Doesn't anybody fix anything any more?

[bUU]

Yup that makes sense, with one proviso. Here, that would have us all regularly dumping lots of extra work on one guy. I think at some point we need to be considerate of others enough to respect the boundaries of their job, and not punish people for being especially handy, especially people who don't know how to say 'no'.

[JoeP]

Some people will fall back on an excuse like, "I'm not mechanically inclined," but with sites like youtube and instrucables, you can find how-to instructions on nearly every subject. Most times, you can be intimidated by applying your limited skills to the unknown, but once known, that small amount of extra confidence can be very liberating.

I did this and was able to get more life out of a couple fridges, a couple ovens, a washing machine, a furnace, a small engine, and a couple other items that would have required a service call or replacement.

[bUU]

I could use the same logic applied to people who claim that they cannot fix their own Internet connections, or set up their own DD5.1 sound systems. We each have our own gifts; there aren't any gifts along the lines that we're talking about that everyone should naturally have, so labeling demurral as an "excuse" is wrong.

[disneysteve]

I could use the same logic applied to people who claim that they cannot fix their own Internet connections, or set up their own DD5.1 sound systems. We each have our own gifts; there aren't any gifts along the lines that we're talking about that everyone should naturally have, so labeling demurral as an "excuse" is wrong.

And just to be clear, I'm not saying the person involved should have fixed the hole punch. What bothered me was not even considering the possibility that it could be fixed. That's the mindset that annoys me. Everyone seems to treat everything as being disposable. Sometimes, it takes something as simple as a squirt of WD-40 to "fix" a broken item. When something breaks, at least entertain the concept that it is repairable, if not by you, possibly by someone else, and that repairing it might be way cheaper than replacing it.

[MelFallen]

Agreed!

I agree that people should try a little harder to fix things before deeming them broken. I wonder how much income you could save by not spending frivolously. Sure maybe a few minutes are spent off-task, but smokers get paid for those kinds of breaks all the time. I think it's worth a couple minutes to save on expenses that probably add up!

[disneysteve]

I think part of the problem is who is paying. Often, if someone else is picking up the tab, then people get the feeling of 'why bother fixing it, let's just replace it.' If it were coming out of their own pocket, then their response would likely be a little different.

I meant to comment on this earlier. You are absolutely right. People are much more willing to waste someone else's money. That bothers me too.

I'm not generally a wasteful person. It doesn't matter the setting. I'm going to be conscious of cost and waste in any setting, whether I'm paying or not.

I think people don't think about the fact that everything has a cost no matter who is paying, and that often that cost does eventually trickle down to affect them. If we throw out and replace a bunch of things unnecessarily, that raises our cost of doing business, and that affects our ability to give raises or bonuses to the staff.

[Ima saver]

My husband fixes everything. He so handy around the house. He can do almost everything except electronics! We never have to hire anyone!

[Gailete]

I think some people are just idiots and have no clue that things can be fixed because all they have seen is waste and they have always thrown money at problems. I never have had enough money to do that, so I throw my brain at problems. If I had been using the hole punch, I would have fixed it as well. I started doing this sort of thing in college. I was the RA's roommate (we will ignore the fact that the RA was never around to do her function) so I got the knocks on the door that toilet was plugged or a breaker had flipped. I was no different than these girls, yet I went and flipped the breaker and plunged the toilet. Really do people call a plumber every time they need their toilet plunged or wait for hubby to come home to do it? I got some valuable experience at college. I did the same thing when I was a charge nurse. Before I would ever call for maintenance, I would check out what wasn't working and more than once crawled under a hospital bed to find that the reason it wasn't working was because the plug was partially out.DUH! When something breaks I try to handle it. Unfortunately now I have to leave many things to hubby since arthritis has pulled a number on my hands. He thankfully fixes anything and everything around here. Things get fixed before we even think of buying.

I like your attitude Steve. You sound like a doctor I would like to have especially thinking of some of the jerks that I have run across over the years, including one that threw a chart across the nurses station because it didn't have a lab on that he wanted. Guess who had to put the chart back together? Who did he think would end up taking care of his temper tantrum?

[JoeP]

Some people don't bother repairing things because they say that "time equals money." This translates loosely into: "For the amount of time I spend trying to fix something, I could just go out and buy a new one."

Problem is, until you attack a problem, you have no idea how long it will take. So before you write off a situation as taking too much of your time, at least look at the problem and do a little research. You might find it is a simple mechanical problem, like the one disneysteve experienced, that can be fixed with nothing more that a minute of examination and a shot of wd-40.

[Gailete]

This translates loosely into: "For the amount of time I spend trying to fix something, I could just go out and buy a new one."

Problem is, until you attack a problem, you have no idea how long it will take.

In our electronic age this is part of the problem as everything is expected to be instant and when it isn't, it tends to 'take too long'. One of the things that I have noticed since I started having chronic health problems is how long it takes to do something. Estimate a household chore and then actually time yourself. Unless you picked clean the garage, most little chores don't take hardly any time at all. I have learned that if I am heating water in the microwave for 1:45 minutes, I can usually empty the whole dish-drainer, or sweep the kitchen floor, or stack the dishes in prepartion to wash them. If I had been asked I probably would have thought those jobs took 5 minutes or more. But less than 2 minutes isn't much time at all. Especially now as I found I can baely tolerate standing for more than 5 minutes so ALL all my chores have to take little bits of time to do and so I am finding out how little some jobs take!

So if you think it is quicker to go buy a new whatever, that is really wrong thinking, especially if you have to literally GO and buy one. Ordering on line is a different matter, but you still have to track an item down, compare costs, if at work maybe get a PO number or permission to order, etc. and then wait until it shows up. In the meantime for the example of the hole punch, a mound of paper might be stacking up that is going to take someone a lot of time to catch up punching holes in everything. Perception is everything!

[cypher1]

I always looked at fixing items as an educational standpoint to just understand the process of troubleshooting (I'm a nerd). Even if it takes me more time or even costs more to figure out, no one can take the learning experience away.

My dad says I'm mechanically inclined, I say BS since you have to start somewhere with no prior background. The difference between him and I is I'm too cheap and I have the motivation to try. I think a lot of people just don't want to "try" for fear of making things worse, etc.

At the same time, TIME definitely equals money. While I do my own oil change on cars, I completely understand if someone pays someone else more to do theirs. If they don't have the space, the tools, or confidence to get underneath their car for safety reasons, I don't blame them. Thats not including the cost of oil, and then disposal. Same for replacing my water water myself or going on my roof. I wouldn't expect everyone to be feel comfortable messing with gas lines (my self included) or run around the roof.

Now for some people I've dealt with, for them, changing own oil, plumbing, roof repair is no different than trying to figure out why their wireless is down at home. They don't want to mess with it and would rather pay someone to fix. For a lot of us, those may be extreme examples and then add the wifi problem. But then again, some people just don't want to deal with it directly, or think about it.

[bUU]

Perhaps I'm reading too much into what's being written, and it is clear that tone come through online very well, but it seems to me that I'm reading an awful lot of rationalizations for condemning the choices other people make. I find such prejudicial appraisals of others to be a far greater concern to me than the moderate form of waste that is being discussed. I think there must be a way of promoting the value of one's own personal talents, skills and inclinations without back-handedly condemning those who don't have such talents, skills or inclinations.

[Gailete]

I find such prejudicial appraisals of others to be a far greater concern to me than the moderate form of waste that is being discussed. I think there must be a way of promoting the value of one's own personal talents, skills and inclinations without back-handedly condemning those who don't have such talents, skills or inclinations.

Our local paper had an article yesterday of all the things that can no longer be put in the landfill garbage dump. I don't know whether this is country, state or nation wide, but the list of things that can no longer be put out for the trash is HUGE! If at all possible, people are going to need to try to fix things starting now or else they have to try to figure out what to do with all the old worn out electrical equipment of any kind, even an old can opener. So it will be easier to see if there is a reason your electric can opener or coffee pot isn't working, because it will be far harder to find a place to dispose of them. What may seem to be 'moderate' waste is now clogging our country. People no longer really have the choice of trying to fix or just buying another one. I've had toasters that stopped working. Amazingly enough once you clean out the crumb thingy, it works again, but how many toasters ended up in the dump due to lack of that simple bit of maintenance? I don't think it is prejudicial to mention these things. Especially as this is a Saving Advice forum, what is more saving than fixing something to avoid buying a new one? If this were a forum on How to Spend My Millions, then by all means they should be tossing out everything and buying new. But perhaps my concept of this site is wrong. People learn skills only with practice, they grow their talents by practice, and if on this site I would think they have the inclination to save money as well and that takes practice by learning savings techniques.


Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. I was raised up under that saying by a depression era mother. It is also a logical idea, a way to save and good for our earth (incidently I'm not a tree hugger).

I don't see this thread as a put down to others but as a call to arms to say yes you can try to fix and mend and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to do so.

[bUU]

If at all possible, people are going to need to try to fix things starting now or else they have to try to figure out what to do with all the old worn out electrical equipment of any kind, even an old can opener.

There is little doubt that society will need to discover new ways of handling its detritus. Already, here, we have provisions in place that have motivated big box stores to open recycling centers for any device with a printed circuit-board, and for batteries. Over the last few months I've dropped off at least a half dozen old devices, including a computer we bought in 1995 and our last non-digital television which finally gave up its grasp on life. Nearby towns charge for pickup of appliances that they used to take away gratis, ensuring an adequate revenue stream to support responsible reclamation of what could be reclaimed and proper handling of the remainder.

Indeed, we can view this as a new growth industry. Technology has caused productivity to skyrocket, very sharply and consistently, in this country, over the last several decades, resulting in fewer good jobs and strong downward pressure on the economy because so many people have so much less discretionary spending. The answer to that problem, of course, is to also capitalize on technology to create new jobs, such as innovating ways to reclaim and properly handle waste, and also in the physical work of reclamation and handling.

The goal of business cannot be to reduce the number of jobs in the economy - which, if taken alone, would be the impact of increasing productivity. So productivity increases must naturally be accompanied by new ways of making use of the labor that the productivity makes unnecessary (either through new productive use or through increased leisure).

I've had toasters that stopped working. Amazingly enough once you clean out the crumb thingy, it works again, but how many toasters ended up in the dump due to lack of that simple bit of maintenance?

I doubt anyone is talking about that kind of maintenance. The discussion would be trivialized if that is what we were talking about.

I don't think it is prejudicial to mention these things. Especially as this is a Saving Advice forum, what is more saving than fixing something to avoid buying a new one?

And as an idea, "fixing what you are able to fix" is a great idea. That's not all that was being said, though. The idea of saving money by fixing things is great - everyone is for that - but it needs to be tempered with respect for those who don't because of the reasons outlined above.

[disneysteve]

I've had toasters that stopped working. Amazingly enough once you clean out the crumb thingy, it works again, but how many toasters ended up in the dump due to lack of that simple bit of maintenance?

I doubt anyone is talking about that kind of maintenance. The discussion would be trivialized if that is what we were talking about.

Actually, to at least some extent, that's exactly what we're talking about. Look at my original example with the hole punch. All the thing needed was a tap with a hammer and a squirt of oil and voila, it worked perfectly fine, but my assistant was all set to toss it in the trash and buy a new one.

I can think of multiple simiar examples where someone at home or work was all set to trash something that I was able to fix in a snap.