Lately I started dabbling in something like DIY-lite.
Since I rent, I can't go big — it's more at the level of building a simple shelf.
It's a lot of fun. It's been a while since I got hooked on something new.
There's a reason DIY started to interest me.
The other day I wandered into a goods shop by chance. It was more fun than I expected, and everything pulled at me.
Before I could even think about where in the house I'd display them, I picked up a few charming pieces and bought them on the spot.
Even after I got home, just looking at them made my heart race.
My room had a very simple layout, with few things in it.
I wouldn't call myself a minimalist, but when I moved I took the chance to throw a lot away and barely bought anything new.
It wasn't cluttered, so it wasn't bad for focus — but nothing really made me feel attached to the place either.
But after I brought those goods home, just setting them in a corner of the room completely changed the atmosphere. I was surprised — ah, having things you love is enough to make a room feel this lively.
After that I wanted to decorate more, so I browsed YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram looking for layouts that felt right.
At the same time I tried IKEA, Muji, and other furniture stores, but I'd failed a few times assembling ready-made pieces, so I couldn't quite bring myself to buy.
And I still couldn't find anything close to the image in my head — so, annoying as it was, I decided to buy lumber and try DIY.
It was a huge success. I'm still mid-project, but I'm truly glad I did it. Arranging the goods made me feel genuine affection for the room from the bottom of my heart.
I even catch myself looking at photos of the room after DIY while I'm out and feeling happy about it.
At the same time I fell hard for collecting goods, searching related shops on Instagram and Google Maps and going almost every day.
The kinds of goods I like often aren't that expensive per piece, so I imagine the retail shops don't make much.
That's why shops have already closed, or if they still have a storefront it's often in the suburbs rather than the city center. Even when there's a downtown store, it's usually tiny.
On the other hand, platforms like BASE, Stores, and Shopify make it easy to open and run an online shop cheaply. That's genuinely wonderful.
I knew BASE's stock had exploded with the digital shift from COVID, but I hadn't really felt the impact.
Embarrassingly, I was skeptical — thinking it was a temporary COVID bubble, and that makers and retailers with no know-how putting up stopgap e-commerce sites wouldn't change much.
But from the customer side (me hunting for goods), even a bare-bones page is fun to browse, and if I can buy, I don't care about the layout.
And it's not only EC platforms — Instagram's promotional power is wild. Looking at photos alone makes you want things, and they sell out fast.
Through collecting goods I got a fresh overview of what "selling things" means. It's wonderful. I'm truly grateful to the shop that set this off.
Anyway, back to DIY.
DIY is as fun as collecting goods. Making something visible with your own hands feels fresh — I remember building all kinds of things out of cardboard as a kid.
But if I'd tried DIY without ever collecting goods first, I doubt I'd have found it interesting at all — it probably would have felt like a chore.
In other words, the sequence was inevitable: being moved at a goods shop → displaying them at home → going to furniture stores → needing DIY.
And even if I carefully dug up childhood formative experiences — say, playing with toys like crazy or doing crafts — I don't think I'd have smoothly decided to take up DIY from that alone.
It really was a matter of sequence.
That said, trying to intentionally design the sequence is odd too — you only see it when you look back after things have happened.
The famous quote: Steve Jobs's connecting the dots.
On sequence, there's a very striking, funny scene in Hunter × Hunter, a manga I love.
For people who don't know it, a short plain version: there are opposing armies A and B. At some point, A suspects there's a B spy in their ranks, so A needs to flush the spy out.
In that situation, an A leader speaks to everyone in A:
"It's all a matter of sequence. If I'd met B's representative earlier, I think I'd have been working with him too."
It's a great line and a great way of thinking. Hunter × Hunter has the usual manga-style memorable quotes, of course, but also a lot of phrasing with depth like this — highly recommended.
Speaking a bit self-indulgently, I felt the same when I changed jobs.
When I told my previous employer I was leaving, I was thinking along the lines that it was a matter of sequence, and that nobody was really at fault (it wasn't that the previous workplace was especially bad).
Everything is a matter of sequence.
If there's a takeaway, it's that from here I'll probably get interested not only in DIY but in other cultures through goods and DIY.
In other words, branching from what you already like makes it easier to get interested. From there you recall all kinds of formative experiences. Everything else can wait until you need it.
So if someone asks, "Do you recommend DIY as a hobby?" I can't say a flat YES. I'll paraphrase Steve Jobs's speech, borrow some authority, and say something that sounds plausible. Shameless, I know.
© 2021 ZUUHE