Helen!! I went to your link, because I had never heard of the Collyer Bros., and there was the word disposophobia, which I just posted about!!
Repairing...is a lot more difficult now than it was, say 30 or more years ago. P'raps I should have said getting things repaired; though perhaps it is simply where I live that makes me think that. When I was a kid, my father would take things to the shoe-repair shop, for ex., or to the electronics-repair shop. Do such things exist any more, where you all live? If there are any in my town any more (the ones my dad went to are long gone), they are all the way across town, where the cost of transport plus repair might very well surpass the cost of a new item. I would love to have my little alarm clock back to where the face will stay lit all night, and to have the old stereo turntable system working again (the radio still works, which is why we still have it). I guess I could take them to the big electronics chain store not too far away, but I've asked about repair charges...yikes. And a few years ago when I took our lawn trimmer in for repair, I was told flat out that buying a new one would be cheaper; in fact, this place has a sign posted to the effect that they will only repair the more costly kinds of trimmers. I suppose I could try looking up on-line how to do some of these things; but there are definitely many repairs I simply can't do.
