December’s competition – win a set of dryer balls
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This week we had a bit of a catastrophe with our sofa and had to do some emergency repairs. I’ve got to hand it to him, Mr Green is not adverse to learning how to fix things himself and can now turn his hand to most DIY jobs with aplomb.
This year Mr Green mended our patio door and last month he mended a curtain pole. He’s been promising posts on these ever since, but I’ll let him off ‘cos I love him and I’m nice like that.
This week I was contacted by the lovely Samara from espares. Espares sell over 300,000 spare parts from over 500 different brands. They are the UK’s leading spare parts retailer and will help you find spare parts, accessories and consumables for all the electrical appliances in your home and garden.
Samara tells me “The underlying message to what we do is that we want to help people reduce waste and save money. When an appliance breaks the first thing that we want people to think is “can I fix this?” rather than “I need to buy a new oven!”. We are currently working on better ‘how to’ guides for the most common spares that we carry.”
They have product reviews on their website and since launch have been overwhelmed with reviews stating that espares have helped save loads of money and kept an appliance from going to the landfill!
Not only that, but the staff at espares are hot on the eco friendly lifestyle.
- – Most of them walk, take public transit or ride bikes to work (they have a great bike shed and a bike to work scheme).
- – They’ve got loads of recycling facilities within the office (paper – even though they are mostly a ‘paperless’ office) and breakroom (for plastic food packaging).
- – They try to use the least amount of packaging possible when getting an order out to a customer. We reuse boxes, which means the boxes that they receive deliveries in will continue on life as a box that a customer receives their goods in.
In order to help you save some waste, Samara is offering one lucky winner a set of dryer balls – the most popular item in their laundry cleaning category.
These dryer balls will reduce waste going to landfill such as old dryer sheets and fabric conditioner bottles and they’re meant to cut the drying time of clothes by 25%, so you’ll save money on your fuel bills too.
They are ideal for people who suffer from contact allergies such as eczema or dermatitis, which can be exacerbated by regular fabric softeners.
If you would like to win them fill in a contact form with BALLS! in the subject line and tell us about an appliance you have saved from landfill. Did you mend it, Freecycle it, Snaffle it or perhaps you have some other amazing and inspiring story to tell us………
We’ll announce the winner at the end of the month!
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espares are great, I’m currently talking to them about getting a replacement part for my fridge/freezer. What is it with modern appliances though. We’ve only had it for 18 months and already the top flap has snapped off in the freezer compartment.
Its always after 18 months that items start to go wrong just long enough not to be covered by the manufacturers warranty.
Unfortunately we are in a throw away culture where it is cheaper to buy new than replace !
That’s great, Mrs A. I have to confess I had never heard of them until they wrote to me offering the prize, They look a fabulous company! I hope you get some luck with finding a spare part.
Hello Mike – welcome to the site 🙂 I feel the same way; 18 months and then it’s worn out; I’ve had this with a digital camera, mobile phone, 2 printers and laptop – not cheap brands either. It seems that 18 months is now ‘expected’. But I also have a stereo that my Dad bought when I was about 14 and it’s still working brilliantly – those were the days, eh? 😉
It grieves me that it is cheaper to replace than repair and I wish some legal obligation would come into place so that this was no longer the norm………
Hi Mrs G – Mike….it’s so true about the 18 months mark. The world has gradually gone bonkers hasn’t it.
Huge wave to Mike over in Newport. We’ll soon be making the trip over to see my family in the Merthyr Tydfil valley so will wave again as we drive past Newport. 😀