What is Winter of Care and Repair

A seasonal personal challenge designed by you

Winter of Care and Repair is a personal challenge that takes place between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, and focuses on taking care of one’s belongings, self, community or relationships. I started it in winter 2020-2021 as a personal project to give me some focus and purpose during that gloomy first winter of the covid-19 pandemic. The idea was inspired by happiness and habits author Gretchen Rubin, who suggests choosing themes to add structure, whimsy, or focus to a season (or year), and each year, WoCaR has grown little by little to include people all around the world participating in their own way.

Participants are encouraged to create their own care and repair plan that suits their lifestyle, time, and wishes. The only guidelines are that the project happens during winter, and is related in some way to taking care of yourself, your belongings, your relationships, and/or your community. You can learn more about the origin of the challenge in this interview of Check Your Thread podcast here, a wrap of of last year’s project here, and ideas for what’s next here.

Care and repair acts could include:

Care for belongings

• Repair broken items

• Repaint or polish old furniture

• Replace dead batteries (watches, smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, remotes, toys, etc)

• Oil a squeaky hinge

• Tend plants (pest treatment, fertilizer)

• Laundry care! level up your stain removal knowledge or learn about alternatives to washing such as spot cleaning or alcohol spritzes to refresh clothes between washes

• Depill a sweater with an electric depiller or a sweater comb

• Jewelry repair - fix a clasp or replace a battery in a watch (or take those items to a repair shop)

• Hand wash wool knitwear or other delicate garments

• Use a leather treatment on leather handbags, boots, jackets, furniture, etc

• Replace worn shoelaces, clean up or polish shoes

• Alter a garment for yourself or someone else (or take a garment to your local dry cleaner or alterationist to have it altered for you)

• Learn a mending technique

• Mend your clothing (or someone else’s)

• Take something to a local repair shop if you aren’t able to fix it yourself

• Take on a home improvement project that lasts the whole season

Care for self:

• Take a nap when you’re able

• Say “no”

• Say “yes”

• Exercise

• Meditation

• Rest

• Add in moments for favorite activities (reading, crafting, puzzles, gaming, gardening, baking, yoga, etc)

• Eat healthfully

• Get enough sleep/go to bed on time

• Floss your teeth

Care for relationships:

• Send a text/email/letter just to say “hi”

• Get back in touch with someone you haven’t connected with in a while

• Deepen a relationship

• Let go of a relationship that isn’t serving you

• Invite a friend for a mundane activity, like running errands, or just for a visit

Care for community:

• Volunteer

• Clean up litter, on your daily walk or at an organized litter clean up

• Sign petitions for causes you support

• Participate in community events

• Attend or start a Repair Cafe in your community

• Participate in a local mutual aid community

• Say “hi” to neighbors

• Offer to trade services with a friend or neighbor (eg, you make dinner for them, and they babysit for an evening the next week; you help them clean out the garage and they help you set up a website)

Depending on what feels right for you, you may try to do an activity each month, each week, or each day. Maybe you create a list of 10-12 things you want to complete during the season, or you decide to focus on a different type of care and repair each month. The possibilities are endless, and you can choose what works best for you. Remember: the season is over 90 days long, so think carefully about what is realistic and sustainable for YOU.

My personal parameters that I have continued each year are to mend, repair, tend, or otherwise maintain something in my home each day, beginning on the winter solstice and ending on the spring equinox. Often that “something” is clothing, but I have also replaced watch batteries, used leather treatment on shoes/bags, painted the bathroom, prepared the garden for spring, repaired mug handles, oiled squeaky hinges, and polished jewelry.

Because of the marathon duration of the project, there is the potential to really change habits and perspectives about repair, and by extension, the relationship we have with our belongings and our world.

You can find out more, see past projects, and follow along on my Instagram @thepeoplesmending.