How to Start a Repair Café
A guide to getting started, by Chorlton Repair Café!
So, what is a Repair Cafe?
Repair Café’s are free meeting places where you can bring broken items to be fixed up by expert volunteers who are skilled in all sorts of fields. They’re spaces where you can meet people, learn skills and work with volunteers to make your items good as new. Anyone can bring along a broken household or electrical item, toy, clothes, bike or more and our volunteers will try and fix it for them – for free!
Why start one?
Many “broken” things we throw away often have a simple fault. At our Repair Café we usually fix around two-thirds of items, all of which would otherwise go to landfill (very few electrical items are actually recyclable). Additionally, replacement items need to be manufactured and shipped half-way round the world. All because of a loose connection that could be sorted by you and your crack team of fixing volunteers.
How do I get started?
Luckily, getting set up is fairly straightforward.
Firstly, you need to register with Repair Café International. There is a voluntary lifetime donation of £49. You get a starter pack and pin on their map so people can find you, and they have various online resources.
Ideally find a few people who’ll help coordinate things too at this point. You will also need insurance, and probably a community group bank account. Many groups use Wessex Insurance who specialise in Repair Cafés.
Next you’ll want to find somewhere to host the cafe and volunteers to help run it!
Location: does it have to be somewhere that serves tea and coffee?
No, Repair Café is a bit of a terrible misnomer. You can use anywhere; a community centre, school or university, or a backroom of a café. Location and accessibility for your community are obviously key. Two other things to consider - your room hire is likely to be your biggest ongoing cost, so try to find a place for free or cheap. Secondly, you’re going to be using tools and gluing things so make sure you’ll have enough space, suitable tables, and it’s not too pristine.
Volunteers: how do you find them?
I would take a (co-ordinated) splatter gun approach to this. Do social media call outs asking for fixers- describe what you’re trying to set up (most people won’t know what a Repair Café does) and share it across as many platforms and local groups as you can. Ask everyone you know to share it on WhatsApp groups they’re part of, stick up posters, talk to people, whatever you can do.
I don’t even know who I’m looking for….
Your ideal person might have experience of taking things apart and fixing them that they can transfer to household items (maybe engineers, electronics people, mechanics, product designers, IT people, builders….) or just repairs things around the house.
Be proactive and think laterally. Social groups for older or retired people are a goldmine of potential skills, groups like Men in Sheds or a local club for radio-controlled cars might reveal just the people you need, so get in touch with them. Maybe a local university or college’s engineering or electronics department might be useful and give students some valuable work experience.
Finally, get in touch with established groups in the area (check the Repair Café website, Facebook etc). They might have a few experienced fixers who can come along while you get on your feet or offer some advice.
But how do we go from that to fixing anything that comes in?
Some volunteers will feel confident fixing things already. For others, it might be worth getting a few broken items together (a lamp, a vacuum cleaner, a toaster) and with the help of YouTube and various repairer forums taking them to pieces at home and seeing what goes where. Unfortunately, there is no quick answer beyond putting the hours in. Generally people are very patient and just glad you’re trying to help fix something they were going to throw away anyway.
Ready to go?
It’s always best to start gently and build up. Advertise softly at first, even doing a session or two with just friends bringing things along. If you only have a few fixers, you don’t want hundreds of people descending all at once! If you have volunteers with specific skills, like bicycle or clothes repairs (that you found at the local cycling club and over-60’s coffee morning you visited, of course), be sure to specifically mention this in your adverts – people won’t know what you can repair unless you tell them.
If you have any questions about starting a Repair Café in your area please feel free to email us at chorltonrepaircafe@gmail.com and we’ll do whatever we can to help.
Good luck!
Some FAQ’s and helpful tips …
How do you know something is safe?
Safety is paramount. As part of the check in process, we ask people to read a brief waiver outlining our limitations and sign it. All our volunteers follow safety guidelines when working on an item and know to ask someone more experienced if they feel out of their depth. We always use an RCD safety plug, and everything is PAT tested at check out.
How often should we run it?
Most Repair Cafes tend to run monthly or fortnightly on Saturday mornings, but they can be any time to suit. Groups in the same town or city tend to stagger which weekend they’re on.
Tools and What to Buy:
Some volunteers bring their own tools, but it’s worth getting some equipment for the group if you can. This list could be endless, but a good basic tool kit, plus:
a multimeter
a screwdriver set with specialist heads that fit unusual manufacturers screws
a soldering iron
wire cutters and strippers
various glues and tapes
cloths, small brushes (old toothbrushes) and tissues for cleaning items
some fresh AA/ AAA batteries, lightbulbs, plug fuses etc to test items with
There are lots of lists on the web, or ask your fixers what they need before buying items. It’s also worth asking locally on social media if anyone has unused tools from your list they can donate to save costs.
Costs
Start Up Costs
Joining Repair Café International : £50
Basic tools : £50-£100+
PAT machine: £100-£300 (cheaper to buy second hand, they tend to last but research carefully)
RCD plugs: £10 each, will need 1- 3
Ongoing Costs
Room hire: Varies, Free- £100 per session (we pay £75 per session)
Annual insurance cover : varies, around £300-£400
PAT machine calibration: Around £50 annually
The key is trying to keep costs to a minimum where possible. We ask for donations for a successful fix and if they can afford to, but this only generates £20-£60 per session, against our monthly costs of £100+. We fill the shortfall by applying for small grants and one-off donations from companies.
Helpful Links
Repair Café International: https://www.repaircafe.org/en/join/start-your-own/
Wessex Insurance: https://www.wessex-insurance.com/
Greater Manchester Repair Cafes: https://repaircafesgm.org.uk/
Repair Cafes and where to find them: https://www.inournature.uk/tips/manchesters-repair-cafes-and-where-to-find-them
About Chorlton Repair Café
When we started our Repair Café in South Manchester, we had a couple of repairers, one of whom was luckily very experienced and has always been our backstop when anyone gets stuck. We had a small amount of funding, but quickly realised we were paying out more than we were making each session and decided to fund this through small grants as we needed them.
We also found we could very quickly get swamped if too many people arrived at once. We came up with a better system for checking people in and out and went on a volunteer recruitment drive. As mentioned above, we tried to find people with existing skills but also set up workshops run by our more experienced fixers to teach any beginners. These focused on basic skills fixing common items like lamps and vacuum cleaners, which freed up our more experienced repairers during sessions to concentrate on the more complex items brought in. We now have over a dozen repairers, including bikes, textiles and software specialists, and a solid front of house system to receive people, and we’re hoping to increase the number of items we fix per session further.
Check out our Facebook page - here!
