Repair cafes are all about fixing household items, like toasters or an old chair.
The Repair Cafe Kingston is just over a year old now, and is one of roughly 1,500 around the world. The way the repair cafes work is that anyone can bring in their broken items to see if they can be fixed.
Brian Weir is what the cafe calls a fixer — someone experienced working with equipment, which in Weir’s case includes stereo gear like tuners, receivers and turntables. The cafe, Weir says, has a dedicated group of volunteers with expertise in a range of fields.
“Bicycles to woodwork to household appliances,” Weir said. “We have great fabric experts, stereo and electronics stuff.”
The service has no cost except except materials, which are purchased by the people with the broken item. The cafes, Weir says, are another way of reducing garbage.
“It doesn’t go to the landfill,” he said. “Often older stuff is actually better made if you know how to get it apart.”
WATCH: Fix your broken appliances at Kingston’s repair cafe!
The cafe runs every second Sunday of the month in the basement of Unitarian Place on Concession Street — a space which is donated, keeping the organization’s overhead low.
Weir says there are very few items they won’t look at.
“We do not accept anything that is gasoline-powered, or anything so big you can’t get it through the door,” he said.
The volunteers at Repair Cafe Kingston are also focused on building community, by offering treats, coffee and a child care area for anyone who drops in.
Volker Busse is another fixer and volunteer who says he finds the work satisfying.
“Nothing makes you feel much better than helping other people or giving a hand to where my skills can be put to use,” Busse said.
That help extends beyond repairing items for others, too. Weir says fixers share their knowledge with the people they help.
“We explain it as we go and we tell them this is why it’s gone bad,” he said.
One of the cafe’s main goals, Weir says, is to reverse the throw-away society.