I'm terrible about replacing old things, or perhaps, on the flip side, I'm good at making things last.
For years, I had this ice scraper in my car. Actually I had it in my last car way back into high school. Now understand that there is nothing at all special about this ice scraper. It's teal plastic and probably cost $3 at the local hardware store. At some point in undergrad, the brush part of it came off, so for at least 6 years, it's been literally nothing but a scraper. You would think I would have spent the $5 to replace it years ago, but I didn't. I've managed. Just this past weekend I finally broke down and bought a new scraper (complete with a brush) and just in time for the snow we got today.
I still have the stereo my high school boyfriend bought me when I turned 16. That will be 11 years ago next week. The amazing thing is that it still works - the radio, the CD player, the tape player - all of it works. Every once in a while, it gets crabby with me and won't play some of the really new CDs, but I can't quite justify getting rid of it since it works the majority of the time.
My alarm clock is the one I bought my freshman year of college 9 years ago. It still works, but the case is separating at the seams just a bit and the plastic on the back is yellowing from being in the sun. I know it wouldn't cost much to replace it, but hey, it still wakes me up in the morning.
Don't get me wrong, I love shopping and buying new things probably more than most other people, but sometimes I just can't justify replacing something just because it's older and looking a bit shabby. Today we live in a culture that is so easily seduced by the next new, shiny thing that we justify buying the new thing instead of fixing the old one. Imagine how much less stuff would be in junk yards and landfills if we made an effort to fix the things that are old instead of trashing them for something new.
Maybe part of it is that things aren't made to last like they used to. Cell phones are only designed to last for 2 years. A computer that's 5 years old (like mine) is a dinosaur by today's standards. The new technologies aren't always compatible with older technologies (see CD player example). I wonder sometimes if this flood of new products will stop at some point. Sometimes I think it might be nice if it did.
6 comments:
Was freshman year really NINE years ago? Are we getting old? I wonder how long ago I got my alarm clock... I love it to death and its starting to fritz out on me...
You'd get along great with my father-in-law. He told me last night that he thought they were going to have to get a new dishwasher but he got out the service manual and fixed the 13-year-old one instead. He managed to keep a toaster toasting for 30+ years too (until one daughter decided to buy them a new one so she could toast bagels)
Like the way you think Melissa... my current alarm clock is going on year 16 and can wake me up just as well as a new one could.
I once wrote a paper on the "disposable" society which we are becoming. Goods are not made as well as they once were and technological advances are forcing us to adopt the new trend. What happened to being able to buy things that would last for generations? I understand it from a business perspective, but it's really frustrating. I prefer holding on to the old.
Great post, Melissa. It's so true what are you saying about nowadays society, sometimes it makes me sick to see the waste, the consumerism, the shallowness... What is happening to us??
If you can make your things last longer, it's like giving yourself a raise.
Raises are always good. :)
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