rent a suit

You've seen the photos of Alex all dressed up for grad. If you remember back to March, you saw him the day that he chose the suit at the suit rental place. We were tremendously impressed with the ease, value and service of renting rather than buying. We reckon he will never again need a suit this formal in this size. He's still growing, and next time he needs something like it, he'll be in a wedding party and the bridge and groom will choose the suit. Instead of paying $400-500 for something he'll use just one time, we paid just over $150 for everything, including the shoes, socks and shirt.

All of this got me thinking about what else we really don't need to own, but can rent when we need it. I suppose at some point we will cease to need two cars and it will make sense to keep one or maybe even none, and rent when we need one. This Hyundai Accent would suit me fine. Just a note, any company that lists "armrests" as an extra amenity in a car is demonstrating acute attention to detail and a level of optimism and good cheer that just makes me smile (and tea squirt out my nose - yeah, that kind of smile). Of course, if my husband was renting a car, I think we'd have to look at this.

What about other rentables? I know you can rent tools, tents, trumpets, serving dishes (tip number 1 - know your chafing dishes!), horses, bikes and skis, boats, airplanes, furniture, caskets, and llamas.

Some things I cannot find for rent but would like to rent include:
-a waffle iron (I have one already, but for a really big breakfast I would rent another one - especially if it was a specialty waffle iron like a Mickey Mouse waffle iron)
-a built-in swimming pool
-a tattoo
-a contrary attitude and devil-may-care approach to life (what? that wasn't me, it was a rental)
-a sense of style
-punctuation
-a lilac bush
-a cake
-a renewed sense of wonder
-toenail polish
-a hamster
-Thumbelina
-an inside-out-grill cheese sandwich
-an antique to take to the antiques roadshow for appraisal then say "HAW HAW! I just rented it!"
-a googolplex piece jigsaw puzzle (just try to count the pieces to see if I get my deposit back)
-a new birthday
-elbow connectors (as opposed to protectors)
-a macaroni sorter
-a small country

Alas, these things are not for rent. But if they were, I would seriously consider renting them, especially because, like Alex's grad suit, they are things I would use only once, if that. It would be ever so much smarter than purchasing.

question: what do you rent?

mompoet - going to sort my macaroni by hand