Yankee Magazine's Make It Last: Over 1,000 Ingenious Ways to Extend the Life of Everything You Own

by Earl Proulx

This book encompasses decades of the tightwad wizardry for which New Englanders are famous. Over 1,000 easy maintenance & repair tips are revealed via warm & witty anecdotes by repair master Earl Proulx.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 1996

About the author

When Earl Proulx died in March 2002 at age 88, he’d written Yankee‘s “Plain Talk” advice column for 22 years.

Reviews

[Daniel Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's clearly dated (when was the last time you used a damp cloth to wipe down your "CPU" or vaccumed your printer?), but some things don't change much over time, and knowing how to take better care of, and repair, these items is useful.

I like books like this in general (how-to type books), and this was a fine book (from the mid 1990s, don't expect otherwise).

I enjoyed the trivia in the book- little drawings throughout that you could guess what they were used for in days gone by.

-2 stars mostly for the dated nature of the book, but also related to the "laugh out loud"(per the cover) stories the author has spread through the book - I can't tell if we just communicate so starkly differently that I don't get the humor, if the humor was "different in those days" (I was about 13 when the book was printed; the author was at least 50 years older than me), or if I'm missing something else (for example, in one story, he was the only person around long enough to remember a secret, which he used to his advantage to overcharge someone for labor so significantly that they called his boss, upset. Hilarious.) It was interesting to read about how things were different 10, 20, 40+ years before i was born (50-80 years ago now), but the author is much more skilled as a handyman than as a storyteller, if this book is any indication.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading Earl's little stories on the side lines. Most of this didn't apply to me because I don't drive through snow, own a plow or snowmobile, I don't work on cars, etc. Some stuff did apply, like gardening and laundry, but, like the last self-help book that I read, you can find most of these hints online now and do not have to hunt through a book.

[Extinction Rebellion]

This was published in 1996 so certain suggestions might not be viable if you want to live sustainably.
Although he does suggest using plastic a lot when storing food (there are now alternatives) there are some very useful instructions for looking after everything in your home, so you don't have to replace or throw out.
Make do and mend folks.

[Madeleine McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up second hand, and enjoyed both reading the tips, and trying to guess the purpose of the old-fashioned gadgets illustrated. Although published in 1996, it took me back to a 1950s childhood, when everyone improvised repairs.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in 1996 so many of these products mentioned no longer exist or the technology has changed since then.

[Carol Rose Stark Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonfiction. Very helpful ideas. Store sugar cubes with keese to avoid mold.

[Eric Pernito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even it was an old book, still helps this modern times of fixing some things.