, sign or poster making, driving for people who can’t or don’t, menu planning, Christmas decorations or peeling and chopping onions.

@Sunny2 : All those sound so tempting, but I think I’ll start with my bag of onions. Peel to your heart’s content.

@hawaii_jake We’d have to find someone who had something I wanted who wanted coconuts and do a 3 way barter.

My organic garlic and kumara do indeed earn me some credits in my town.
I could also erect you a pretty impressive garden fence and repair any 4T engine issues you may have as well as trading some of your babysitting hours in exchange for repairing any of your electronic gizmos.
I would require in exchange for my services, the afore mentioned babysitting, a good hairdresser, a plumber and as many growers of food that I could find.

This is an awesome question because it is highly probable that in the near future many of us may need to revert to the old system of barter.

I would trade home brew for more grain and a T bone.

I will clean your house (even the bathroom) in return for yard work.

I like to clean but I hate dirt and grass and leaves. Hopefully someone feels the opposite.

My wife will cook your food for the week (she’s an amazing cook) in return for an accountant handling our bills (which we hate).

I would barter nursing care, baking, cleaning, babysitting/childcare, and some tutoring.

My husband does the cooking, hunting/fishing, and yard work, so he could barter those things.

At the moment, plants. We’ve had such a wet spring, I have volunteer and baby plants that I’ve potted up for my coworkers and neighbors. Forsythia, Crape Myrtle, Golden Euonymus, Rose of Sharon, Lilac, Nandina, Hellebores – I have about 200 in pots right now.

And pet care, of course.

::waves arm at @Seaofclouds::

Yardwork this way please.

I can’t imagine anyone actually needing my artwork or visual services (video production, photography, graphic design) in a barter world. But I do own a print shop so perhaps you want a large photo or signage I can help. But who would I barter the supplies from?

Don’t think I’d survive very well in a barter society.

I don’t have any skills that would be essential or even vaguely useful in a barter society. There isn’t anything I can do that everyone else wouldn’t be able to do for themselves just as well or better. I can paint well, but that’s pictures, not rooms. I can’t imagine anyone would want to trade their own skills in exchange for a painting by an artist they’ve never heard of before.

@downtide I’ve actually bartered for artistic talent! My friend did a painting for me and I did her genealogy research. Don’t sell yourself short.

@Blueroses I was thinking that if barter was necessary then society was probably breaking down in some post-apocalyptic kind of way, and people wouldn’t want portraits of their dogs if they’re struggling to just survive…

In society as it is now I would happily offer artistic services. I could also offer things like proofreading for students’ theses, but again that’s something I thought people wouldn’t need in a barter society.

@downtide I didn’t see this being barter has become necessary (though, if it were a post-apocalyptic rebuild I’d still value artistic ability. Creative thinkers are innovative problem solvers.) but “what skills do you have that could be valuable to your friends in this current world?”

I’d happily trade some baking or a fantastic home-cooked meal for some babysitting. One evening out with my husband or an afternoon to get my hair cut or gasp a mani-pedi is all I’d need!

If food isn’t your thing, I can offer some basic editing skills. Or bugs. I’m good at finding bugs.

Hells, yes! take some of my books on any and all subjects and give me some moonshine