What is a Repair Café​?

The Repair Café foundation has the following goals:
  • To bring back repairing into local society in a modern way
  • To maintain repair expertise and to spread this knowledge
  • To promote social cohesion in local communities by connecting neighbors from different backgrounds and with different motives with each other through an inspiring and low-key event
​The Repair Café concept was developed in the Netherlands by Martine Postma, who had the idea of setting up meeting places nationwide where neighbors could repair broken items with support from specialists in a relaxed atmosphere.
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​The first Repair Café took place in Amsterdam in October of 2009. It was so successful that in 2011 Postma started the Repair Café Foundation to provide support to local groups hoping to start their own Repair Café. Since then, the concept has grown to over 1,400 events in more than 30 countries.  

​Learn How to Organize and Host a Repair Cafe

​If you loved our Repair Cafés and feel inspired to host your own, please refer to our Repair Cafe Toolkit. We'll share tips and tricks about how to plan this kind of event, organizing strategies, how to pick a viable repair cafe site, what tools you'll need, how we recruited repair volunteers, ​and details about planning time and budgets.
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Working Together Towards Repairing our Things and our Culture
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​We live in a society that revolves around consumption. We buy something, it breaks, we throw it out and buy a new one. This is the norm, but there are serious consequences with this cycle of obsolescence. The average American produces 4.4 pounds of trash per day most of which is sent to a landfill. 

But what if we could change this?  You can start with recycling and composting. But you can take it further. Repair reduces waste, reduces the need for the extraction and production of raw materials and the energy needed to do so, and promotes community sustainability. 

Repair Cafés also benefit communities by saving people money, sharing skills and practical knowledge, strengthening community ties and bringing people together. In the process, people begin to see their possessions in a new light, appreciate their value, and change their mindset about repairing. ​
The Open Repair Alliance is a group of organisations committed to working towards a world where electrical and electronic products are more durable and easier to repair. Need help or advice to repair a broken item? Fill out their Broken Item Report to receive help with troubleshooting and share data about broken items.
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Repair Manifesto, IFIXIT
Download the Repair Manifesto.