Major corporations are encouraging you to throw away – everything – and buy the latest thing. In fact many are actively making things more difficult to repair so they can make more money. Behind the scenes that translates to millions of wasted devices and customers paying more than necessary again and again. Millions of tonnes of waste shipped around the world, child and adult exploitation in developing countries and a lot of rich CEOs.

But in make or repair we see things differently. There is no need to spend hard earned cash when what we have could keep seriving us well for years to come. All we need to do is think first about maintenance and repair instead of spending on new

One of the favourite Make or Repair videos is demonstrating how to change the battery in an electric toothbrush. There are plenty of valid reasons to buy a new one, but the battery wearing out shouldn’t be one of them!

Sometimes people comment on make or repair videos with words like “following your instructions”. But that’s not really the aim of make or repair – really it is about encouraging people to either try for themselves or to get help – a mindset that is not about shopping! That said I’m always overjoyed to find out that someone has been inspired to roll up their sleeves and fixing something

The principle behind the shooting of each video is the idea of me tackling a challenge of my own, and sharing the experience of doing that. Whether it be making, repairing, learning, or trying out some new tool.

You may wonder what happens with the things repaired and created. Well many of the items repaired are for friends and family, the odd charity case or paying customer. Some however are purchased or scrounged for the experience of returning them to life, these may be sold on or kept for ongoing use, a small proportion go to charity. The money from sales recycles into funding further make or repair work.

Sadly not everything can be repaired. Some of the repairs demonstrated are really beyond economic repair, or just oo badyly damaged, but that matters less when you do your own repairs and enjoy doing it. I often show the excessivly tedious repair anyway. But sometimes it just gets taken apart for spares.

And yes I have a lot of spares…

And in conclusion..

Repairing and making, wheter that be electronics, pottery, or any other discipline is a worthwhile and fullfilling. I enjoy both the activity itself, the learning I gain from it, and sharing the experience with other people.

There is nothing wrong buying new things because you want them, I certainly do so, but when did we stop seeing if they could be fixed?

what’s the worst that can happen if you try and fix it!
It’s already broken!