It seems like every time I turn on the TV, The Repair Shop is on. Daytime or night-time. Either that, or one of the various variations on the same theme, like Money For Nothing or Find It, Fix It, Flog It on channel 4.
It appears thrift is in vogue. This makes a refreshing change to programming obsessed with benefit cheats and rogue traders. But, as ever, these things don’t happen by coincidence. Someone somewhere has decided this is what the public wants.
Maybe it’s driven by a ‘needs must’ reaction to the costly business of the pandemic – or the time many people found they had on their hands. Maybe it’s a slightly defeatist ‘we’d better learn how to make do’ response to Brexit Britain or, alternatively, a Bisto-tinged homage to the post-war thrift and austerity. Slightly more optimistically, perhaps it appeals to a growing sense of needless waste that has fuelled climate change for decades.
We’re dedicating the Summer 2021 edition of Quids in! magazine to the cause with a special issue and a series of articles in the digital service, the Quids In Readers Club emails. We’ll cover the trend towards upcycling, re-use and repair. It’s not just about furniture as we also have a guest spot featuring Riccardo Guido, finalist of 2018’s Great British Sewing Bee. (As it happens, he’s a long-term friend of ours, having produced promotional videos featuring jobseekers Clean Slate was working with back in 2015.) As Sewing Bee fans will remember, Riccardo had a strong message about reducing waste, be that textiles or plastics, going on to produce a recycled plastic jellyfish dress for his showstopper finale piece.
When writing for, or working with, people on lower incomes, I’ve learnt not to presume my motivations are shared by all. Not everyone cares about the environment, especially if money worries are all-consuming. But then, even many desperate people are resistant to hand-outs and so helping keep furniture, clothes or food out of landfill can equally be sold as a civic responsibility.
As always, we’re not just saying but also doing. A new partnership means we’ll be taking 100 laptops donated from corporates and refurbished by community interest company WDD. It enables us to connect low-income households experiencing digital exclusion with the digital tools and resources that can help them become better off. Consumers sign up to a Money Health-Check with one of our Support Workers who then remotely (by phone or online) guide them through an online review process using Quids In’s Future-Proof Finance Quiz. Anything they find they could do to boost their financial wellbeing then comes with guidance on the next steps. Where these are online – using a benefit calculator, an online budgeting tool or switching service, for example – we walk them through that too. Digital inclusion is not just about having access, it’s about knowing how to use the internet and learning how useful it can be. And while recipients benefit on average by over £300, we’re also keeping not-yet-obsolete tech out of electronics breakers’ yards and landfill.
There is a whole societal debate yet to be had about our attitudes to waste. It is a real reflection of privilege across much of the Western world to be so complacent about food surplus, fast fashion and a thirst for new tech, while old tech is still fit for purpose. As consumers we pay for this waste, while those on low incomes still miss out and the planet groans under the weight of it all. Until we re-think our consumption of disposables, the least we can do is make sure there is a fairer distribution of everything we have. This doesn’t mean passing on cast-offs, it means making a virtue of thrift and extending the life of goods in all shapes and sizes.
(Image: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-top-tips-for-winning-at-make-do-and-mend)
