On the first Thursday of every month, come and get your broken household items repaired! Thanks to our awesome team of volunteer "fixers", around two-thirds of all the broken items that are brought get repaired! Toaster ovens, hair curlers, clocks, lamps, jeans, purses, coats, chairs, radios, microwaves...all these and many more have been fixed at the Repair Cafe at Reimagine Co, 211 King St (the old Novack's building) in the heart of downtown London!
Starting March 2019, are excited to change our name from Fix It Café to Repair Café, as we join the global movement of over 1,700 Repair Cafés across the world! You can find out more about the Repair Café movement at repaircafe.org
21st century humans throw away vast amounts of stuff. In fact, Canadians throw away almost 800 kilos of garbage a year - per person! Sometimes things with almost nothing wrong are tossed out since buying new has become cheaper than ever. These things can easily get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how.
Do you have something that’s broken? Or do you simply want to see something taken apart? During this 2 hour event, we will have individuals on hand who can help you with your items that need fixing. If you have a small appliance or something that needs fixing, please bring it in and have it repaired - for free :)
Repair Cafés are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together). In the place where a Repair Café is located, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need. On clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, et cetera. You’ll also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in all kinds of fields.
Visitors bring their broken items from home. Together with the specialists, they start making their repairs in the Repair Café. It’s an ongoing learning process. If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Or you can lend a hand with someone else’s repair job.
*** PLEASE RSVP if you would like to attend. Due to the overwhelming response to our events, we have implemented a new RSVP system: in order to come to this event, you need to RSVP on the Eventbrite website. If you are unable to attend, we ask you to please cancel your order, so that someone can take your place. We ran a waitlist for every event in August and had to turn people away, only to have 20-30 people who had RSVP’d not show up. This was very frustrating for those who wished to attend and could not, due to the high number of RSVP’s. Thank you for your understanding and collaboration, which will allow us to keep these events free of charge and open to all :) ***
View the Repair Cafe event page on Facebook here
*** Calling all “fixers” - WE NEED YOU! Whatever your area of expertise - small appliances, home electronics, housewares, computers, bikes, clothes, furniture, toys - please let us know if you are able and willing to volunteer your time in service of our community and the earth. ***
Please see the fixer bios below to get some ideas about the kinds of items that you can bring to be fixed :)
Natalie Kearns: Natalie can help and/or advise on furniture repair, small decorative items, jewellery fixes (anything that doesn’t require soldering and costume jewelry only! I don’t have any fine jewellery experience), upholstery, and sewing. Basically anything not electronic beyond lamps! :)
Dave Mitchell: Dave can fix many types of things! At the first Fix It Cafe, he fixed two toaster ovens :)
Fangming Shi: Fangming can try fixing electrical or electronic devices. At a temporary setting like a Fix It Cafe, there are constraints of equipment and spare parts, in which case he can diagnose issues and recommend what spare parts need to be ordered, This will lead to a higher rate of success.
Adam Orton: Adam's background is electrical, mechanical with a diverse history in fixing oddities. From clocks to clotheswashers, cars, jewellery, locks. He was the guy who performed maintenance and repairs on the school playground densitometer for Ontario, computers, with mechanical toys being a passion.
Lily O'Brien: Lily is here for button/fabric repair! They can sew on buttons by hand, and will bring spare buttons in case you have lost yours. Lily can also make simple repairs to most clothing, sheets, pillowcases and curtains (if the fabric isn't too thick) with their sewing machine.
Aaron Merrill: Aaron enjoys building and fixing things, and has been doing so since he was a kid. With a background in electrical and mechanical devices, there are many common things around the house Aaron could potentially fix. He's looking forward to investigating your broken items - and to deciding which tools and materials to bring from his extensive collection!
Katrina Callahan: Katrina loves to sew, she loves to repair and transform clothes. She will have her sewing bag and sewing machine with her at the Fix It Café!
Karl Slezak: Karl, the owner and lead technician of Appliances Fixed, a local appliance repair company, has a passion for tinkering. From small electronic devices to household appliances, Karl enjoys diagnosing, repairing and educating on the issues that are present. He is excited to volunteer to be of assistance at the Fix It Café.
We are proud to be a part of the global Repair Café movement. The following description comes from their website, repaircafe.org:
Repair Café teaches people to see their possessions in a new light. And, once again, to appreciate their value. Repair Café helps change people’s mindset. This is essential to kindle people’s enthusiasm for a sustainable society. But most of all, Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is. Why don’t you give it a go?
Photo and Event Description from Reimagine Co.