A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 21 – Self-Starter
November 23, 2020
“Make do and mend” is Fiona Ferris’s title for Day 21 in her book, 30 Chic Days at Home. She writes that the activity of doing a small “fix-it” task lifts her mood. She likes the sense of control that it gives her to be able to make a small improvement or come up with a creative work-around to an issue.
I used to think that dropping an item of clothing off with a tailor or at the dry-cleaners was the easiest thing to do when I found a small tear or loose button. I hated waiting around all day for a service person to come look at a leaky faucet or washing machine that seemed on the blink (I still do!) But then one day, I started counting the pennies and the even more precious minutes (& hours) that I was spending on getting simple things done. After I saw a dishing washing repair man jiggle the water tube to the dishwasher to fix a “low water” error light and then charge me over a $100 for the gift of waiting around all day for him to arrive, well, I decided that I could slide the dishwasher out from the wall and jiggle the flexible water pipe into the machine myself BEFORE I called the repair place. The trips to the drycleaners and the alterationist for simple things (and remembering when everyone was open) felt too high maintenance and time consuming.
I can sew on a button or mend a small tear myself. I can also look up a mchine error message on the internet and see if there is anything that I could do myself to fix what might be a simple problem. I’ve felt much happier doing little things myself. First of all, the task usually turns out to be completed very easily (without spending any money) and second of all, something can be accomplished on my schedule rather than me waiting around on other people.
During Frances last lockdown (in Spring of 2020), the washing machine in my apartment kept hiccuping during the wash cycle and would never get hot during the “dry” cycle. It was a full national lockdown so there were no service repair shops that were even open. My husband and I looked up the error codes online and pulled the machine out to see if something was loose in the back. We managed to keep the machine working all through the lockdown so at least we had clean clothes (we just had to hang them all about the apartment to dry.)
After “deconfinement” (end of lockdown), we had both an electricity service person and then a plumber come out to lay hands on the washing machine. It turns out that the spigot to the pipe that fed water into the machine was faulty and needed to be replaced. I’m fine with having someone come replace plumbing components. I was happy to pay for the service and get a “fixed” machine. I’m also happy that we took a little bit of time and were able to keep the machine working well enough until more knowledgeable help could arrive. Maybe I am not quite the quitessential pioneer woman single-handedly running a cattle ranch and shooting pesky rustlers in my spare time. (I think that real pioneer women might laugh at my modern concept of self-reliance!) But we all feel more in charge of our own lives when we can pull out a few core life skills and fix smal, irritating things to our our liking and on our own schedule.
