Something stops working, you check how much a repair would cost, and you throw it out. Most of us have done it a dozen times. Repair Café is a movement built around not doing that.
It began with one Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam. On 18 October 2009, dozens of neighbors turned up in the foyer of a theater where volunteer repair experts had laid out tools and materials. Founder Martine Postma had hit on a simple idea: low-key meeting places where neighbors repair broken things together, with specialists on hand to help. That first afternoon turned into a foundation, and the foundation turned into a movement.
Here's how it works. Find a Repair Café near you on the site's "Visit" page. Bring something broken. At the café you'll find tools, materials, and volunteer repairers: electricians, seamstresses, carpenters, bicycle mechanics. You work on the repair *together*, not hand it over and walk away. The advice and help from the experts is free.
It's a social thing, too. If you have nothing to repair, you can sit down with a cup of tea or coffee, lend a hand with someone else's repair, or page through the books on repairs and DIY at the reading table.
The reach is global. Besides the Netherlands, there are Repair Cafés in Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and dozens of other countries. The site says it has even reached India and Japan, and it runs in five languages. A news item on the site marks the world's 4,000th Repair Café, in Canada.
Can't get to one? The site also has repair guides and tips for common fixes, including coffee makers, laptops, and furniture, plus a Linux Repair Café for people who want help with old computers. If you'd rather start one in your town, Repair Café International offers a digital starter kit for a voluntary one-off fee, and you can sign up as a volunteer fixer.
One honest note: nothing is guaranteed to be fixable. The foundation says it can't tell you in advance whether a particular object can be mended, though it says most things stand a good chance. And each café is run by a local group, so check the listing for when and where it meets.
The foundation is a nonprofit based in Amsterdam, and it asks for voluntary donations to keep going. Before you replace that broken thing, find out if there's a Repair Café near you.