DIY Day

DIY Day - Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Art & Drawing Crafts Hobbies & Activities Items & Things

We spend a lot of money getting other people to do things for us—cut our hair, fix our cars and computers, mow our lawns, bake our cakes…you get the picture. And true, there are things that we would prefer to have experts with knowledge and experience doing for us, like performing surgery or filling out our tax papers.

But more and more people are starting to agree that people these days have become too dependent on others and, as a result, too helpless when left on their own. Sure, not everyone knows the construction of an engine in detail, but surely most of us could learn to change a tire on our own? Sure, you may be no Jamie Oliver or Martha Stewart, but surely you could manage to bake a birthday cake by yourself?

Not to mention it would probably be better than most of that bland store-bought cakes anyway! So why not celebrate DIY Day by learning to do something new yourself?

History of DIY Day

DIY Day was created just recently by the Craft Box Girls team, and 2016 is the first year we’re celebrating it. Craft Box Girls’ mission is to celebrate makers and inspire regular people like you and me to create things on their own.

From fruity cocktails to wreaths and vases to pillowcases to just about anything else you can imagine, Craft Box Girls can make it all by themselves, with just a few easy to come by knick-knacks.

The history of DIY itself probably goes back to the beginning of time. Italian archeologists recently unearthed the ruins of a 6th-century BC Greek temple-like structure in southern Italy that came with detailed assembly instructions and is therefore now being called an “ancient IKEA building”.

Much like the world-famous IKEA instruction booklets, various sections of the temple were inscribed with coded symbols showing how the pieces slotted together. So as it turns out, DIY has actually got quite the fascinating history!

How to celebrate DIY Day

Is there something you can’t do that you’re a bit embarrassed you can’t do? Maybe it’s something relatively simple that you just never learned? Whatever it is, take this day to make an effort to learn to do it.

You know what they say: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” So ask a friend or a family member to teach you to knit or change a light bulb or cook something more than water.

Becoming more independent has never hurt anybody! The more things you know how to do, the more self-confident you will be, and that has never hurt anyone either!

Of course, learning how to make a dish instead of settling for a tray of unhealthy frozen goop from the supermarket is a much shorter process than, say, learning a foreign language so you don’t have to rely on others while traveling or during business meetings.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make DIY Day the day you start learning! The first step is always the hardest, but it is also the most important, so let this day be the day you take a step in the right direction and change your life for the better! Don’t forget to use the hashtag #nationaldiyday if you share your projects on social media.

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