Repair Cafe – the new, old idea

Maybe you’ve been repairing stuff for years without really thinking about it. Or maybe you just chucked stuff out the moment it was no longer perfect, shiny and new. We all know what we “should” be doing, we didn’t need Greta or David Attenborough to tell us that binning as much as we do is a seriously bad idea. But maybe their voices have made us take a bit more notice and a bit more action.

Environmental campaigners have long told people to try and keep stuff going for as long as possible, repairing, renovating, upcycling, re-purposing but many of those skills had fallen out of favour due to uber-cheap consumer goods and a throw-away, bling culture. However the Repair Cafe movement is rapidly growing, not only keeping tonnes of products out of landfill but also transferring skills, encouraging a repair attitude and helping stretch personal budgets.

I’ve been volunteering at the Farnham Repair Cafe since its early days, turning up once a month with a overloaded trolley laden with sewing machine, sewing box, sleeve-board, travel iron and massive bag of scrap material, old zips, elastic, repair tape and a load of other things which might come in handy, generally also juggling a mug of tea. Repairing is thirsty work, especially given how much I can talk and sew at the tame time. I’ve been photographed, videoed and interviewed, even appearing on Brazilian TV (don’t all rush for an autograph..) not in a starring role, just as one of the team.

The most fun is that you never know exactly what’s going to turn up. We have teams repairing electrical, mechanical, bikes, computers, furniture and my area, textiles. The variety of goods marched through the door every month is amazing. We’ve had:

• an inherited, oriental-style, 5 foot tall metal lamp, a health hazard due to the ancient wiring, the owner can’t decide if it’s amazing, hideous or both,
• a tumble drier wheeled in on a sack trolley (they kindly forewarned the organisers) and
• a garden hoover bag complete with grass cuttings and a friendly spider who said hello as I was machine stitching, thankfully I’m not phobic so didn’t sew my fingers together.

We have regular visitors besides the arachnid – don’t worry, it was the first one in 5 years. Some bring charity shop finds, whereas others come with their favourite couture shirt (no pressure there then). We chat with the item owners, discussing the item, its possible repair and a myriad of other stuff, happily sharing pinning, seam ripping and handsewing. As volunteers we collaborate, sharing our knowledge, transferring products between stations, asking each other’s opinions, the whole time with one idea – to give the owner a functioning, usable product they can continue to use and enjoy.

Our small hall has a buzz, you can hear activity, a shared purpose, people helping strangers, people learning new stuff, the vibe is never less than positive.

So what’s the message?

Simple:

• Find a local repair cafe
  • use it
  • volunteer too if possible (remember you don’t have to have skills already, they also need front desk welcome staff, someone to get the teas in and new people willing to learn)
• Consider starting one if there isn’t one near you (there’s lots of help available to get you off the ground). See here for starters:

https://repaircafe.org/en/

Good luck, I hope you’ll come to love your local Repair Cafe as much as I do!