Latest news from the Repair Café

What do a paper shredder, a Christmas lights reindeer and a camping chair have in common? The answer is that they were all brought in to Hungerford Repair Café at the Croft Hall last Saturday needing some attention. These are the kind of objects for which it would otherwise be impossible to find a repair service in our high-tech world. If your phone or washing machine breaks, you will no doubt have a choice of repair centres willing to help you out for a fee. Why is it not the same for low-tech objects such as these?

One answer is that it costs more for manufacturers to make their products serviceable. We all want low-tech products to be cheap, so they are not made to be taken apart and fixed when they break. They are built to be used and then thrown away when they no longer work.

Another reason is that modern technology seems confusing, and many people don’t have the curiosity and confidence to get out a screwdriver to try and fix things themselves.

The good news is that with a little knowledge and determination many things can be fixed. That is where the Repair Café movement comes in. Repair Café is an International movement with over 2,500 Repair Cafés worldwide. Our goal is to reduce the amount of stuff that is thrown away, and at the same time, to help and encourage everyone to get out the toolkit when something goes wrong. Not only can we help you get something working again, but we want to show you how we do it – and especially how we do it safely. That is why we encourage our visitors to sit with the repairer. Sometimes we need an extra pair of hands, but mostly we want to pass on our knowledge and determination. In this respect, we are much more than a repair service. Hungerford Repair Café next opens its doors on September 21^st at 10:00 am – 12:30 pm in the Croft Hall. Why not come along and see what we do?