Disposable world – why aren’t things made to last?

Large household appliances fridge, stove, washer, dryer, vacuum cleaner. It's a disposable world. Why aren't things made to last?
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Disposable world – why aren’t things made to last?

In late 2020, we had a run of bad luck at our house. In a three-month period, we replaced our water heater, our stove, and our washing machine. That recent experience made me wonder if anything is built to last in our disposable world.

I often hear people say, “nothing is built to last these days” or “everything you buy is cheap junk” or “they don’t make ‘em like that any more”. But is this really true? Is everything made to wear out more quickly than things that were made in the past? And, if that is true, why?

This post was originally published in November 2020 and updated in September 2023.

My family’s history with appliances

The stove we replaced was 27 years old. The washing machine was 10 years old. The water heater was only 5 years old. Three appliances. Three very different experiences.

When we moved into our house 27 years ago, we bought 4 shiny new appliances—a fridge, the stove we just replaced, a washer and a dryer. About a year after we moved in, we bought a chest freezer. Let’s look at how long each of these appliances lasted.

  • The first appliance to go was the fridge. We replaced it after 11 years. The replacement is now 16 years old. I’m willing to bet we’ll be buying a new fridge before long.
  • Next, we replaced the washer and dryer after 17 years. The washer we just replaced was 10 years old. The dryer is still going strong, but we only use it about half as much because we line dry our laundry as much as possible.
  • The chest freezer lasted 23 years until we finally had to get a new one a couple of years ago. Interestingly, the freezer we bought replaced a small apartment-sized freezer that I had before I got married. My mum still has that little freezer in her apartment. It’s almost 35 years old! My family has had our $200 worth out of that freezer.
  • Of all the appliances we bought, the stove lasted the longest. After 27 years, the oven still worked well. But the burners on the stovetop were behaving unpredictably which made me nervous. Not wanting to risk a fire, we decided it was time to retire it and get a new one.

To be honest, our worst luck has been with dishwashers! When we moved in, there was a dishwasher in the house. We replaced it a year or two later. We are now on our sixth dishwasher in 27 years. The absolute worst was a Kenmore that lasted barely two years. We finally had to get rid of it because it was so loud we could hear it outside in the driveway—with all the doors and windows closed.

Why don’t things last as long as they used to?

Dishwashers aside, I’m seeing a trend toward getting fewer years out of new appliances than the ones we bought in the 90s. Talking to friends and family members reveals similar experiences. This article from The Spruce states most major appliances will last 10 to 15 years. That’s consistent with what the sales rep at the appliance store told us when we told him our washing machine was 10 years old.

4 Reasons Things Don't Last Like They Used To

When I think about why things don’t last, it comes down to four things.

Appliances cost less than they used to

First, all things considered, today’s appliances cost less than they used to.

The stove we bought 27 years ago cost just under $900. At that time, the average family income in Canada was $54,000. With the average household income in Canada these days at just under $100,000, an equivalent stove should have cost around $1,600.

The stove we bought has a lot more features and we paid $1,200 for it. Interestingly, there was a stove in the store almost identical to the one we got rid of. We could have bought it for $749. That’s less than what we paid almost 30 years ago!

While we might not like it, if wages have almost doubled, the only way to sell an equivalent product at a lower price is to keep manufacturing costs low. How do companies do that? Cheaper labour and cheaper materials. That’s why things don’t last.

Technology is changing everything

Next, consider the impact of technology. Advances in technology mean manufacturers add new features all the time.

When we bought our old stove 27 years ago, there weren’t a lot of features to consider. Gas or electric? Self clean or not? That was pretty much it. When we bought our new stove, we had so many choices to make. Gas? Electric? Induction? Convection? True convection? Self clean? Steam clean? Ceramic top? Warming drawers? Dual ovens? It’s enough to make your head spin!

More features and high-tech bells and whistles mean more things to go wrong. It also means things are more costly to fix.

Repairs are expensive and impractical

My parents’ generation had a “make do and mend” mentality. They repaired things when they broke and kept them until they were worn out.

When an appliance stops working, you might consider getting it repaired. Then, you weigh the cost of the repair against the price of a new appliance. In most cases, it just isn’t practical to repair an appliance that is more than a few years old.

As an example, we replaced the pump on one of our dishwashers, only to have the motor blow up a few months later. In hindsight, we would have been further ahead to just put the repair money into a new dishwasher.

My husband is handy so when our washing machine quit on us, he did some research on what the problem could be. He looked at a couple of things himself and came to the conclusion that fixing it would be a huge job. So, back to the appliance store we went.

Our consumer culture makes us want the latest features

Finally, let’s consider the impact of increased consumerism—the smartphone mentality. Like the smartphone that we replace every couple of years, we are conditioned to think we need the latest and greatest of everything.

I admit I inherited a frugal mentality from my parents. I don’t buy new things just because I can or want to. When we renovated our kitchen six years ago, we decided to keep our old fridge and stove. They were both still working so it felt wasteful to get rid of them and spend money on new ones. So, we put our old appliances in our new kitchen. It didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the new kitchen one bit!

Our obsession with having the latest and greatest means manufacturers don’t need to make things that last. They know people like having shiny new things, so they crank out products with more features at the lowest possible cost. And we buy them!


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There is some good news

Although I hate to think of the environmental impact of all those discarded appliances, it’s not all bad news.

Modern appliances are much more energy efficient and use far less water than old ones. Look for the ENERGY STAR certification when buying appliances. The savings add up!

And there are eco-friendly options to dispose of your old appliances. Ask your retailer what they will do with the appliances they haul away.

It’s a disposable world

Sadly, we live in a throwaway world. Our obsession with disposable goes beyond appliances. In Why it’s time to ditch fast fashion, I wrote about the high cost of cheap clothing. The high divorce rate suggests we also treat people and relationships as disposable, but that’s a topic for another post.

We can’t change the world overnight. But we can all look for little wins and opportunities to make a difference in areas that we can control. Every small change makes a difference.

What experiences have you had with appliances? Tell us about them below.

Hi there! I’m Michelle and I live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I am married with two young adult daughters. I’m a big fan of reducing waste, using less plastic, decluttering and simplifying life as much as possible.

17 thoughts on “Disposable world – why aren’t things made to last?

  1. This is a very good read! I hate getting rid of things and try and keep them for as long as possible! It is something that my mum has always done!

    Amber

    1. That’s great Amber. At one time, I used to buy new things “just because”. Now I wait until things are really well worn and used up before replacing them.

  2. Hurrah for your frugal streak! We still use a big four burner stove which was here when we moved in 30+ years ago. It uses natural gas and works fine. It was clearly built to last… We finally replaced a similarly reliable washing machine and dryer a few years ago — although I use the sun and the back porch to dry certain things like wet towels. I manage to live without a cell phone; so I don’t have to worry about replacing that. I agree that most of us live in a shiny, billion-dollar tunnel of advertising-created desire — which is always encouraging us to buy more stuff! I still use the same bike I bought 20+ years ago from our local bike store — and pay $300 or so every couple of years to get a new chain, new tires, new brake pads, etc. installed. My Apple laptop from 12 years ago still runs (although I recently bought a new battery for it), but it can’t process a lot of the constantly updated software programs; so I mostly use a three-year old Apple laptop that a friend gave me last year when her employer gave HER a new laptop. Let us all be as frugal as we can! Thank you for this inspiring and informative blog post.

    1. Well it sounds like you are doing an amazing job at not caving to the constant pressure of advertising. It’s sad, though, because I would gladly pay more money for better quality. But, I know that all you get for more money is more features that someone dreamed up that they want you to believe you can’t live without. You really don’t need all those bells and whistles.

  3. I bought my fridge perhaps four years ago, max. I’ve had to repair it once, and now need a part that connects the drawers in order for them to sit right and slide in and out. I’m not impressed let me tell you.

  4. Do you feel planned obsolescence factors in? I’m a renter so I don’t own my appliances, but from what I hear other people say it feels like things are not built to last.

  5. We’ve had similar issues though we didn’t have appliances that lasted nearly as long. Of our brand new appliances that we bought when we moved in (7 years ago) all of them broke in some fashion. The dishwasher and drier I was able to fix, simple repairs. The washing machine broke once and got fixed but the second breakdown was unrecoverable. The fridge leaked and damaged the kitchen – it got replaced (this one likes to freeze food). And now are stove is not functioning correctly, the heating element is gone but to fix it will cost as much as a new machine.

    I would happily pay more for items that last, wait I thought I did that last time. This disposable form of consumerism is really bad for the environment.

    1. I agree Matt. I hate the environmental impact. I would gladly pay more for better quality but it seems all you get for spending more is more features and more things to go wrong.

  6. My mum’s tumble drier is older than me. My favourite skirt was hers before I was born. I have a bad record with washing machines, must be on my 4th in 12 years. It’s so irritating when something breaks a month or two after the warranty expires, I’ve had 3 Fitbits break after 13 or 14 months. So yeah, I wish things lasted better.
    Another way people treat things as disposable is baby and child equipment and toys. I know so many people who buy new, don’t need something anymore and so sell it, then have another child and buy new again. It seems so wasteful.

    1. It sounds like your track record with washing machines is like mine with dishwashers. 🙁

      I totally agree with you about wishing things would last. I would gladly pay more money for better quality. But, all you get if you spend more money is more features and things that can fail.

      I can’t believe people do that with their kids’ stuff. When our girls were born, we got a lot of stuff from my sister-in-law. Both of her kids used it, then both of our kids used it, and we passed a lot of it on to other people when we were done with it. A huge part of the problem is this mentality that we have to have the lastest and greatest of everything.

      1. The jungle gyms were the worst for seeing the same people buy the same thing every 3 years.
        Our boys have shared almost everything. Small boy even slept in my moses basket for a while. We had this amazing pale yellow fleece sleep suit with ducks on it that was worn by my boys, my best friend’s 2 girls and her sister’s 2 girls. That’s one of the things I will not getting rid of when I declutter.

  7. Touch wood. I’ve been getting quite a few years out of my appliances. My mobile’s over 4 years old! I only replace things when I have too! 😀

I'd love to hear your ideas. Drop me a comment below.

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