What DIY repair made you feel ridiculously proud of yourself? Win £200

[EllieSmumsnet]

From coaxing a dying washing machine back to life, to replacing a tiny part instead of buying a whole new appliance, some repairs feel like a genuine triumph and you should absolutely feel very smug if you’ve managed it! <back pats.

Have you ever fixed something you were fully expecting to retire to the tip? Maybe you saved a small fortune, avoided a call-out fee, or simply refused to let the toaster/washing machine/fridge win.

We’d love to hear your best repair story. Come on and share how handy you are and don't be shy about celebrating that feeling of bringing something back to life! We want to know: What broke? How did you fix it? Did it save you money? And did you spend the rest of the day casually mentioning your achievement to anyone who would listen?

Share your story below by 17/08/2026 to be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 VEX voucher for a store of your choice and to inspire other MNers to try fixing before replacing. (T&Cs)

Fixed my ghd hair straighteners with a new cord from ebay and a you tube video...turns out its a 10 minute job and no more difficult than wiring a plug . Also replaced the fan in my oven ,again it wasn't particularly difficult and there was a useful YouTube video to help 😀

dining table was ruined. Ex-DH put hot things on it, never wiped it. When he left at beginning of the year I set about changing anything that made me unhappy. New table of same quality would’ve been spendy, so I repaired it. Sanded it all down, put natural varnish on it and it’s better than before!

We used old planks of wood to build a feature wall for my Son's dart board. We have so many compliments and it looks amazing. Never thought we could achieve it.

Fixed the knob on the cooker which had broken leaving it permanently switched on. Required some glue 😅 still going strong 2 years later. Saved buying a new cooker so a big win from my perspective!

And not really a repair, but my bathroom looked in a sorry state, to the point I was wondering if I needed to get it replaced. Found a new set of taps for the bath in a charity shop, that miraculously went with the taps on the sink. Decided it was do or die, so repainted it, got rid of the over sink cabinet and replaced it with a Fancy mirror and a glass shelf. Looks like I have had a whole new bathroom for the sum total of about £150.

My 15 year old bread machine broke down in the first weeks of the first COVID lockdown in 2020.
I unplugged it, unscrewed the base and discovered there was a rubber drive band that had shredded.
So I measured the pieces and ordered a replacement on Amazon for 59p.
Put it on, replaced the base and it’s been going strong ever since.
Dd turned 21 this year and so will the bread machine.

I've fixed my dehumidifier and my cool ice air machine had to Google but I did it .

I got an old handmade oak coffee table very cheapily on ebay and sanded it down to revarnish it as old varnish was discoloured. I mentioned this to the man I bought it from and said I hope that was OK and he nearly started crying saying it was lovely someone appreciated it and was caring for it and it was his Dad who had made it. I suspect his Dad had recently died but was glad it made him happy I was looking after his Dad's coffee table.

I also fixed the electrics on our washing machine.

I put a new polycarbonate roof on the lean-to. It didn’t leak or anything! While up the ladder, the neighbour asked if I could do his roof too!

Fixed my own washing machine. Took an entire Saturday and multiple wrong investigations. Eventually via a YouTube video sorted it; there was a small Lego bastard trapped inside the exit pipe or whatever you call it. I'm a DIY dunce so this was a huge win. I rang my mum to tell her of my victory and she said she was proud of me. I'm 51.

i bought 2 lovely dining chairs. I stripped, sanded and painted them. Removed the seat pads and reupholstered them (with a help from YouTube). They look great, but I’m never reupholstering again. I wanted to keep it a low cost as possible, so used pliers and an old screwdriver to remove the (what felt like hundreds) of old tacks

And if I am allowed to post twice….
My grandma gave me her old 1940 handcranked Singer sewing machine when I was a kid, some time in the 80s. It sat on my bedroom desk with the cover off, because these ancient black sewing machines with gold decoration are beautiful.
One day I needed to reach a book from the high shelf above the desk and being a kid, I jumped on the desk, grabbed the book and jumped off again. Only I didn’t notice that the hem of my skirt had caught on the sewing machine and pulled it off the desk. It landed on the floor and snapped the steel handle.
I shamefacedly put the cover on and didn’t tell anyone.
Several decades later someone invented the internet. A lot of YouTube videos were made telling people how to fix things. I found a video explaining how easy it was to replace the handle and the bit holding it on. Luckily someone else had invented EBay and I found the replacement part for a couple of quid. Replacing it was a matter of two screws.
The sewing machine gets regular use, even though I also have an electric one, because with its all metal parts it is strong enough to sew heavy canvas that a modern machine can’t manage, and I have used it to teach my daughter to sew.

I replaced a cracked loo seat yesterday. Had been quoted £100 for a plumber to do it. It cost me £24.99. Watched two YouTube videos to find out how to do it.

Assembled a 4 x 4 kallax in the cupboard under the stairs :)

Cut and drilled 6 pieces of panelling to my wall and installed the led strip lights myself 👌🏻

I fixed the controller for DS1’s PlayStation. He’s a bit heavy handed with the controls and one of the buttons was slack - it didn’t have that springback you normally get when you press it. I thought it was a replacement job, but had a google and the helpful YouTube guy said you could just replace the spring. 60p and some blood sweat and tears later, I managed to get the controller taken apart in one piece and the spring replaced. It’s been working like a charm ever since and survived umpteen Fortnite marathons!

Single mum with two DC. Drove an ancient & decrepit VW Polo and all of a sudden the electric windows started opening themselves when the car was locked. Had no money and couldn't face taking it to the garage for some mechanic to suck through his teeth and tell me that the big end had gone or some such nonsense that was going to cost gazillions.

So, I signed up to the VW Owners Forum and posted my tale of woe. Lots of very helpful posters later, and multiple trips back and forth to the car, I was able to diagnose the issue. Not at all easy for the not mechanically minded!

I then managed to order the correct replacement part. For those who have never ordered a replacement car part, it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. You need about a million codes and car years and model types and subtypes and VIN numbers to ensure you get the right part for the right car.

Then, one gloomy, cold, November evening after work with the "help" of my small DC pointing their torches, I managed to remove the old central locking vacuum control pump and install the new one. It was weirdly situated in the housing of the rear hatch door frame, so just finding it had been a challenge! But I did and I managed to disconnect all the right bits, without breaking anything and then reconnect all the bits to the right connecting bits. To my astonishment and delight, it did indeed fix the problem and it had cost me less than £20.00 to do so.

Dishwasher stopped switching on. Fixed with a combination of old school know how from my dad to isolate the issue to the door control panel, then stick the details into AI and ordered the suggested part online.

Cost £35 and a day of tinkering and fully back working since!

My vertical blinds had seen better days. One by one the little hooks started snapping, a couple of slats refused to hang straight, and every time I opened them it looked like they were trying to perform a dance routine! I was convinced I'd need to replace the whole lot, but instead I ordered a tiny pack of replacement hooks and a repair tool for less than £10. After a bit of patience (and a few choice words!), I had every slat hanging perfectly again. The blinds now glide open and closed like they're brand new, and I've saved myself hundreds of pounds compared with replacing them. I may have admired my handiwork far more than necessary and casually pointed out to every visitor just how well my "new" blinds were working. Sometimes the smallest repair gives the biggest sense of achievement!

This industrial fan than we had, that I had actually bought on a bargain a few years earlier. We only ever took it out during a heat wave. Thankfully, my sister prevented me from throwing it away. I'm so glad too, because it now costs double/triple the amount these days. Industrial fans are loud, but they're so strong.

Replastered a ceiling after a few minutes long YouTube video

I replaced the bearings in the tumble dryer all by myself

y DS was an angry teen - he punch a light switch and it disintegrated. I replaced it - it works - it continues to work

The touchscreen in my car had become increasingly unresponsive and I discovered it was a common fault with that model. I am in a FB group where someone had linked a direct replacement screen from AliExpress and posted a you tube video showing step by step how they changed the screen. I am not technically minded and hadn’t taken anything electronic apart before but I managed it by replaying the video multiple times and taking my time over it. Took me several hours, partly because the tiny screws holding the screen in place appeared to be glued in - the car manufacturers clearly don’t want you to do this yourself when they can charge you £800 for it. But I did, and now it works.