One in five aged 18 to 27 did not know what a spanner is. WTF ?? I remember having a great time with the mecanno set.
https://news.sky.com/story/many-young-adults-unable-to-do-basic-diy-tasks-and-its-costing-them-a-fortune-13287978
Posted by Man_in_the_uk
35 comments
With people living at home longer, is this really a surprise? You don’t really start doing any DIY until you’re on your own. And when is the last time anyone changed a lightbulb these days with all of the being LED?
I absolutely hate any sort of DIY with a passion and will avoid it at all costs. If I’ve got the money to get someone else in to do it why not? IKEA furniture for example, I can spend hours being stressed, getting annoyed and just all round having a shit time trying to put it together, or I can spend £20 someone will come and put it together in no time and my day isn’t ruined. It’s a no-brainer to me.
I can do DIY, but I am not adding any value to my Landlord’s house, and anything breaks, he can pay for and schedule the fix.
Even though they hate upholding their end of the agreements, that is what we agreed on in exchange for a third of my income.
Not surprising when they don’t have their own property to use those skills on.
As a not very young anymore person I only started learning bits and pieces of DIY when I moved out and was too broke to pay somebody else to do it for me.
Now there are a whole load of things that I can do badly after watching a YouTube video (ie wallpapering) but would much rather pay somebody who can do it well if I can afford it.
Honestly I think a lot of people my age just seem to put off things like DIY because they don’t think they can because they’ve not been formally taught it, it’s something that doesn’t explicitly belong to them so they’ll leave it fucked even if it has an adverse impact on them or sometimes they just don’t realise how big of an impact a few minutes of work would do.
I think part of it as well is we’re getting really used to closed off systems. It’s not as approachable anymore to do something like fix your car, your phone, etc. People get too used to something breaking and simply just go I need a new one or I need to pay someone to fix this. There’s just too many cases now where that’s true so when something does break but it can be fixed, we’re not in the mindset of I’ll fix that anymore. And fucking good luck changing that mindset when things cost so much that people are scared to rip it apart even when it’s already a bit fucked.
I don’t want to do DIY, so I pay others to do it.
I’m happy, they’re happy. What’s the problem?
This is, quite literally, ‘a lightbulb moment.’
While I can change a lightbulb, confidently climb a ladder, and change my wiper blades, I’m pretty useless in most areas of DIY. A lot of my doors aren’t hanging properly/don’t shut properly and I don’t have a damn clue. Found out my local college offers basic intro courses to both household and automotive DIY for £30. Definitely getting on it, especially the automotive one in the near future.
Most people are idiots, big surprise
Well what DIY are you going to do when you either live at home with your parents or rent?
… huh? Young adults are capable of pretty much any task nowadays because they just search on YouTube or Google how to do something
It’s marketing, not research.
Ummm, yeah, we know. Amongst a lot of other things.
That’s unfair, I’m unable to do much more complex DIY tasks than changing a lightbulb.
Not sure why I never had an interest in DIY. I was always there, busy being told to “hold the fucking torch properly” whilst I was crying, but somehow the interest never grabbed me.
How many young adults does it take to change a light bulb?
Finally some proof that my suspicion of that generation being mostly useless – is actually a thing.
Go ahead and downvote. We all know it’s true anyways
1 in 4 can’t change a light bulb. And think using a ladder is too dangerous.
Let that sink in.
Country of Idiocracy.
Due to not having parents that did practical activities for careers. I can do loads of DIY tasks that others wouldn’t consider due to my dad being a precision engineer and having a practical mindset, I’m not saying I’m great at it but my dad has passively up-skilled me and certainly helped improve my problem solving skills.
I moved out at 22. I knew how to do pretty much nothing. I learnt to do jobs as I needed to.
I have to think the people saying they don’t know how to change a lightbulb were taking the piss.
So I have two boys currently aged 10&11, and I get them both to help out when I do DIY.
They are confident with screwdrivers, hand drills, hand planes, sanding (with a mask on) using filler and painting with a roller and paintbrush.
I also let them use a cordless drill (under supervision)
In other news, over 50s “have very little understanding about tenancy regulations”.
I guess it could be worded as ‘ many young adults make so much money, they hire help for even the simplest jobs’
I’m 40 ands absolutely crap at anything handy but I have managed to fix my back-step by re cementing it which i was quite happy with.
Flat pack furniture is about my limit
In this day and age there is almost a guarantee of a YouTube tutorial.
My parents taught me certain things but it goes in one ear and out the other. When I need to DIY I’ll probably watch some YouTube videos 🤷♀️
Well my 73yr old mum couldn’t pair her new Bluetooth earphones to her phone despite only needing to select them in the blue tooth settings. So, y’ know, swings and round abouts.
Piss poor parenting yet again.
Oh here comes the generation who had it easy to tell everyone how stupid they are.
Get in the bin, boomer.
I’ll do it. I charge £1000/call out plus £500 per hour
Me and wifey are now in our 40’s. I’ve always worked office jobs. However DIY-wise I have done (since my 20s):
Fully fitted kitchens, tiling, grouting, flooring installation and repair, shelving, roofing work, painting and decoration, sanding and prep, external masonry painting, gardening, laying patios, building garage workshops, installing ventilation and electrical appliances, repairs etc.
If I can learn and do all these things, anyone can.
The only thing I leave to the pros is plumbing, electrical work and car stuff.
Next project though, we are building a camper van conversion!
Now, who failed to teach them, those basic DIY tasks?
If I need to do something, I’ll just look for a tutorial on YouTube
Honestly- newly divorced (or at least some 15 years now) some of that diy shit when you have your own place is scary and a huge learning curve
Sure – no issues sanding and prepping a wall for painting- mask that baby up once you have done the prep – happy days
Water issues – hmm planned (toilet cistern pump / radiator bleed / tap change – yeah could manage that -a leak somewhere (particularly one you with Google and YouTube but can’t see where the leak is but can see evidence of / fuck that shit that is way above my capabilities – I need a person who can
Curtain pole and a shelf – yeah again I can (slightly nervous if something has to be fixed above a socket just in case i hit a wire to socket but hey I can check it out with google but I am aware)
Depends on what the level of DIY is tbf – and I don’t think it is age limited – more confidence and offsetting fucking it up against paying for experience which is budget limited so sometimes you have to suck it up and do it – just work within your capabilities and acknowledge if you have not got a clue it will definitely cost you more if you do fuck it up
That’s not limited to an age demographic though
As a gen X guy I often felt like my generation was the last to be a Jack of all trades, able to turn our hand to most things we grew up watching our dad’s and granddad’s doing DIY because we didn’t have computers, streaming services and the internet. I tried to get my own boys to come and help me do some bits around the house when they were younger and they were never interested all they wanted to do was play on the computer.
I used to jump at the chance to get stuck when I was younger because I had nothing better to do.
I rented until 24 then bought a new build, only really learned diy this last year when I bought an older house.
Comments are closed.