The idea

Hosting a repair café is all about empowering people by teaching them to repair their own things. Volunteers would meet up at the local library, bring some tools and be ready to help guests who come with their broken stuff. You don’t need a lot of tools or extensive knowledge to get started - it’s all about the method.

The method

In Reparations.Konsortiet we have a saying:

<aside> 💬 “We rather want you to make a bad repair and learn a lot of new skills, than make a perfect fix and learn nothing at all.”

</aside>

When people visit the repair for the first time, there might be a bit of confusion for what the concept is and how it works. It’s therefore important to underline the 3 following concepts.

You will fix it yourself, with the help of the volunteers

  1. It’s a good idea to have a couple of hours available and be motived to learn
  2. The help is free, but it’s at your own risk, so don’t bring your Rolex 😉

When this information is explained, it’s quite normal to register what kind of items people bring in for repair. The idea behind this is, that it’s good to know what can and can’t be repaired. As well, this information is collected on an European level at the Open Repair Alliance's website.

Example on the registration (in Danish) →

Repair data.xlsx

When people are informed about the concept and the item has been registered, the actual work starts. It’s always a good idea to ask into how the item got broken or what ideas the guests have for what might be wrong. Keep this in mind, but also use your own experience to make an assessment. It might also be a good idea to ask the guest to show the problem. (Sometimes things begin to work again when they are brought into the repair café)

On items like clothing 👕, bicycles 🚲, furniture 🪑etc. the problems are often quite obvious and visible. On electronics this might be a bit more difficult to see or assess. 📱🖨️

You will be in one of two situations, when the guest bring in an item:

You have prior experience repairing this product or items which work in a similar way.

You have no experience with this item and know nothing about repairing it.

When you are in the 2. situation, you might feel unsure how you can help the person. In these situations, say that you don’t know how to solve the problem, but that you are willing to find a solutions together with them. Using a computer or smartphone, begin your search on Google.