Why you should fix stuff with your neighbors

In a world where consumers are constantly encouraged to discard and replace, community repair events offer a refreshing alternative: one where repair was not just possible, but celebrated. 

I got a first hand view of how enjoyable repair can be when it’s done in a community setting: This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending my very first Repair Café. 

A Repair Cafe — or a Fixit Clinic or Restart Party — is a hands-on community event where neighbors come together to breathe a second life into broken items. Events such as this are grounded in the belief that we should repair rather than replace, a central tenet of the Right to Repair campaign. 

What I saw when I visited the Glenn Ridge, NJ Repair Cafe

Hosted inside a historic train station, the space was adorned with stained-glass windows, as well as a modern photography installation from the local high school. The setting grounded the event in history, community, and a shared commitment to keeping cherished items in use.

People of all ages attended, from children looking to fix a stuffed animal to an elderly woman seeking assistance with her walker. 

Repairs ranged from mending a stitch in a wool sweater, to reworking the electrical wiring on a faulty toaster oven. With Spring around the corner, many cyclists came for tune-ups. 

Perhaps the most unique repair of the day was a 50-year-old wooden trash bin decorated with painted swan and heart details. The original owner had had it since she was a little girl and was hoping to get the wire screen that had come loose secured. With a little improvisation, the damaged screen was restored, and the bin will now be a mainstay in her granddaughters’ bedrooms. Saving this trash bin from the trash itself shows how repair culture isn’t just about fixing things, but about preserving history and sentiment.

Repair matters, and must be protected

More impressive than the repairs themselves was the sense of community. Two children watched in awe as a lamp was repaired. Two previously unacquainted gentlemen combined their carpentry skills to restore multiple wooden chairs over the course of four hours.

Attending this event reminded me why the Right to Repair matters. The campaign is about more than just convenience. It is about reclaiming the ability to fix the things we own, reducing waste, and building community. As I watched a newly fixed children’s toy spring back to life, I couldn’t help but think that this is what we should be working toward, a world where repair isn’t the exception, but the norm.

Local Repair Cafés such as this are just one single piece of a larger effort. Across the nation advocates ranging from tech enthusiasts in Silicon Valley to farmers in rural Missouri are fighting to ensure every American has the right to fix the things they own. Not long ago, electronics were built to endure years of daily use, and could be repaired with widely available parts when needed. Today, however, manufacturers exploit legal, digital, and physical barriers to prevent consumers from making their own repairs or seeking help from independent repair shops. The result of this is a rapid increase in electronic waste clogging our landfills, and further strain on limited precious resources as we produce replacement devices. We can remedy this by opting for repair over replacement; extending the lifespan of our phones even just 50% would be equivalent to taking 593,870 cars off the road! 

That is why we need Right to Repair laws, which require manufacturers to make available the parts, tools, and information we need to fix our devices. With legislation now introduced in all 50 states across the country, we have a real opportunity to shift the dynamic – one repair at a time.

And even where we have the Right to Repair, we need to exercise it. Here’s how you can find a local community repair event near you: 

• https://fixitclinic.blogspot.com/
• https://www.repaircafe.org/en/