26 / matters magazine / summer 2026
W
hen you become a 
homeowner it seems 
like you inherit an 
endless list of repairs 
or 
improvements. 
Some projects, such 
as kitchen or bath­
room renovations, are best handled by the pro­
fessionals. But what about items such as adding 
shelving, cleaning your dryer vents, installing a 
new bathroom floor or building a trellis for your 
climbing roses? They often require tools that you 
may not have.
Rather than roam the aisles of Home Depot to 
buy a tool you may use once, now you can borrow 
them from a new tool library called SOMA Tool 
Share. Currently housed in Extra Space Storage 
at 311 Valley Street in South Orange, the group 
lets members reserve tools on its website and pick 
them up on a Tuesday evening or Saturday after­
noon in the community room on the bottom floor 
of the building. Genius!
That’s what Sara Lewis-Atishev thought when 
she decided to tackle a few cleaning projects. She 
needed a steam cleaner for a rust spot on her rug 
and a dry brush to clean her child’s car seat that 
had suffered a yogurt explosion. “Of course, we 
have some of the basics, but stuff like a steam 
cleaner – I don’t need to go and buy that.” Chris­
tine Yoon had the same thought when it came to 
needing an oscillating tool to cut off some rot­
ting wood near her front door. For both women, 
SOMA Tool Share provided the tools they needed. 
They had the extra honor of being the organiza­
tion’s inaugural clients on May 16.
S O M A 
Tool Share is 
the brainchild 
of local resi­
dents Janet Vil­
lano and Dave 
H e l m k a m p . 
Villano started 
thinking about 
starting a tool 
library after a 
neighbor bor­
rowed her tools 
for a renovation 
project. “I just 
have a lot of 
tools … a tile saw, for example, that I use once ev­
ery four years. It just sits there the rest of the time, 
very wasteful,” she says. “I did a little research, and 
I found there’s a world of tool libraries out there.”
Although the concept may sound modern, the 
first tool library is said to have started in 1943 in 
Grosse Pointe, Michigan. By the 1970s, most tool 
libraries had closed down, due in part to the avail­
ability of cheap products and the rise of consumer 
culture, where a person’s possessions are equated 
with their social status. During the financial crisis of 
2008-2009, interest in tool libraries began to accel­
erate as people realized it made more sense to bor­
row tools rather than buy. With the development 
of cloud-based software, tool libraries now had an 
easier way to log inventory and take reservations. 
For Villano, her interest in tools began during 
childhood as she watched her handy father tackle 
projects. Her work life also supported tool literacy. 
“I spent most of my career as an industrial design­
er,” she says. “When I went to grad school, you 
had to make your own models. Everybody just 3D 
prints everything now, but we had to get tools and 
make models and sand them and build them up. I 
learned how to use a lot of things.”
Over the years, Villano has dived into various 
home renovation projects. “I like to do a lot of 
things myself,” she says, “like finishing work, cabi­
nets, that kind of thing.”  
Seeking input on how to start a tool library, Vil­
A Lending Library 
for Tools
SOMA Tool Share promotes a sharing economy mindset
BY ELLEN DONKER
SOMA Tool Share founder Janet 
Villano with Sara Lewis-Atishev 
who borrowed tools for some 
cleaning projects.
L to R: Volunteers organize tools in the storage facility; 
SOMA Tool Share board members Janet Villano, Dave 
Helmkamp and Kenny Grossman; more tools!

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