How to start a repair cafe

Photo by Sven Eberlein Some Rights Reserved. https://www.shareable.net/how-to-start-a-repair-cafe-3/

Have you ever had the experience of asking for repairs of rice cookers, vacuum cleaners, etc., and being told that "it is cheaper to buy" or "cannot be repaired because there are no parts", and eventually you have to buy a new one?

In October 2009, Dutch journalist Martin Postma, who was disgusted by the need to dispose of things that could be easily repaired, opened the first repair event "Repair Cafe" in Amsterdam. rice field. Repair Cafe is an event that connects local residents through volunteer "repairs" by utilizing local public spaces and vacant stores. It has also become a disposable spirit antidote and is now appearing all over the world.

Peter Skinner, co-founder of the first repair cafe in the United States, provided useful information for the event. 1. 1. Visit the Repair Cafe Association website and get a starter kit. Find a venue (a garage is OK if it's small, or talk to a local non-profit organization, city, school, company, etc.) 3. Securing equipment such as repairers, supporters, workbenches and tools 4. Let's decide the date and prepare for public relations etc. 5.Celebrate the opening of Repair Cafe

An important element of repair cafes is not to leave broken items until they can be repaired, but to interact with repair volunteers as a team, learn, and learn about the manufacturing process and raw materials. "You can come just to have them repaired. It's important that they sit next to the repair volunteers. I want to take advantage of that experience and develop people who think," Let's repair first. " . ".

(Keiko Arimitsu)

* This article is a summary of the article (How to start a Repair Café) by Sven Eberlein published in Shareable in January 2022.