Card of the Day - 2022-07-26

Here we have a spot of home repair. I doubt that a lumberjack would have mended his axe with wire and still been able to fell the mighty forest, but he could have still used it for trimming smaller branches.

At home, and in our gardens, it ought to be easy to make repairs and continue to use things, as it used to be in the time of this card, and it was common practise to do so, hence the series of Household Hints and Garden Hints.

The problem was the arrival of electronic gadgets, which are sometimes unable to be mended, and have no other use if they are broken. There may not seem to be a solution to this, because they are definitely easy to use, lighter, and quicker. However, there is a way around this, and that is to hire the larger equipment from one of the hire clubs which are springing up all over. There is almost certainly one near you. In London there is a scheme called The Library of Things and it now has ten locations; you simply get the urge to make pasta and hire a pasta machine, then return it afterwards. Think of the things in your home that you maybe look at once a week and think of the space they will make if you had only hired them - and investigate when something breaks.

By the way most Currys stores will accept small broken electrical items and make sure they are reused even if only as parts for training, the other parts are also disposed of ethically, and there is no charge if you can take them to the store and give them in at the counter.

And if you live outside London, have a look at fat llama which is an online network of things to hire.