I replaced the drain pump motor in our washing machine. Part was something like $45 online and place I bought it from had links to videos on how to install in different brands of machines. Took some time but wasn’t very difficult. A lot cheaper than it would have been to have it replaced by a service company. And there was a sense of accomplishment when the machine worked after my repair.
@1Dreamer, Don’t watch your dad anymore, please… If you have the patience to really think things out and take one step at a time, can you get a couch through the front door, you will have luck doing your own repair work watching youtube, etc.
All of my kids can put furniture together. Thank you, Ikea! Don’t know about the other stuff - I certainly didn’t teach them and so they’d either call their landlord or their Dad, not necessarily in that order.
Garage door openers need to be lubed?
There is a YouTube video for just about everything! Thank goodness!
@Madison85 : The chains and side bars need to be lubed.
My kiddo is learning as it goes. Same way I did. I knew how to do nothing. Marine brat, so maintenance was taken care of by base personnel. I can replace a U trap under the sink, install a new GFI outlet, paint a room [thank God for blue tape], simple stuff like that. Kiddo can put IKEA together better than me and knows how to bolt a bookcase to the wall. [We live in earthquake country.] Any time something goes wrong, you figure out if you can take a shot at it or if it’s better to call someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
I was just thinking about this. And, boy, do I wish someone had told me to make sure I learned as much from my handy dad as possible when I was younger. Or, if someone had told him to make sure he passed his skills along to me (oldest daughter). Now he’s dead and I’m thankful for YouTube, but I still wish the skills had come down from dad to me.
From reading (and now YouTube) along with experience, I’m now a relatively competent home handywoman with a decent array of tools. Not sure if my daughter wants to do this as well. I’ll check in with her to discuss.
@1andonly yes, I actually helped a friend install a garage door opener later by watching a video. We’d stop and start it as needed to make sure we were doing it right and all went smoothly. We were quite proud of ourselves and took about 1/3 the time. 
I research everything now and it’s true you can usually find a video on just about anything you need. I had something called a Mass Airflow Sensor go out on my car. No idea what it does exactly and the car still ran fine, but the light came on and the mechanic wanted about $500 ($450 for the part and $50 to install it). I researched and found out it was actually a Bosch part that cost about $150, but a certain German auto maker slapped it in their box and charged $450. So I ordered the part from Bosch and found a youtube video showing how it was held in by 4 simple clips. No screws or taking apart anything. I released the clips, popped the new one in, and fastened the clips. Done.
But I’m still reluctant to take on more complicated things. I’d prefer to call a plumber or electrician if I’m not sure I can do it myself.
I don’t think my kids have ever fixed anything around the house. D1 recently told me when they bought a TV on Amazon they were also able to hire an installer online. She was very proud of herself to be so resourceful. Her fiance was going to DIY because that’s how he was brought up. D1 told him she wasn’t going to let him drill holes through walls (old brownstone) and she wasn’t going to stand by her man while he was doing it.
When we lived out in the suburb, I used to have a handyman on call to finish up their dad’s unfinished projects.
My father was not handy to say the least, but three out of us six kids are pretty handy. The other three ‘call someone’ I learned a lot from situations growing up, before I could look it up on the internet. Change a tire, jump a car battery, push a car out of the ditch? All learned in high school when the situation called for it. Other things I’ve learned when I had to ‘call a guy’ (landlord or commercial) and I watched them fix the problem.
Now I do try the internet for a clogged toilet (dishwashing soap, who knew?), or ask the man at Ace hardware. The Ace guy will say “You need this gadget, and turn it until you see a blue line and that’s good” and there really will be a blue line and the tool really will fix it.
Our kids are handier than I am, for sure. S had his phone stolen. I had a broken one, as did S’s lab coworker. We both gave S our broken phones and he made one working phone!
He can repair or call someone to fix most hints. H is also very handy. I’m good at calling competent help. D is also good at calling competent help. Both kids can assemble IKEA furniture, no problem.
None of us do auto repair work.
I am actually pretty good at assembling furniture. I don’t have the strength to lift some heavier pieces.
I have MacGyver-level fixit skills because I needed them, but I find as I get older I am less inclined to replace the toilet, re-caulk the bathroom, groom the dog, sew a dress, run a new drain line for the a/c, re-tile a room, re-paint a room, replace a fan, cut down a tree, replace a laptop screen, yadda yadda yadda.
Now I just pay someone to do it because it’s just such hard work, and being a talented amateur means it takes me twice as long and I hurt myself twice as often as a professional. When I was younger I wanted to figure out just how many things I could do on my own, but as I get older I have less of an ego about it and I’m happy to let someone who knows how to do it, do it.
The girls have some skills that they’ve learned, like using power tools, but they use it for robotics. When the head pops off their razor blades, they bring them to me to put it back on, lol.
I have never figured out how to change razor blades, so I just use disposable razors. And will for the rest of my life.
H can build, repair or reconfigure just about anything. D and S have learned many of his skills. D does absolutely amazing woodwork, solders and she sews and cooks with a high level of skill. S welds, woodworks, solders, designs and implements his own electrical circuit boards and also knows how to cook.
Neither can do much beyond pop the hood of the car, look at the engine compartment and declare with authority - um…it’s not working…
Change a blown headlamp bulb in your car?
Between us we have fixed our washer for two different issues, dryer, stovetop, oven, and dishwasher in the past couple of years all with tubes and ordering parts from places like Parts.com.
I am super good at diagnosing everything and especially cars by sound. We do not fix cars but I am a super duper problem solver.
Just needed a new hot water heater and hired a plumber. Years ago H would have dealt with it.
He did all of the electrical in our cabin in 1990.
Those days are over–if there is any heavy lifting then I demand that he is out. No more ladders ever–do you know that men over 60 fall off of ladders all of the time!
D knows to look things up and to call me :-* She can do small things like Ikea. She can and will argue well with a
mechanic and make them be clear before she agrees to a fix.
I am not sure about S --guessing he could do anything as long as he was interested. But DIL is the one of the
3 that I would call on–she can fix and do anything that needs attention.
I have come to call it “street smarts” --I was raise with the need to know and if you are not then most of the
time you do not learn certain skills.
My D1 calls ME. And I’m the mom. She turned out to be quite a cook (whew, because for a long time, I thought she’d be living on scrambled eggs or Kraft Mac) and can set up things like Roku and social media. But when the power went out in her place, or another time, the water, she called me. (Call the power co. Call the water folks. Or, call the landlord.)
What she picked up from her dad is making travel arrangements, booked herself to places like Africa, from a third world country. That’s a good talent.
But D2? She did call AAA once, all on her own. She and I put an Ikea dresser together. But she has a girlfriend who impressed the dickens out of me with how fast she put together a set of bookcases, not even looking at the instructions- lightning fast. Now that’s someone to know.
My kid has absolutely zero interest in doing anything like that.
D recently changed her flat tire when she found herself stranded. Her dad taught her the year before.