I hate the way the world has become a society in love with throwing things away. If it doesn’t work the first choice is the trash can. If it’s just not as fancy and full featured its trash can bound. At what point did the spark to tinker dwindle. What will happen when the systems of support fail and the option of buying the newer, bigger and better don’t exists?
I did not grow up with tons of money so the upgrade obsession did not affect me until I was out on my own. I got pulled into the have to have the shiny new toy habit for a bit. I finally wised up and managed to do so with no debt. I saw the stupidity of buying the new phone, fastest computer and i-whatever. I returned to my roots of fixing it up and making it last.
Last year my George foreman grill just stopped working one day. My first response was to start working through some troubleshooting on it. When plugged up there was no heat and the power light wasn’t on. I tried another outlet to see if there was power getting to it. No luck on a new working electrical outlet. At this time I checked the power cord for damage. It had none visible damage so I moved on to opening it up. Once inside I saw the problem. Through the slot in the top to turn the heat sector water had got in and caused a short. The wires were quick connects and one end was unconnected and burned. I had a broken vacuum that I was keeping around for parts and it had a spare connector on it. So for no money and a few minutes my Foreman Grill was back working and has worked perfectly since then. Had I thrown it out I would have been easily out $30. I have many things I’d rather spend money on than replacing broken items that can be fixed.
I strongly believe that the tradition of fixing and keeping things working will make a comeback in the decades to come. As times become tough keeping things working and not replacing them will take priority. Start to tinker now. If your going to throw something away anyway take it apart and try to figure out why its not working and if you can fix it. Trust me you will love the pride of know you fixed something and you wallet will thank you.
Do you have the tinkering spirit? Do you fix your appliances and cars? Let me know what you’ve fixed in the comments
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