I like #fixing things and have since I was a kid. Friends and relatives give me #broken things, I mostly try to give them back #working things. It's fun, it can be a challenge, and sometimes you learn something new, which is exciting.

I #volunteer at my local #Repair Cafe. It started up a year or so ago, and I joined it when I heard about it a few months later. Now I get to fix things in "real time", no advance planning, and an audience! Well, 90% of the time it's fine.

Over the years I've heard numerous comments from people that "Oh, I'd like to be able to fix things" or "I don't know how to do that" or the more direct question "How do you learn to fix stuff?"

There isn't a big "secret" to it. It's simple.

1. Take something that's broken, and take it apart.
2. Look at the bits and see if you can guess at why it isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, or why it is doing something that it shouldn't.
3. If you have an idea from (2), try fixing it. Maybe it's "lube this" or "un-jam that" or "that hidden fuse looks burnt".
4. Put it back together. Even if you didn't find anything to try fixing it. You learn a lot from this.

(You can repeat 2 and 3 multiple times if you want.)

At the end of this, you either have a working thing, or a broken thing. If it's working, congratulations, you fixed your first thing!

And if it's broken, well, it was already broken. Nothing lost. No need to feel ashamed or embarrassed or like you failed.

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#HowToFix #RepairCafe #skill