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If your kettle’s bust would you try to fix it?

Most of us don't even attempt to repair broken kettles or toasters. Pictures: Pixabay
Most of us don't even attempt to repair broken kettles or toasters. Pictures: Pixabay

When I was young if something went wrong with an electrical item my dad wouldn’t stick it in the bin.

He would do what most people did back then and sit at the kitchen table with his toolbox, tinkering with the kettle or toaster in the hope of bringing it back to life. On many occasions, all the appliance needed was a new fuse.

Nowadays, if a kettle packs up, most people would give up on it within seconds and race out to buy a new one. They wouldn’t even attempt to find out what was wrong with it. I’m guilty of that myself, having recently bought a new iron when the old one stopped working. I’d had it for four or five years and thought its time was up; I didn’t even check the plug.

Because such goods are so readily available and cheap, we think nothing of ditching them. We don’t consider prolonging their life by actually trying to fix them.

Hopefully, that is changing. Instead of buying new gadgets, a movement of volunteers wants people to repair their old ones to save them from landfill.

Repair centres, where people can learn to fix small electrical and electronic appliances, have been springing up across the UK.

Broken toasters, lamps, laptops, kettles and heaters are among the items that people are being taught to fix by others with electrical know-how.

I’d love to sign up for one of these sessions. Fixing things brings immense satisfaction. I once mended my former neighbour’s lawnmower after looking up the make and problem online. My neighbour was in his late eighties and of the generation that refused to acknowledge that women were capable of such things. I was amused later on to hear him telling another neighbour that my husband - who wasn’t even there and played no part in it - had solved the problem. Despite the lack of backslapping, I was really chuffed to have done it.

Online videos are very useful, but they are no substitute to being taught how to fix things in person. My sister and I wrestled long and hard using online instruction to fit a new belt on my dad’s vacuum cleaner, to no avail. A kindly man in the local DIY shop showed us how in less than a minute.

Never mind extra maths and English, these are the sorts of skills kids should be taught in school.

Despite recycling centres, where broken electrical and electronic goods can be deposited, a huge amount of waste ends up in landfill and even more ends up abroad, ultimately polluting someone else’s country. It’s a disgrace, and we should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing such practices to go on.

Throwing away less would not solve the problems - more radical solutions are needed on a global scale - but it would be a start.

Anyone who grew up in the war years must balk at today’s throwaway habits.

Back then it was all about ‘Make Do and Mend’. In the Second World War the phrase was used on the cover of a British Ministry of Information pamphlet giving women thrifty tips on reusing old clothing.

The advice may have applied to fashion, but the ‘make do and mend’ mentality of wartime and the immediate post-war years, extended to all areas of life, whether food or household appliances.

An updated version of Make Do and Mend was published in the noughties, offering similar frugal advice for 21st century citizens.

With the cost of living rising and families desperate to save cash, being able to save money by repairing broken items makes sense. Let’s hope the move takes off.