zwepAustin, TX
“Repair and reuse should never go out of favor, just another form of conservation”
zwep's Blog
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I guess I'm not the target audience for most retailers (Sears and Kmart included), since I prefer to buy items that can readily be repaired. That doesn't mean things that don't break down at all; though I'm certainly for reasonably reliable goods, don't want things always breaking down, and certainly don't always feel like fixing something that chronically goes bad. However I do thing things should be designed with an eye towards keeping them going rather than just disposing of them when they break; too many items either don't have spare parts available or are simply too flimsy or poorly designed so that you either can't fix them or always are in need of repair; I'd rather not buy anything than something of that nature. Also, I tend to buy a lot of parts mail-order simply because I can't find them available at all in local stores, however one thing I love about Sears is their online parts catalogs with blow-up diagrams of appliances, lawn mowers, etc...it really helps you to fix them.
I'll admit that sometimes I'll overdo this and try to fix things that should be left alone, mostly realizing that I don't have endless amounts of time available to me and there's dubious return on my time investment. For example, rather than throw out a broken flashlight last night I was trying to repair several that went bad on me (some had burnt-out bulbs); I've even been known to repair my old Sony Betamax recorder (not only once...three times!)...but partly I learn how these things are put together when I do this; it keeps my hand in things and familiarizes me with approaches taken these things are designed.
Posted on Nov 03, 2008