That's right folks- I am once again being a radical- The three "R"s are just too convenient for all of us. Recycle, Reduce, and Reuse are just fine for getting around day by day, but whatever happened to Repair?
I am a big fan of Mr. (and Ms.) Repair. One of my hobbies is lamps. I have saved a ton of money buying old lamps and making new lamps out of them. Also I hate to buy new clothes when the ones I have are good enough. So I mend the ones I got. Of course it helps that Home-Ec was a requirement for guys when I was in Junior High.
Repairing things helps keep them out of the waste stream. I like this as much as Re-using items.And it is like having something new! I have kept my very efficient car around for years simply buy repairing things that go out.
And repair can be used for Gift giving too. If you are so enabled offer to repair someones car, or mend some clothing or do some home repair. It will be a most appreciated gift.
Start out small- start by repairing the buttons on a jacket, shirt or sweater. Get a new button at a sewing store if you have none. The best thing to do is keep the button that fell off. Simply sew it back on. This is so easy to do! And it saves you at least 9.99 at Sears for a new shirt! I put at stop at darning socks, since I use the old sock for dusting, cleaning etc. But I could If I had to!
My latest "repair" re-fabbing a tent trailer that has been sitting around here for 2 years. I need to put the body on a new trailer chassis, replace the tent canvass and a few other jobs, The cool thing? This trailer has been around since 1960, can be made as good as new and very little goes into the waste stream, including the waste from making a new trailer.
So let's say I would rather repair something old than buy something new. But then that's me!
3 comments:
It is hard to believe this... since I am just 40 but I actually learned how to darn socks when I was younger. Why you ask? Because when we got holes in our socks we didn't get new socks (that sounds rather radical now doesn't it? - back then I thought it was ordinary). We had to actually darn the hole in our socks and keep on wearing them.
Ok... feeling a little prehistoric now.
Oh, I wore the leg off a really old alluminum collendar this summer. We saved the leg and Mr. Greenjeans repaired it by drilling a hole in it fitting it back on the leg.
I've thought about blogging that.
Rob, of course!!! Why didn't I think of that, with my growing list of repairs!!! You're brilliant! Now I just have to figure out how to actually DO the repairs...that's the fun part.
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