{The New Home Ec} Fix It or Trash It? When to Throw Away or Keep Your Stuff

We’ve become a throwaway society: something isn’t working right, and our first instinct is to replace it altogether.

But, there are a lot of things around the house that could be repaired just as easily — and for a lot less money.

That’s why we still have the “temporary” dining room table my parents gave us when we moved in here 10 years ago. Instead of replacing the entire set when the chairs began falling apart, we have made a few minor adjustments. First, we upholstered the dying chairs. We finally did replace the chairs when but have kept the perfectly functional table.

We have been using a tablecloth to hide the imperfections on the tabletop. (Bonus: update your kitchen with an inexpensive linen purchase.)

The decision to repair or replace depends on several factors — your personal finances at the time, the difficulty level or cost of a repair, the age of the item, and how often you actually use it in the first place.

If money is tight, I’m more likely to fix it myself. If the repair costs almost as much as a replacement, I’m going to just get a new one. And, if it’s not something I use often in the first place, I’ll either make do or get rid of it altogether.

Check out a few tips for the broken stuff in your house on Babble.com…