The Idea
We throw away vast amounts of stuff - stuff which could get a new lease of life after a simple repair. Lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Repair Cafés are free meeting places where people come together to repair things together. In a local Repair Café, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need on clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, etc. You'll also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in all kinds of fields. Visitors bring their broken items from home and in the Repair Café, they start making their repairs with the specialists. It’s an ongoing learning process.
Repair Cafés help people in the community whose skills may not always be valued to get involved again. It helps neighbours from different backgrounds connect with each other and allows valuable practical knowledge to be shared. Repairing things at a Repair Cafe means things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products.
The Idea
We throw away vast amounts of stuff - stuff which could get a new lease of life after a simple repair. Lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Repair Cafés are free meeting places where people come together to repair things together. In a local Repair Café, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need on clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, etc. You'll also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in all kinds of fields. Visitors bring their broken items from home and in the Repair Café, they start making their repairs with the specialists. It’s an ongoing learning process.
Repair Cafés help people in the community whose skills may not always be valued to get involved again. It helps neighbours from different backgrounds connect with each other and allows valuable practical knowledge to be shared. Repairing things at a Repair Cafe means things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products.
The repair café will start at 2:30 for the public this Sunday but if you want to get involved, you can come at 2 pm.
Also, if you feel like, you can bake a few buns for sharing. No pressure!
Bring something to repair (jewelry, crokery, clothes, bike or knife / garden tool).
See you on Sunday!
Nathalie
Hi All, just learned about this from a friend. I enjoy fixing and repairing things - not sure what the setup is but can bring along any tools that would be useful.
Project fully activated! Now let's write the blurb to announce our launch...
Also, did not think of it at our fast paced meeting but afterwards… would there be interest in offering china/small pottery mending with the Kinsugi Japanese technic at our Repair Cafe (technic which embellishes as well as mending the item with something which looks like a golden line along the crack)? If so I can list the materials needed
Could I add a thread ripper as an item for the textile repair cafe?
For garment sewing the following is needed: sissors, thimble, hook pins, needles, threads, threader, buttons, tape measure, safety pins, cushion for needles and pins, 40 cm minimum ruler, this would be the most important thing to do. have because we already have the machine
Following our initial meeting on the 25.02.23, here is our Action plan:
Timeline: We have decided to start our first Repair Café on Sunday 26th of March 2023. We are planning to meet every last Sunday of the month. We will be sharing the launch date in 2 weeks approximately.
Budget: We need to buy tools to repair items and we are setting up a list of essential ones, needed ones and 'luxury' ones. We want to be able to repair Clothes & fabric, small furniture and gadgets, bikes and buggies and gardneing tools. We also would like to be able to handle devices with plugs such as lamps but we need an additional insurance for this. We would also be able to provide participants with refreshments and snacks. Being able to print a few tshirts for fixers and friends of the café would be an added bonus if we have money left.
Impact: We know that our community will greatly benefit from this project just by looking at the response to the initial call. People are really energised by the prospect of having a repair café in the area. We are hoping to run the café every month and to be able to fix items for at least 10 people. Our aim is also to show participants how to mend and repair their items themselves. Dissemination of good practices and knowledge towards community sustainability is an important goal to us. We are also hoping to learn new skills by meeting people with skills we don't even know about!
Location: We have access to a small cottage at the Community Garden kindly provided free of charge by Dublin City Council who have been very helpful. All our members are covered by insurance and we have been in contact with DCC regarding the setting up of the café.