Basic skills are good for you

DIY Build and Repair Culture Makes for Healthier Planet, Happier People

While we don't have some new study saying so, a little common sense analysis shows that learning how to build rather than buy, and repair rather than recycle, is key to not just making a lighter footprint on the planet, but also lightening up your heart. Think about it - weigh the pride and confidence you get from repairing the kitchen sink's leaky faucet yourself, versus paying a plumber to come out, fix it, and leave you $100 less rich and mumbling about how that was so darn easy how could it have possibly cost $100? That's the idea behind a great piece on Financial Times called "Practical Stress Relief."

Examples from the article of highly satisfied DIYers include Allison Taylor, who rather than spend $300 to get the phone company to add a jack in her house, she got a few tips from the maintenance guy at her work and went home to install three jacks that night.

It's hard to say this is a "movement" but more of a return to practicality and a slower way of life - something Mark Frauenfelder discusses in his book Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throw Away World. To get away from the stress of fast-paced life - the appointments and kids' lessons, the fast food and quick consumption - it all boils down to just doing it yourself. The weekly process of making yogurt, or whittling a new wooden spoon out of a branch from the tree in your back yard alters your whole outlook on life and reminds you just how capable a person you are.

Save money. A feeling of accomplishment. Building survival skills. All good reasons in my book.