The Story of Stuff

Over the course of the last few months two of my stove burners stopped working. I am currently running a successful airbnb rental and while I can get along with two burners, I am looking to keep my home as functional as possible for my guests.  Besides, with the income I’m getting I can afford to fix the stove.  It crossed my mind to just get a new stove, or to get my mother a new stove and use her old one, but scraping an old stove is outside of my values.  I decided to repair the stove instead.

I called TLC Appliances.  TLC (Transitional Living Communities) is a 30 year old program for people transitioning off drugs and alcohol.  I worked there in 2013 as their massage therapist.  I also ran a mindful gardening program, a mindful relapse prevention program and trauma healing groups for them.  They not only have about 600 halfway house beds in the Phoenix area, they run an outpatient treatment program, TLC yard maintenance, TLC towing and recovery, and TLC appliance.

I called David at TLC Appliances (480-809-8356) to get the stove fixed.  If you need anything repaired from AC to stove and refrigerators, he is the man.  TLC will also take your donation of used appliances and you might be able to pick up a reconditioned used appliance from them if you are in need.  They are the ones that gave me my swamp cooler.

One of the first things he told me was, “if the computer is bad, I can get you a new one, but it will cost about the same as buying a new stove.”  I already knew that.  It is something called planned obsolescence.  Watch one of my favorite videos on this:  The Story of Stuff:

As it turned out, the wiring to the twonew burners on stove burners had melted. I probably could have gotten by with about a $50 repair, but for $109 he fixed the faulty wires and replaced all four burners and their drip trays.  This was a blessing, since a few of the burners just wouldn’t sit right; they weren’t level.  Here is my beauty now: