Tuesday 7 February 2017

The Buyerarchy Of Needs

You're probably familiar with Maslow's Pyramid in which he sets out the needs and motivations of human beings. In his 'hierarchy of needs' the most basic requirements of life are at the bottom [food, water, warmth, rest] and at the top the needs for self-fulfilment.
Sarah Lazarovic, a Canadian artist, has re-imagined his pyramid in terms of our need to purchase things.
I think this is an extremely clever idea. Sadly her blog seemed very short lived [3 posts a few years ago] but the principles in her pyramid are good ones. How often do we assume that when we 'need' something, then we should just go out and buy it?
I'm presuming that 'thrift' is used in the TransAtlantic sense, that is "to obtain cheaply/2nd hand/Charity Shop etc"
I suspect that in this house 'make' would come a lot nearer the bottom of the pyramid, and that the bottom line would be amended to 'use/repair what you have' 
Case in point - when I got my sewing machine out last week, the plastic spool holder on the top had snapped. I loked online, it would cost around £4 and take 3 or 4 days to get a replacement. It took me a few minutes to find this youtube clip. Bob looked at it, said "I can fix that!" and went off to the garage. He was back after 10 minutes - so within half an hour of discovering the broken part, my machine was whirring away again, good as new.
Now I know I am extremely blest to have a brilliant DIY man around. Not everyone would have an instant repair like that - but I am glad that I have saved money and resources. 

 

Have you been able to solve any problems lately by using the ideas at the bottom of the pyramid, rather than getting out the credit card?



1 comment:

  1. "Use/repair what you have" and then "make" will make up the bottom two tiers for me, too. Although I don't have drill bits, etc. to repair a broken spool holder. But I am in the process of using/mending/renewing what I have in the clothes department, currently, (after my recent weight loss), rather than running out to buy new.

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