What item in your house is broken ?

[Hyacinthandrichard]

A while back I had a thread on what is broken or needed in your house that everyone just thinks is normal now. I wondered if anyone fixed anything yet.
I thought of this because our tumble drier handle is broken and we have been opening it with a butter knife for about 9 months now. It's just become normal. Our toilet only flushes once every 10 minutes but we just all put up with it.
The tumble drier would be relatively low cost to fix but we just don't get round to it
I think my original thing I posted about was a broken Pyrex jug ( where the lip is chipped and it doesn't pour cleanly ) Still got it but I do have a new smaller one that's too small so I keep the broken one still!
Anyway. Before anyone suggests i am a journalist , I'm really not. Just wondering at my life and why I haven't fixed the easy ish things yet! Sunday musings I guess.

I once moved into a flat and the plug socket in the kitchen was so high that lead on the kettle wouldn't reach. We balanced the kettle on a tin of beans until we could get one with a longer lead. Stayed that way until we moved out a year later 😂

The glass light shade from my wall light smashed when I was cleaning it. I can’t find a suitable replacement, which means I have to buy the exact light again… just for the shade.

We can’t afford it at the moment, so we’ve gone without it. It bothers me everyday, though!

Downstairs loo flush is broken. Everyone just uses the upstairs.

We've got a hole in the wall in our main bathroom. Covered it with a mirror temporarily about 14 years ago... Only remember it because we're getting some redecorating professionally done and had to move mirror. Just told decorator to leave it and put the mirror back, he said no.

Off the top of my head at least half a dozen things. Top oven light - I actually bought a replacement bulb 9 years ago but can't unscrew the old one for some reason! Boiling water tap went wrong in the pandemic and was too expensive and complicated to get fixed. Sitting room door lock doesn't catch properly. Fan in the downstairs loo's never worked. Blown double glazing in the top window in the loft conversion. Half the light bulbs in the very high kitchen extension ceiling blew years ago but I'd need a ladder to get up there and change them. Front doorbell works about 50% of the time. Half of the radiator TRVs don't work. I could go on...it's lovely here, honest!

We need a new internal door - it got stuck closer when the lock broke & had to break into our living room one morning. If we replace it it'll need painting then the rest of the room will look odd & need painting & also the hall... so we just have this door that doesn't quite shut....

Also I've no idea how to change a bulb in the bathroom so we've a bulb out. I might have a look on YouTube when I get round to it...

The bottom oven of our double oven doesn't work, never has done since we moved in 35 years ago, the light in the top oven went about 15 years later so we've been without that for 20 years. One end of the kitchen has no kickboards since a flood before the millennium, I think. Do not even start me on the bathroom although I have become quite good with the internal workings of a Grohe cistern.

Dishwasher. I can't be arsed to fix it as it's just as easy to wash the dishes to be honest. So it's just being used to store my tupperware in! Might get it fixed / new one at some point but it's way down the priority list

The roof. We’re heading into black mould territory but I’ll be buggered if I can find a reliable, insured roofer to replace my roof. Quick, easy 15k job, they could be in and out in a week. I’ve had 4 up to quote, two couldn’t give me a a written quote because they were illiterate, one could but had an untaxed and non-MOTd vehicle so was an immediate no, number four said on spot he didn’t want the gig as domestic installs were too small and he could make more on commercial. He’d reconsider if my 85 year old neighbour fancied a job lot. No ta, you might be rocking horse shit but I’m not paying a cocky feckless lad for a job needing skill and conscientiousness.

otherwise … so many:

need to build a functioning rabbit home for our rabbit, 1.5 day job :(
Main gate has been broken for 18 months. I have the gate, inronmongery and postcrete but cannot catch a break to do this.

Laundry hamper leg just broke. Dishwasher waste pipe has been recently chewed through by a rodent.

One that has been broken for ages - Light switch in the living room is stuck and covered with a bit of painter’s tape so no one tries to use it by accident. No idea when that is getting fixed.

The cordless Dyson. Around 4 years and counting. I bought a regular hoover, which broke, and I’ve replaced it. I think I only need a new battery for the Dyson but just haven’t got round to it. It would be handy to have, because we live in a townhouse so it’s useful for quick jobs when lugging the other hoover up and down the many stairs is a pain. I’d forgotten about it until recently when I realised it’s been plugged in, not actually charging, but using electricity this whole time.

Bath panel has been gone for almost a year.

@BlackCatsAreBrilliant where is your shower leaking from? And is it electric?

We have electric showers and about once a year in the summer they leak from the bottom of the shower unit and need to be fixed. It is, apparently, because in the summer we turn the temperature down lower (because the water is less cold). This means the water pressure going through the unit is higher, and it trips something. My DH fixes it by removing the front of the unit and replacing the 'olive' which untrips it. He can do it in about ten minutes and we keep spare 'olives'. So - if either you or your DH (I'm making assumptions here - sorry) are handy it is easy to fix (if that is the problem - of course).

@DilemmaDelilah that's incredibly helpful. I've assumed (without getting around to looking) that it's either a leaking hose or leaking joint. It's useful to know the name of the widget that might need replacing.

@BlackCatsAreBrilliant you are very welcome! Of course - it could be something else.

Pretty much all my interior doors! They were replaced, cheaply, by the previous owners just before I moved in and they've nearly all warped and don't fit in the holes properly anymore. The exception is the bathroom door, which has a broken handle/closing mechanism (can't find another identical handle to replace it, so haven't got around to it!), although it does have a separate bolt. They all need replacing and it's on the list for when I can afford to pay someone to do it.

The mortar has been missing it's pestle for a long time now. We use the cracked rolling pin instead.
A clothes airer has been broken for as long as I can remember on the top. I'm fed up with catching my clothes on it, or like a few weeks ago I scratched my arm on it as it's sharp. No idea why it is still in the house.
One of the compartments on the toaster broke two weeks ago but still have gotten around to replacing it.

Our Italian coffee maker handle broke. DH bought a new one but it was too small. We couldn’t be arsed sending the new one back so just put electrical tape on the handle of the broken one and carefully pour.

In addition one of our clothes airer is broken at bottom so we just lean it against stuff to keep it upright

One of the ovens on our electric range just doesn't work - no idea why, we never use it so it's been broken for months. One of the bathroom windows needs a new catch fitting - I've got it, and it's a 10 minute job, but I never seem to find the 10 minutes. And the hallway has had no lightbulb in it for about 2 months, which maybe I should just do this weekend really...

My fucking oven. The last one was crap so I bought a new one and this has exactly the same problem. I have an actifry, an air fryer, a slow cooker, an Instant Pot and combi-microwave all to work around the fact that my oven doesn't work. And I have a tiny kitchen. And love cooking. It pisses me off.

The safety lever on my food processor. I reckon for the past 10 years I have been shoving a plastic spoon into the slot where it was supposed to go to trigger the safety lever.
Then it works fine!
I keep thinking I should bin it but...
(is there an emoji for a shrug? LOL.)

I broke the handle on the water draw of my tumble dryer years ago and stuck it together with gaffer tape. It's still like that.
I've also gaffer taped my laundry basket back together.

alarm clock