Repair Cafe fixes throwaway culture

An opportunity for residents to have knives sharpened, sweater holes darned, small appliances set working again, lamps rewired or other things fixed was offered by the Glen Ridge Environmental Advisory Committee, at the Ridgewood Avenue train station, on April 13.

This was the second time around for the borough volunteer fix-it endeavor known as the Repair Cafe. It was headed by Marc Murphy with assistance from a cadre of handy men and women and was open from 10 a.m to 1 p.m.

“It’s all about the idea of fixing things without them going into a landfill,” Murphy said over a cup of coffee at a local cafe recently.

Other communities are running with the idea, he said, because it makes items worth saving reusable and because there are a lot of people quite skilled in do-it-yourself repair work.

“Last year we did it at the Eco-Fair,” he said, “but parking became an issue. Also, some items were too awkward to park the car and travel with.”

The Repair Cafe was organized last year by Carolee Bol. Murphy was part of her repair crew, so when she stepped away, he was asked to take over.

“We did it only once last year,” he said, “but the feedback was great. People wanted it more often. We do it for free, but ask for donations.”

He had a sheet of statistics from last month which he shared. The repairs were impressive.

Forty-two items were brought to the Repair Cafe and 37 were fixed for a repair rate of 88 percent. Among the small appliances sent away happy were a pneumatic wine opener which was jammed with a cork; a hand mixer made operable with a motor cleaning and a clothes steamer that refused to steam. After its Repair Cafe visit — there was steam.

But not everything worked out as well. A LED clock departed as was, a clock’s hands remained paralyzed and a Bose CD player/radio went quietly away.

“A woman brought in an antique lamp,” Murphy said. “She had brought it to a repair shop, but it was still flickering.

It was discovered that the wiring inside the lamp, no doubt uninspected by the repair shop, was culpably corroded. It was replaced. The woman was asked for a donation.
“She did so and so did many others,” Murphy said.

There were also repairs to wood. A picture frame was glued and a disconnected chair back support was secured with screws. Plenty of knives were sharpened, seven in all, also a garden pruner, but one pruner with an immovable bolt departed as is.

Murphy’s crack repair crew consisted of Stephanie Lee, Paul Lemaire, who handled the two bikes brought in and who volunteers at other Repair Cafes, Drew Moody, Polly Murphy, Davis Shaw and Alex Rowe. Welcomers and workflow managers were Ellen Eagle, Megan Giulianelli, Gordon Leavitt and LoriJeane Moody.

He said an announcement through Facebook and emails went out alerting residents of the repair work and asking what they would bring. That way the repair crew knew what it was up against.

“Once we confirmed the volunteer skill set, we were able to say what could be repaired,” Murphy said. “The people dropped off their item and left a phone number or stayed and watched us make the repair.”

The owner signed a form that while a best-effort would be made, their item might not be fixable by the Repair Cafe.

One unfixable was the Bose CD player/radio. It was an older model.

“I had an old Bose that needed repair, too,” Murphy said. “A repair shop I went to said Bose is very particular about who does the repairs. You have to go to an authorized dealer. It’s kind of like Apple. For those manufacturers, it’s control of quality.

“A dad and a kid brought in a bike,” Murphy continued with a smile. “The bike was assembled by Santa.”

The Christmas present required the training wheels and brake to be adjusted.

“It was a big group effort,” Murphy said of the entire Repair Cafe operation. “We could have stayed longer, but these were all volunteers. I didn’t want them to stay. It was their Saturday.”

He said the initial idea for the Repair Cafe came from “Repair Revolution — How fixers are transforming our throwaway culture,” by John Wockman and Elizabeth Knight. Another Repair Cafe is planned for the fall, he said, finishing his coffee.

  Glen Ridge, Repair Cafe