Are you a do-it-yourselfer? Are you somebody who really likes to do everything for yourself?

Are you wondering about what I’m talking? Are you wondering what exactly I mean by a “do-it-yourselfer?”

What if you make breakfast for yourself or you like to go a get a workout on your own every day? That’s not what I’m talking about here.

I’m talking about the person who passes a car wash and thinks to themselves, “I can spray water all over my own car and vacuum my own car, and I can do it for less than five bucks.”

I’m not a “do-it-yourselfer.” I would much rather take my car to the car wash, and have someone else wash it. I would rather have someone else change my oil and fix things in my car. I would rather hire someone to do stuff around my house. I do not clean. I don’t do much of anything except enjoy my life.

So today, I needed to go and get my car washed. I don’t know why, but I decided I was going to go back to being a “do-it-yourselfer” today. I decided I was going to spray and vacuum my own car.

Now the vacuum part I can understand doing yourself. It is simple and easy, and all you have to do it put a couple quarters in the machine. The spraying water on your car part, though, is another story.

You have to bring towels, because if you don’t dry your car, it is going to be spotty as it was before you washed it except with cleaner spots. Then you are technically spending $5.00 to wash your car and have it look like you haven’t washed it. That never made sense to me.

So if you go to those car washes and you do the do-it-yourself car wash, you have to bring towels with you which is an added extra step I really don’t want to do. Some people enjoy it though. I actually used to enjoy it myself.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to love washing and waxing cars. I remember around age thirteen thinking the greatest thing in the world was washing and waxing my Dad’s ’73 yellow Corvette convertible.

I would sit in the driveway on a hot day and I would wash it and wax it. I’d put on the wax and let it harden. I would buff out the wax. I would make sure the wax was really shiny. I enjoyed waxing the car. It was fun, relaxing and enjoyable.

Now, I couldn’t imagine wasting a Sunday waxing my car. They have specials all the time at my car wash to do that for $60.00. So I can go and get my car waxed for $60.00 instead of spending three hours of my time doing it. I am worth more than $20.00 an hour.

You have to really start to wonder if this do-it-yourself stuff is enjoyable. Does it really save you money, or it is just that we are conditioned to think that it does?

Some people swear by it. Some people love putting things together. I prefer to buy things already put together. When I go to a store and see something I want, if I find out I would have to put it together I always ask for the floor model.

When I do try to put things to together, it is always frustrating. If I get something from IKEA or get a grill or something, I always end up with extra pieces if I try to put it together myself. I guess I am just not that handy.

My grandfather, he was handy. Unfortunately, though, those genes never passed down my way. Whenever I try to put things together, they inevitably fall apart.

I remember years ago, I decided I was going to “do-it-yourself” and put up some shelves in my garage. So I put the shelves together, put all the stuff on them and everything looked so organized. I was so proud of myself.

Then a few weeks later I was on the phone with a client, when I heard a rumbling in the garage. When I went to look in the garage, everything seemed fine. Two minutes later, though, I hear a crash in the garage (which was not good since my car was parked right next to those shelves). Sure enough, the shelves and all of the things that were on them were all dispersed across the hood of my Audi. That do-it-yourself experiment cost me $1,500.00.

So I’m not a “do-it-yourselfer.” I prefer to pay other people to do things for me. That way it’s done right, it’s done easy and it doesn’t cause me any aggravation.
You should see how annoyed I get trying to read directions.

So what are you? Are you a “do-it-yourselfer?” I hear a lot of women and men are “do-it-yourselfers.” Are you one, or are you a “let others do it for you-er?”