---------------------------------------- repair February 03rd, 2020 ---------------------------------------- Jan posted recently [0] about the awesomeness of fixing stuff. It was timely for me since I've been on a bit of a repair renaissance here. (DIR) [0] jan - on fixing stuff When we moved to Iceland I knew it was going to be problematic finding some things, especially specialty parts and quality goods. In the midst of that dawning situation I was also staring at my hobbies filling multiple rooms, offices, the basement and garage. We were moving from a very large 5-bedroom home to a cozy apartment. If I wanted to keep active on a hobby, I thought, then it should serve a purpose and fit in our space. I love waterproof, locking, stackable containers. I have a bunch of the 20 gallon ones that we use in the move and in storage (no worries about flooding!). I have smaller ones that stack and sit on an industrial metal shelf beside my office desk. In each of these containers is a hobby. That's the space I give them, generally. Flutes all fit in one with the music books. All my electronics fit in another. All my spinning tools, accessories, and fiber in a 3rd (the wheel itself is a special exception). Our hand-tools and sharpening stones fit in a 4th. Everything in its place. I also debated on bringing my 3D printer to Iceland since it seemed extraneous and extravagant, but later decided it would be useful to 3-D print parts that were hard to source in-country. So now that I've been living with this stuff for 7 months, how is it working? Well, I've done more sewing by hand here in Iceland than I did at home with a machine and a full room dedicated to it. I'm constantly repairing the kid's clothes, creating stuffed animals, toys, sleeves for tools, and so on. I 3D printed sturdy handles for our shopping bags since we walk to-and-from the market a kilometer twice a week. My wife's chromebook's touchpad stopped working this week and I opened it all up, cleaned everything, re-seated leads, and it's like new. I'm even spinning wool regularly now! Maintaining things is a joy. Fixing them up and not wasting money on new things means more freedom from work. We can subsist on lower incomes and spend more time enjoying life this way. The world has less waste. My hobbyist yearnings are itched. Life is good. Now if I could find a reliable tabletop RPG group, life would be perfect!