Repair Cafes

What Is It?

Repair Cafes are places to bring broken or damaged material things of all kinds – furniture, electronics, stuffed animals – to have them fixed by experts. All repairs are free.

What Does it Do?

Repair Cafes are community-oriented resources that help us find continuing value in our belongings. These places exemplify how we can organize and act to extend the lifetimes of the material things we use, whether these are everyday tools or sentimental attachments. Repair Cafes help to reduce the material waste of consumer items. They also alter how we perceive “belonging.” By receiving free service for the things in our homes and lives, those things take on a sense of community rather than just individual belonging.

The Repair Cafe movement was founded by John Wackman after he was inspired by the culture of repair and reuse in the Netherlands. He started small by founding one Repair Cafe in the Hudson Valley, working with members from across the community to meet their repair needs. He taught others how to found and run Repair Cafes of their own, and the project grew to include a network of 30 Cafes across the region.

How Can It Be Accessed?

The official page for Repair Cafes of the Hudson Valley can be found here. Toolshed partners with Repair Cafe Hudson Valley by supplying tool kits for their events through its tool lending library Toolshed Exchange and sometimes providing other labor and promotion. 

An article on what it’s like to visit a Repair Cafe can be read through Times Union.

Here is a book by Elizabeth Knight and John Wackman detailing the Repair Cafe movement.