A neighbor recently asked us if we had a highchair. His grandchildren were coming, and because our grandsons used to visit us as toddlers, he thought we might have an old one stashed here. We don’t. Our grandsons are all in their thirties, and we don’t have the free space to store anything that large. As we thought about it, we realized something: We didn’t even have a highchair back then. How did we feed the three of them without a highchair?
We made do. We put them on our laps, and when they got older, we sat them on chairs with books on the seats and tied them to the chair back.
Don’t get excited. No children were harmed in the process.
Our first grandson came to visit us for dinner when he was six weeks old. His mother was near tears, and his dad, exhausted. They’d brought the usual diaper bag and baby bottles along, and after dinner, we told them to go home and leave the baby with us. We didn’t even think about where he’d sleep. In the end, we padded a deep bathroom drawer and put him in our bedroom with us. It’s an oft-repeated family story that almost everyone believed was
apocryphal until we found the picture we’d taken that night.
As in those examples, we like to make do. We don’t feel the need to buy something that we’ll rarely use, and if we have something old, we may not replace it with something new. We’ll look at what we’ve had for years, consider a newer item, and will most often say, even though we can afford the latest iteration, “We’re good. That’ll do,” because not every old thing needs to be replaced (I just heard Fred sigh with relief), and sometimes version 1.0 works better than 4.0. So take good care of what you have now, whether it’s your business, your shop machinery, office furniture, delivery vehicles, or your employees. Maintain your presses, computers, software and billing systems. Prioritize which new things you’ll eventually need, and pick your battles carefully.
Although today’s world doesn’t support it, there is a certain joy in making do. Rigorous maintenance systems and reworking what you already have may not be sexy or instantly gratifying, but speaking from experience, if you do it right, making do will also make you money, and isn’t that what business bottom lines are all about?
Cheers!
Pat Detmer
March 8, 2023
(I searched for the baby-in-a-drawer photo. Think I could find it when I could really use it? Of course not! It’s around here somewhere. So I made do, recreating it with a baby puppet that I prioritized as a necessity when we had small family members around.)