Aurora Housing offers a variety amenities to lift some pressure off the more mundane tasks of everyday life, like the U-Fix-It shops.
Many choose to live on base out of convenience, but few take advantage of said conveniences while they’re available. Services that can save valuable time and money like U-Fix-It are often underused, said Daniel Gregoire, Aurora Military Housing logistics manager.
“This kind of service is very common in on-base housing whether it is military-run or run by a private company,” Gregoire said. “I feel ours is better-equipped than most places, because people coming to Alaska are often coming from an opposite extreme of weather.”
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson has two U-Fix-It locations, one on JBER-Richardson and one on JBER-Elmendorf. Residents can pick up anything from toilet seat brackets to fertilizer at these locations, and it’s all free.
“The hours are a little different for the two locations,” Gregoire said. “Elmendorf is closed on Mondays but open on Saturdays and Fort Rich U-Fix-It is open Monday through Friday. We’re basically open six days a week for residents to make appointments or use the services.”
“It’s not a shop, because there’s nothing here for sale,” he said. “We offer to all of our residents quite a large selection of items that can go into the house and repair minor issues.”
For some items, the resident can trade broken for new, for other items they can rent – for free – or simply have.
“Most of our rentals are three-day rentals. We have lawn equipment and [carpet] shampooers for rent. We also have blacklights for rent which are important when somebody first moves in so they can notice any discrepancies on their carpets,” Gregoire said. “It’s all included, we also have a sonic blind-cleaning machine. If you’ve ever tried to clean blinds on your own, it’s a hassle; with U-Fix-It, they can just make an appointment, bring in their blinds and use the machine. It takes a couple minutes and it’s done.”
The savings don’t stop there though. U-Fix-It can also confirm whether or not that hard-to-find light bulb is broken and replace it. They also do screen repairs for when the family dog takes a bit too much interest in a passing squirrel.
“We do not offer regular screw-in lightbulbs,” Gregoire said. “We have the ones you’d have to do a lot of work to find. People have gotten better about bringing in their bulbs, but it is a one-for-one exchange, we need the old bulb to match it.”
So next time that light bulb sputters out for the sixth time, or the grass starts to show its age, don’t go to the store, go see the folks at one of the U-Fix-It locations.
“You save a lot of money using our carpet cleaners and bulbs,” said Briana Young, U-Fix-It clerk and JBER resident. “The little brackets for the toilet paper holders. Its really convenient to be able to stop by and pick up these things. You don’t have to go out and search for them.”