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)

Our most memorable repair started when one of my children decided to "post" his brother's favourite action figure down the toilet. Apparently he wanted to see if it could swim. It couldn't.
Cue a blocked loo, rising panic, and two children simultaneously crying for entirely different reasons.
I was already mentally spending money on an emergency plumber when stubbornness kicked in. After watching a few videos, turning off the water and summoning courage I didn't know I possessed, I removed the toilet and discovered the culprit wedged firmly in the bend.
One rescued action figure, several muttered swear words and a thorough bleaching later, everything was back in working order.
I saved the plumber's call-out fee, the toy was reunited with its owner, still to this day I don't know how I did it - toilets and cleaning them are my worst job - the spending of unnecessary money overtook this totally. 🚽🔧😂

When a mouse chewed through a water pipe and flooded the kitchen I replaced the T joint with a J joint to keep water going to the rest of the house whilst we waited for the plumber to replace the chewed pipe. Never get cats... 😼

When my son’s button fell off from his shirt, I used old dental floss to stitch it back on, saves cash on thread and it is 10 times as strong and looks as good as new so saved money on a new shirt.

Replaced my car's indicator stalk myself with a second hand part and a YouTube video. Total cost, including purchase of a socket set, was £25 so saved myself £200 compared to garage replacement.
Repaired a broken shower curtain rail first with gaffer tape and then by fixing a new socket/holder over the old one for extra strength.
Repaired a hole in the shed roof with some old planks from a broken fence and salvaged roofing felt. Hole was caused in the first place by me falling through a rotten patch whilst removing ivy.
Learned to replace tap washers from You Tube videos.

I've repaired/renovated loads of things over the years out of financial necessity and because I'm a frugal eco old tightwad. Replaced the tiled hearth in my daughter's bedroom recently with Victorian tiles and grouted it & repaired cracks & holes in the cast iron fireplace. Replaced some of the loose ancient floorboards and added wooden slivers in the wobbly bits and gaps. Repaired an expensive tens machine that had died, replaced the silica plate in our microwave that was spitting fire like Smaug. Fitted replacement cabinet doors in our grotty ancient kitchen (carcasses were sound), repaired broken fence posts with spurs/spikes and replaced a couple. Reupholstered my grotty dirty old ottoman with some lovely fabric. Took a vtech air ram vacuum apart that wasn't working and it was absolutely rammed with compacted dust and hair. Replaced an element in our Dualit toaster & a couple of cracked iPhone screens plus numerous phone & laptop batteries. Found quite a few things malfunction due to simple loose wiring or fuses gone. Also wood glue is excellent or just el cheapo PVA for wood repairs. Done umpteen clothes & bag repairs and cobbled shoes. My partner was really chuffed recently when his relatively new Converse boots came apart at the sole and I found some old Evostik rubber glue and fixed them.

A key snapped in a lock, just before going away. I managed to take the lock apart, get the key out, a new one cut and put the lock back together. It all worked.

Electric shower broke - Just out of warranty, so sorted engineer to bring and install new one. Happened to keep the inside parts of the old one that was removed "just in case" . Then that broke a few years down the line (again just out of warranty!) Different issue, but more easily figured out the broken plastic part (due to limescale) - OH used original ones parts to fix second one! Saved £250+ and have kept old original still, so we can create a frankensteins monster of a shower if needed!!! Win!

I managed to get our dehumidifier working again after several months of being broken. It had got too clogged up with dust.

Unfortunately many items in the room had gone mouldy in the meantime. 😞

I haven't read the thread, so other PP may have already said this.
Every time this title pops up in my Active Threads, I just think - surely it should be "smuggest', not "smugest".
If you can't be bothered to spell correctly, I can't be bothered to read your post.

Used a stack of 2ps to re level my washing machine which wobble after having tiles removed from underneath. Whole thing cost me 10p to fix and worked a dream, going strong two years later.

I managed to unblock the toilet without resorting to calling a plumber. I was ridiculously proud of myself.

We had a leak in our top floor bathroom, behind a boxed-in section of wall that was amongst the eaves and was inaccessible. In order for a plumber to fix it there'd first have to be a large enough hole in the wall.
DH isn't the most practical of people, so I created a large hole (while managing not to cut through any critical beams), then ordered a special insulated hatch door that I fitted after the leak was fixed, since it was reasonable to assume that any future leaks would require similar demolition - so there's now ready made access (carefully painted over to blend in with the rest of the room).
It was all bloody hard word, but I love the result!

Fixed the washing machine by watching a you tube video. Very satisfying.

Please note smuggest has two 'g's

‘Smugest’ ???

A bit of a cheap one but the lid of my mini kenwood chopper snapped, so I scoured local freebie groups on FB until I found another one I could have for free! Now I have two kenwood choppers and lid they can share 😂

Every time I see this thread advertised in the Active list it infuriates me. "Smuggest" (if there is such a word) should have two of the letter g.

I watched YouTube videos, read manuals, watched more videos, and finally managed to work out how to fix the broken pump in my washing machine. It took me 1 day just to be able to pull the machine out, lay it down and put it upright again. I was so damn chuffed with myself.

(never again!)

i has an old family rocking horse that looked beyond saving. It was covered in.scratches and stains. I decided to give it a good clean and see if I could salvage it. After lots of sanding and painting its absolutely beautiful. I will be saving it for my future grandkids.

'a Lego bastard '... love it.
And well done you. !!!

Christ girl..you are Wonder Woman !!!

I have two fixing ones!
1st one was after my father died, my mum still lives in Spain and the air conditioning unit stopped working during a horrible heat wave.
managed to take it apart and with the help of YouTube and so very pigeon Spanish for it working again.

my other one, is slightly more dramatic. I broke my leg in 3 places so was in a cast and my two daughters were having to help me out. At midnight my daughter shouted up the stairs that the kitchen was flooding, slide down the stairs on my bum with crutches above my head to get to the kitchen to see it was by the washing machine (which has the dryer stacked on top), managed to drag them out while balancing on one leg to get to the stopcock. Then realised it was my fridge, the pipe for the water filter had a hole in it, turned out the house bunny got a bit nibbely. Next day ordered new piping and managed to do it myself while balancing on one leg 😂

The kitchen sink started leaking, it was a Sunday. DH was away with work. I looked online bought the piece of plastic that had perished, it was a a part you screwed on near the U bend to connect everything up.i repaired it all by watching a YouTube video. I dread to think what an emergency plumber would have cost on a Sunday

My best fix was a leak under the sink. Ok - so it took three trips to B&Q to buy a thingy, exchange the thingy and then exchange that one for the right one. I guess part of the pride comes from the fact that I didn’t make a huge mess in the process. I didn’t break anything else. And I didn’t even need a YouTube video / I worked it all out myself.

we live near a great repair store but you can’t take your sink and waste pipes in!

Boiler diverter valve, we had hot water in the radiators when the hot water was on in the summer, DH is a big DIY person and said he would have to drain the system and it would be a big job and he didn't have time or inclination to do it. I looked it up and it looked simple all external to the pipes so I bought the bits and with him watching skepticaly replaced the valve. To be fair it was also in a place he would have found very hard to reach (he is rather bulkier than me) or he probably would have tried the fix I was telling him about himself.