Fix It, Don’t Toss It

By Ruth Melville

It’s a long winter in Norfolk, and the sun goes down early. The lengthy evenings indoors can be tedious, even for the avid reader or TV watcher. The library does a lot to offer indoor activities for someone who wants to get out of the house, with its documentary film series on Monday nights, and its fireside games on Friday evenings. The Wood Creek Bar and Grill has its quiz night, and Infinity its open mic night. But some new diversion would be nice.

Then there’s another problem. Most people have too much odd stuff lurking in the corners of their garages or basements, household objects too old or broken to use but too good to simply throw away. After a while, if you’re like me, you just give up and take it to the transfer station.

I’d like to propose a solution to both problems, an activity that would offer not just a fun evening out visiting with your neighbors but also a way to reduce household clutter and landfill waste.

How about holding a town fix-it clinic or Repair Café? The basic idea is simple. Skilled woodworkers, electricians, knitters, computers wizards, sewers, mechanics or all-around handypersons volunteer their skills for an evening at a local gathering place. Possible choices would be town hall, the library, a church basement, or perhaps Meadowbrook’s community room. Each volunteer brings along the basic tools of his or her trade, and sets up shop at a table in the meeting hall.

People in need of help or advice can bring in their old lamps, moth-eaten sweaters, broken blenders, torn rugs, broken bracelets, battered toys and wobbly tables and either have the item repaired or get a demonstration of basic do-it-yourself repair techniques. A ground rule is that repairees can’t bring in anything bigger than they can carry—no hauling in the family dining table or rusted-out truck—and only one or two items at a time.

The Repair Café movement seems to have started in the Netherlands in 2009—the brainchild of a woman named Martine Postma, a journalist who has since retired to work on sustainability full-time—but similar projects in the United States sprang up around the same time. The idea has now spread around the world. Several towns in New York State hold Repair Cafés, including New Paltz, Poughkeepsie, Rosendale and Syracuse.

The rewards of organizing a Repair Café would be multiple. It would not only be good for the environment, but also give the repair coaches a chance to share their knowledge with their neighbors. Participants would have the great satisfaction of learning a new skill, and the pleasure of putting a beloved household object back into use. Total strangers might get to know each other. Most of all though, I hope it would be fun.

I’m fairly klutzy with most equipment, but I’m happy to offer my skills as a lifelong knitter. If you’re interested in participating, on either side of the workbench, please email me at ruth@nornow.org, and I’ll determine whether there is enough interest to proceed.