A Home That Does Not Hold You Hostage

Basic household skills give you freedom.

It is worth being able to:

• do laundry and read clothing labels;
• keep a normal level of cleanliness;
• sew on a button;
• cook a few dishes;
• assemble simple furniture;
• replace a battery, a bulb or a seal;
• set up a home network;
• find and shut off the water;
• cut the electricity in an emergency.

Self-reliance has a limit, though.

Gas, power wiring, load-bearing structures, complex plumbing and safety systems may require a licensed specialist. A mistake there can damage not only your own property but the neighbours’ as well.

The internet creates the illusion that any trade can be mastered in twelve minutes together with the author of a video who opens with the words “it’s all very simple here.”

It is useful to know enough to:

• describe the problem;
• carry out a safe first check;
• not overpay for an obvious trifle;
• understand what the tradesman is proposing;
• inspect the result;
• stop before a dangerous intervention.

Domestic autonomy is not the ability to rebuild a house on your own. It is the absence of helplessness in front of every handle that has come loose, and the absence of overconfidence in front of a gas pipe.

The difference between helplessness and autonomy shows in how a person talks to a tradesman. “Something’s wrong with my water” and “it’s dripping from under the nut on the flexible hose beneath the sink, I’ve shut the water off” are two different bills for the same repair. The second customer has already done part of the diagnosis and, more importantly, has shown that someone will check the result. The first pays extra for uncertainty, and sometimes for replacing something that did not need replacing.

So the minimum set is not about your hands but about a map of the flat: where the valves are, where the breakers are, where the meters are, what shuts off what and in which order. Everything else can be calmly bought from people who do it for a living.