DIY doesn’t only apply to frustrating flatpack furniture or fixing your dripping tap, it applies to anything that you do or fix yourself.

It could be anything from fixing your faulty washing machine, washing your own car or decorating your house to giving yourself a facial, teaching yourself a new skill or exercising at home.

Doing it yourself means that you don’t need anyone to do the job for you and that can apply to just about anything!

Learning new things

DIY means that you’re willing to learn. You don’t look at something broken and instantly replace it. You look at how you can repair it by watching videos, talking in forums or working out what else you can do with it. This is likely how you deal with personal situations too. You don’t just sit back and take it, you’ll do everything you can to change it instead!

The value of things

In the modern “throw-away” society that we find ourselves in, the value of items gets lost in a sea of new things, usually with a lot more gadgets and add ons than the one we already own. For those that want to repair rather than replace, this shows a commitment to caring for what you already have instead of always wanting more.

Caring for the environment

New things mean throwing away old ones and that can only mean one thing, landfill! Unless items are recyclable, many appliances and other electrical goods end their lives in landfill which has a huge impact on our environment. So, if you’re a repairer, an upcycler or you don’t stand for the word ‘broken’, then you have a care for helping to protect our world.

Teaching the new generation

At the fear of sounding like our parents or grandparents, maybe it was better back in the day! Years ago people would look after their things, ensure that they lasted and even pass these down through generations. We need to instil that in the future generation and help them understand that ‘new’ isn’t always good.

Helping others

DIY and repairing both play a part in helping each other. If you’ve passed on a bit of advice on how best to clean your oven, given some top gardening tips to a neighbour or shared with a work colleague how you got your old jewellery looking like new again, then you care about your community and the people around you.

Building a community

Repairing, upcycling and building can be a hobby too of course. And this means that you can see the beauty in something that is broken, vision what it could look like with a bit of TLC or you look for things you could create from scratch. DIYers are very alike and they love to share their information with others. Many meet on forums,join repair cafes or follow social media pages for inspiration. A community of people who don’t just like to DIY, but share it, help others and get new ideas.

DIY is not just about fixing, it’s about having the courage, the care and the motivation to want to help others, change the way we do things and create something we can pass down through generations, whether this be an item, a skill or a way of living. That’s how we can all help to create a kinder, more caring community.

Tags: Community, DIY, Fix it Yourself