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from the making-broken-vacuum-cleaners-suck-again dept.
If you've ever despaired of getting your vacuum cleaner fixed or thought that your broken lamp was a lost cause, there's hope. A worldwide movement is trying to reform our throwaway approach to possessions.
The movement's foundation is the Repair Cafe, a local meeting place that brings together people with broken items and repair coaches, or volunteers, with the expertise to fix them.
[...] "One of the things that makes it challenging and interesting is that we don't know what people are going to bring," Ray Pfau, an organizer of a Repair Cafe in Bolton, Mass., said in an email.
Lamps top the list of items brought in to be repaired, followed by vacuum cleaners, Mr. Wackman said. The types of repairs offered vary by location and reflect the particular talent in a community, he said.
New Paltz [in upstate New York] has a repair person with a national reputation as a doll expert. It also has a "Listening Corner" with a psychiatric nurse "because being listened to is a 'reparative act,' " he said.
The cafes invite people to bring their "beloved but broken" possessions to the gatherings, which are hosted in church basements, libraries, town halls and senior centers. The cafes make no guarantees that items will be fixed.
"All we can guarantee is that you will have an interesting time," Mr. Wackman said.
The gatherings tend to draw professionals, retirees and hobbyists who volunteer as repair coaches.
None in my area but I would be tempted to show up and help. I like to fix things and have a decent success rate, just coaxed some more life out of our ~30 year old garage door opener.
Similar article at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/repair-cafe/ and the main website is at: https://repaircafe.org/en/about/ (also available for NL, FR, DE & ES)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by OrugTor on Tuesday January 24 2017, @04:18PM
If it can be repaired by an amateur there's a youtube video for it. I've done quite a few jobs myself by looking at a video, jobs which would have required a costly visit by a service professional. Still, there's value in in-person repair workshops and the value is in the personal contact which is high value indeed in these virtual times.
(Score: 1) by chucky on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:20PM
Sometimes the tool becomes the problem: the video is easy enough for an amateur to understand how to do the fix, but he can't get the right tool quickly. I need to change the inner cartridge in my taps. Guess what, the nut above it is made of soft plastic and they don't have a key of this size in the shops around, neither do friends. I'll order one and get it done later than planned, but I can imagine how many people would just give up and call a certified service or simply replace the thing as such.