Pro tip: my wife asked me why I was painting the whole room when I only needed to fix one spot

I was touching up a scuff on our bedroom wall last weekend and had the whole gallon out, ready to redo the entire wall to make it match. She just looked at me and said, 'You're doing all that work because you think you have to, not because you need to.' It hit me that I was about to spend 3 hours on a 10 minute job just for my own idea of perfection. I ended up just feathering in the small patch and you can't even tell. Has anyone else gotten stuck in that 'all or nothing' mindset on a simple repair?

3 comments

3 Comments

burns.anna1mo ago

Oh man, that is the most RELATABLE thing ever. My whole garage is a museum of half-finished projects where I decided to rebuild the entire thing instead of just tightening one screw. Last month I needed a new shelf bracket and almost built a whole new workbench. The struggle is SO real.

paulsanchez1mo ago

Actually, I think that's the sign of a true maker. If you're not looking at a simple fix and seeing a chance to build something BETTER, are you even doing it right? My wife calls it "project creep" but I call it vision. That shelf bracket wasn't just a bracket, it was a reason to finally organize the whole wall.

averywilliams27d ago

Lol I used to call it scope creep and get mad at myself. But @paulsanchez is right, that's just how you make stuff actually good. I fixed a wobbly table leg last year and ended up redesigning the whole base with hidden storage. Took a week but it's way better now.