Rob's World is running a Make Do and Mend Challenge. The rules are simple, instead of throwing something away fix it. Seems easy enough, right? Maybe 70 years ago. That is the way life was. Something broke, you fixed it. People did not run out and buy a replacement. They do now. What happened? Have we gotten so lazy as a society that we would trade basic life skills for convenience? Apparently so.My grandparents repaired, mended, saved, reused, repurposed everything. My parents did not. Something was lost in translation between a generation. Without my parents practicing these basic skills I failed to learn them as well. Growing up in a disposable household I viewed my grandparent's ways as frugal and old fashioned. Instead I learned to be a consumer.
Make Do and Mend is definitely a challenge for me. As an adult with a family of my own I am just learning how to cook, sew, bake, garden, compost, save, sacrifice, be self-sufficient. I feel a bit as though I have been robbed of the fundamentals to survive. I can whip up a prepackaged meal from a box in minutes. Hole in you jeans? No problem. Lost a button? Forget about it. I know where we can get more. Fruits and vegetables come in plastic bags from the grocery store, don't they? Food waste, household waste, it is all waste. Throw it away! Save? Like money? Ha! I don't have enough to save any. And I am totally self-sufficient. I have a computer, car, cell phone, paycheck. I can get anything I need with those.
How is it that we take something so simple for granted? They do not teach this stuff in school folks! Please make sure your children have the skills they need in life. If they do not see you doing it, they may never learn. And their children will not learn and their children and so on. Break the cycle.
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4 comments:
I don't think it's that people have lost the ability to fix things it's that many times it's cheaper to purchase a replacement than it is to fix and mend what's broken.
For example, we need a replacement piece for a cordless drill. We found that it's more expensive to purchase the piece than it is to buy a whole new drill.
kim - I know what you are saying. It is unfortunate that replacing an item is cheaper than repairing it. I think this is part of the problem.
Items used to be built to last and sustain the test of time. Now they are mass produced using cheaper materials and cost less to buy.
From a monetary standpoint, sure it is cheaper to buy replacements, but it is sad that our disposable lifestyle comes at a huge environmental cost.
What she said! I'm about to retire my Cuisinart (after nearly twenty years of faithful service, mind); looked into having it repaired, but it would have cost almost as much as buying _two_ of the same model new. And for cheap equipment, you could buy a new one for less than the repair guy would charge just to diagnose the problem.
In the tech world, they talk about "the graying of knowledge"--the folks who know not only how but WHY things are work are retiring or dying, and any information they haven't passed on is being lost. I've been noticing something similar about certain practical skills, like repairing small appliances. And that blender guy's a bit tottery on his legs...
DSF
http://bokashislope.blogspot.com
Fixing broken items has been a way of life for me since I was little. My parents impressed upon me that I had to take care of my toys/stuff but sometimes things broke and they were either repaired or turned into something else (ex. pants with a hole in the knee became shorts.) I am fortunate to come from a family who's interested in tinkering, how things work, and making stuff. In fact, I have a group of family members who built an airplane just to see if they could (and yes, it flew!) Maybe that's why I don't find this idea of fixing things "new" and am amazed when others say "how did you come up with turning X into Y?" At least those projects give me something to write about! :)
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