Fix up, trash less.

I once threw a perfectly good because I could not be bothered to wash it.

I am not proud of this action. I can’t remember exactly what I was cooking, but I remember justifying the decision to myself. Whatever I had cooked was particularly burned on. I had left it a few days and so it was dried on too. It had gone a bit mouldy. The pan was ruined anyway.

None of this should justify trashing a perfectly good piece of equipment to landfill. It wasn’t ruined. It was an example of of my own laziness and thoughtlessness.

I believe that we all have certain blind-spots when it comes to using our material belongings in a way that is appreciative of the time and resources that have gone into creating them.

Or more frankly, I don’t think we look after our stuff enough.

At any one time in fact, there is a graveyard of items in our house that have run out of batteries and are therefore left unused in a cupboard, one step from the trash.

There are bits of furniture that have perhaps become a bit worn, been moved from one room to another, eventually finding a spot in an inoffensive corner, just awaiting the cross-hairs of the next decluttering.

There are gadgets that might have a simple loose wire or crack, that instead of being investigated or taped up are relegated to a box in the garage — a fading memory that will be replaced by a shinier new model in due course.

We have the ambition of donating items, but somehow we have convinced ourselves that others will also not see the value in a cracked torch, a digital radio missing an aerial, a well-worn chair.

But most things that are broken, can be fixed. Most things that are worn, can be spruced. Most things that are not useful to us anymore, will be useful to someone else. We can all fix more, upcycle more, repurpose more, and trash less.

We have started with furniture, and I think it proves that anyone can do this, with a little patience and maybe a little help from You Tube.

Furniture is also very relevant to because like many, we have moved house a few times in our lives. Where once our lives separately fit into a backpack, then the back of a medium sized hatchback car, then together a van, now we have accumulated enough material belongings to fill a family home, a shed, a garage, and a loft-space. This has happened somehow without trying.

We also did try not to accumulate. My parents have our old TV, a friend took an old sofa, there have been trips to charity shops, clothes banks, all with the aim of trying to appreciate more the things we have.

Still the mountain grows.

So we’ve decided to start again.

We moved every piece of furniture that does not fit perfectly in our house to a separate place (the garage). It is not a big pile, perhaps between five and ten large items. We have begun to work through it all and see what we can re-use, what we can donate and what might be useful to others. The pandemic has not helped this, and in a world where some people do not have enough to eat or have any furniture or belongings at all, the growing concept of discarding things that don’t ‘bring us joy’ sounds materialistic and vain — but a beginning is a beginning. In the future we can buy more timelessly and carefully.

After this, we have started with a small project, which also happens to be a small chair.

It had already been donated to us by parents, and so was already on its second or third life, which you could tell because it had already had a few new coats of peeling paint. It is a well-built, solid wood chair — but this cosmetic scruffiness would have previously made it a very likely candidate for decluttering.

So instead of relegating it — I have tidied up the peeling paint with a piece of sandpaper, and by using old wall paint to make it the same colour as the bedroom walls, I have gained a great new chair for a dressing table.

Next, we took an old bedside table that we have always loved, but have never quite found a new purpose for. We always had an idea in mind underneath a table, but it was always too tall to fit. It sat in our room, then moved to another room, then moved behind a door because we kept falling over it, and finally was relegated to the ‘garage’ pile.

For this piece of furniture, all it required was to take a saw to the legs, and instead of being too tall for the spot we intended, was now the perfect size.

This all took less than an evening. In fact, it took less time to do than to watch a hour’s highlights package from the weekend’s football — I know this because I watched it on the computer whilst carrying out the task.

Life can be so pressurised, and move so fast, that you don’t see a solution that is right in front of you. The easiest path, and the one of least resistance, is to take something that is perfectly good — but that you have lost interest in, and throw it into a big hole in the ground.

It is out of sight, buried, and perhaps after a short feeling of guilt, out of mind. But it has not gone away — it has simply become someone else’s problem. Someone else has to figure out how to destroy it, or where to put it until it naturally disappears, which depending on what it is made of can be a long, long time.

With a small amount of time and a sprinkle of resolve, all that was needed in our case was to repaint one item, and remove five centimetres from each leg of another item — and instead of creating a problem we have created a solution.

I would have to admit that the job I have done on these items, is perhaps not craftsman quality, but there is a definite feeling of pride that I have made this planetwise choice, and have the resolve to continue to reinforce this good habit with our furniture, and apply it to every item that seemingly is destined to be decluttered or hidden away in a cupboard. It has also given us energy and creativity to see what else we can do.

We are just individuals, but through having more care for what we have, we can make a big impact. Stuff can be fixed, or there are even solutions such as eBay, which are dedicated in many ways to keeping existing physical goods in circulation rather than losing them to trash or to the attic. Second hand stores are enjoying a renaissance, charity stores have become spacious troves for art-deco treasure and collectible vinyl and art rather than the dusty retirement home of tweed jackets and bric-a-brac.

It is a big psychological step and habit to begin to think in a less disposable way about our belongings, but I think many of us are guilty of replacing rather than fixing, and of buying mass produced faux antiques instead of taking something that is already made and giving it a new life.

Finally, as much as I am ashamed of past behaviours, I am now proud that when something in our son’s life stops working, the first reaction in his three-year-old mind is to reach for his toy toolbox, or suggest we change the batteries, rather than turn away and accept that he must play with or use something else. To find the joy in taking something broken, and trying to fix it, has become as satisfying and as much of a game as playing with the item in the first place.

I don’t know when I stopped caring. Sometimes it is seen as a generational thing, that somehow a Boomer generation ruined it all. But I remember my parents insisting that I take care of my toys, that I look after my football boots, and remember shopping at second-hand stores for school blazers. It has always been there.

I think the habit has crept in individually to us all, regardless of age or generation. It is up to us individually to correct it, rather than generations blaming each other.

We will always need to replace things, but perhaps we can also rediscover the power of a set of screwdrivers, a coat of paint, or some insulating tape.

For an extended version of this post, please check out the Planetwise Pod!

https://player.acast.com/planetwise-pod/episodes/week-7-i-will-fix-more-and-trash-less