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repair | |
February 03rd, 2020 | |
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Jan posted recently [0] about the awesomeness of fixing stuff. It | |
was timely for me since I've been on a bit of a repair renaissance | |
here. | |
[0] jan - on fixing stuff | |
When we moved to Iceland I knew it was going to be problematic | |
finding some things, especially specialty parts and quality goods. | |
In the midst of that dawning situation I was also staring at my | |
hobbies filling multiple rooms, offices, the basement and garage. | |
We were moving from a very large 5-bedroom home to a cozy | |
apartment. If I wanted to keep active on a hobby, I thought, then | |
it should serve a purpose and fit in our space. | |
I love waterproof, locking, stackable containers. I have a bunch | |
of the 20 gallon ones that we use in the move and in storage (no | |
worries about flooding!). I have smaller ones that stack and sit | |
on an industrial metal shelf beside my office desk. In each of | |
these containers is a hobby. That's the space I give them, | |
generally. Flutes all fit in one with the music books. All my | |
electronics fit in another. All my spinning tools, accessories, | |
and fiber in a 3rd (the wheel itself is a special exception). Our | |
hand-tools and sharpening stones fit in a 4th. Everything in its | |
place. | |
I also debated on bringing my 3D printer to Iceland since it | |
seemed extraneous and extravagant, but later decided it would be | |
useful to 3-D print parts that were hard to source in-country. | |
So now that I've been living with this stuff for 7 months, how is | |
it working? Well, I've done more sewing by hand here in Iceland | |
than I did at home with a machine and a full room dedicated to it. | |
I'm constantly repairing the kid's clothes, creating stuffed | |
animals, toys, sleeves for tools, and so on. I 3D printed sturdy | |
handles for our shopping bags since we walk to-and-from the market | |
a kilometer twice a week. My wife's chromebook's touchpad stopped | |
working this week and I opened it all up, cleaned everything, | |
re-seated leads, and it's like new. I'm even spinning wool | |
regularly now! | |
Maintaining things is a joy. Fixing them up and not wasting money | |
on new things means more freedom from work. We can subsist on | |
lower incomes and spend more time enjoying life this way. The | |
world has less waste. My hobbyist yearnings are itched. Life is | |
good. | |
Now if I could find a reliable tabletop RPG group, life would be | |
perfect! |