I feel a rant coming on.
Long before I joined The Compact almost two years ago, I hated waste of all kinds, but especially in the form of large items headed for the landfill. I could identify with Andie McDowell’s character in the movie Sex, Lies, and Videotape way back in the late ’80s, who worried about where all the trash would go. Of course, I know where it’s going, and I worry about that too (to poor areas that don’t have the resources to fight it, to other countries, etc.).
So when I shared this post last year about our Mini Kitchen Remodel, I was thrilled with our beautiful kitchen and happy that due to my husband’s hard work and talents the cost was super-reasonable. But I was just as excited that we had managed to send absolutely nothing to the landfill, including a stained avocado-green sink that was given away on freecycle, and the hideous cabinet handles that we sold on ebay.
Earlier this month, our 7-year-old microwave oven died, and the fact that despite all of our best efforts, it ended up being picked up by the city as trash makes me both mad and sad.
My husband is a fantastic do-it-yourselfer/handyman. He’s a lot of other things that he’d rather be known for, but the fact remains that he is great at doing projects around the house, some of which are quite complicated. He’s curious, and he’s a researcher and a problem-solver, plus he’s good with his hands. Finally, we don’t have the money to pay someone else to do the work for us.
He has repaired washing machines, dishwashers, coffee makers, and various other appliances. And when something needs to be replaced, we either sell or give away the old model. Until the microwave. Of course my husband first checked all the obvious solutions, like a power surge, etc. and when that didn’t work he called a repairman to our house instead of just getting rid of the microwave. The plan was to see if it could be repaired, and if so how much it would cost. If the price was too high, we would sell or give it away.
What happened was: the repairman came, we paid $30 for a “diagnosis,” and then he said he couldn’t tell what was wrong without taking the microwave down from where it was installed. So after my husband spent the next day taking it down, the repairman came back, took the microwave apart, and found out the part we needed (basically the computer that runs it), would cost $150. He also told us that since the machine was already 7 years old, it might not last much longer! I couldn’t believe that, because up until last year when he fell and broke his hip, my grandfather still had a microwave in his house from the 1970s that he used every day to heat his TV dinners. Anyway, apparently they don’t make them to last anymore, and so it’s cheaper to just replace them. My husband had already priced a new microwave that matched our other stainless steel appliances for $250. Why would we pay another $150 to repair something that might not last more than another year?
On top of all that, now that the repairman had the microwave scattered in a hundred parts across the floor, it was basically useless to even try to give away. So my husband gathered it up, put it on the curb, and called the city to pick it up as trash.
It makes me very unhappy that my husband put in so much energy with this result. What happened to the idea of reusing and repairing? Are things too cheap? Where are we headed with all this cheaply-made, disposable crap? Please share your thoughts about planned obsolescence in the Comments section.
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