Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Projects Gaining in Popularity Because of Recession

Many are making significant economic changes in their lives with the recent downturn in the economy. Many people who have lost their jobs have had to make some dramatic changes in their lives, but even those that have relatively secure job situations are making some changes. Many consumers that would have normally hired a professional to do a job such as painting, building a fence, landscaping, small construction projects and home decoration are now finding ways to complete these types of jobs themselves and saving money in the process.

A new term has been developed for this trend, called “Insourcing”. The term simply means doing something yourself that you would normally pay someone else to do and saving money in the process. Many companies are even launching advertising campaigns about encouraging people to buy products from their stores for their “insourcing” projects. For example, Target recently had an ad campaign which encouraged customers to shop at Target for these types of products.

This trend has been generally positive for consumers, but has had an unintended negative consequence. Many day laborers are finding it very difficult to find work, especially the Hispanic Day Laborers which often hang around Home Depots and hope that someone will hire them to help out with small construction projects.

I recently had the privilege of serving lunch to a group of largely Hispanic day laborers which was hanging out near a Home Depot waiting for work. It was already the middle of the day and there were over 100 laborers waiting and hoping that someone would pick them up. The ministry worker that my group had coordinated with stated that often the workers wouldn’t get picked up three or four days a week. There simply isn’t enough work to go around right now because fewer people are doing small to medium-sized construction projects that day laborers are frequently recruited for.

Many statistics are also indicating that DIY home projects are on the rise. The Washington Post recently reported that the number of sewing kits being sold at Wal-Mart has increased by 30% in the last few months. Many people are fixing their own clothes rather than going out and buying new clothing or sending a piece of clothing to a tailor to be taken care of.

Another indicator of the increase of DIY projects is landscaping. Many people who used to pay professionals to have their lawns kept up are now doing it themselves. Some statistics indicate that the average landscaping business is down about 7% because customers are choosing to do the work themselves rather than outsource it.

By insourcing projects in your home, you can save a substantial amount of money. Taking care of small construction projects, landscaping and sewing are a great start. What sorts of do-it-yourself projects have you started doing since the economy has gone into a recession?