For years, anything electrical was a black box to me. Even resetting a circuit breaker when something tripped made me nervous. Electricity was one of those things I preferred not to touch. Electrocution is a fairly persuasive deterrent.
Then I took a two-hour introductory electrical workshop at Even Made in Chicago. For $85, I learned how switches and outlets work, practiced wiring them, and learned how to wire a lamp.
Things I’d always treated as mysterious suddenly made sense. Two hours didn’t make me an electrician, but I left with a confidence I hadn’t expected. I could understand what was behind the wall plate, rather than regarding it as something vaguely dangerous. I also had a better sense of what still belonged in a professional’s hands.
I’ve taken other workshops, too, including furniture refinishing, tiling, and a class on managing a major home project as your own general contractor. The tiling class had the wonderfully practical title, “Tile a Floor and Don’t Get Trapped in the Room.”
I’m not planning to become a contractor. I simply like understanding how things work, even when I ultimately hire someone else to do them.
Which brings me to Taskrabbit.
I’ve used it quite a few times over the years: mounting televisions, installing curtain rods, assembling furniture, plumbing assistance, and most recently mounting a TV, a floating console, and an oversized IKEA mirror measuring more than six feet tall.
Could I have learned to do the mounting myself? Probably. But maneuvering heavy objects, getting everything precisely level, and securing them properly are not necessarily things I want to learn through trial and error. Some jobs are worth paying someone with the right tools and experience to get right the first time.
Then there’s IKEA furniture assembly.
I’ve assembled plenty of IKEA furniture myself, and I actually enjoy it. There’s something satisfying about following the instructions, sorting through the hardware, and watching a collection of flat-packed boards become a bookcase.
But one time, I hired someone to assemble a bookcase simply because I didn’t feel like spending five hours doing it.
Not because I couldn’t.
Not every service I’ve tried has been equally worthwhile. Plumbing assistance, for instance, didn’t feel quite as valuable to me as the mounting jobs. The usefulness of hiring someone depends on the task, the circumstances, and what you’re getting in return.
That’s also why I find the workshops worthwhile. Some skills are worth acquiring because you’ll use them repeatedly. Others are valuable because they make an unfamiliar subject less intimidating. And sometimes, knowing how something works simply makes you a more informed customer.
Living independently doesn’t mean doing everything yourself. It means having enough knowledge, resources, and judgment to decide what makes sense.
I like knowing I can assemble the bookcase.
I also like knowing I don’t have to.
