If a stranger offered you money to keep a suitcase in your spare room, would you accept? How about the other way round: if you had too many belongings, would you consider trusting someone you met online with their safekeeping? Anthony Paine believed enough of us would answer 'yes' to these questions to launch his own startup, Stashbee. His business links people with space to those who need it.

And it's just one player in the booming 'sharing economy', an industry that relies on people renting out things like their beds, bikes and even parking spaces. Airbnb, a company valued at 200bn RMB, provides a platform for those renting property short-term. DogVacay pairs holidaymaking pet owners with pet-friendly hosts, and aims to be profitable by 2017.

All their business models revolve around one simple word: trust. So, how does Stashbee measure up? BBC journalist Dougal Shaw decided to try it out for himself. He had some odds and ends to store while renovating his house, and met a host through the site who could keep them for 475 RMB for two months. All relatively smooth and painless.

Heavyweights in the traditional storage industry, such as Big Yellow and Access, aren't convinced. A representative from Access told Shaw he was sceptical about storing with “amateurs”. He cited 24/7 access to the items and better security as the main advantages of his service. Cost-wise it would set you back an extra 160 RMB to store with them.

Stashbee agree that tackling security concerns is important, but say business success depends more on people overcoming a distrust of strangers we've been taught since childhood.They aren't alone. Companies such as Costockage, Roost and Spacer all run similar storage businesses, and are all banking on a shift in consumer attitudes.

And the concept of social storage doesn't stop there. CityStasher believe there's a gap in the market for those who want to store things for extremely short periods of time. For example, if you have three hours to kill in a city before your train leaves, what do you do with your suitcase? CityStasher hope you will choose to leave it at a local newsagent, found through their website of course, rather than in the station's pricier left luggage office.

Would you try it out? It's a question of trust.
词汇表
safekeeping （贵重物品的）妥善保管
startup 刚起步的小公司
player 主要参与企业
short-term 短期地
holidaymaking 在外度假的
-friendly 对……友善的（词缀）
profitable 有盈利的
business model 商业模式
to measure up 达到（标准）、满足（期望）
odds and ends 零碎的杂物
painless 轻而易举的
heavyweight 行业巨头
24/7 全天候的
-wise 在……方面（词缀）
to set (you) back 花掉（你）一大笔钱
distrust 不信任
to bank on 指望
a gap in the market 市场缺口，市场空白
pricey 贵的，价格高的
left luggage office 行李寄存处