Repair Café

Ooooh we have a Men’s Shed too Granny , very well attended as I understand it . I think our church does a once a month Men’s Breakfast for all ages ( seems like a coffee morning for men didn’t quite hit the spot lol ) .

henetha was yours free? This was.

I hope this one here will happen more often! It's not on again until September....this was the third one, that I went to.

It's brilliant, isn't it. In our little town we now have a bicycle repair cafe and shop..You can have coffee or a meal while your bike is being fixed. Great! I hope this idea spreads.

Thanks for your first hand account AlieOxon, I looked at the site and it was good to see the cross-generation mix in the photographs. I've put a link up for those who like an easy life: sites.google.com/site/sustainabledidcot/repair-cafe

Before we married The Wonderful Man warned me that his motto in life was, 'use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without' - fortunately this reflected my own values and so that's pretty much how we've lived. I must admit that now and again I have a little sigh over something that I would like to replace (my 40 year old kitchen for instance), but until very recently almost all of our furniture first belonged to someone else in the family, I buy a lot of my clothes from charity shops and we even grow a lot of our own food.

I've just been to a Repair Cafe! I took a strimmer which they fixed and I left it (having already got another) to go to Freecycle. This was in the Civic Hall here and they go under the name of 'Sustainable Didcot' - look up the site online!

A great idea and I want to get involved. I will go to the fair in August run by the Town Council near me.

I've wondered the same, Far North, especially with the larger stuff. There's such a lot of it that I wonder how all of it can be recycled. I'd like to think it could, but I'm not sure. I especially think of old cars/vehicles and aircraft. There's somewhere (in America , I think), where there's an aircraft "graveyard" - somewhere in the desert if memory serves me right, where there are hundreds of defunct aircraft just left to deteriorate.
The ideas discussed in the posts here though, are excellent.
I try, whenever possible, to pass on things I no longer need if they still have a good life in them. Other things, I'll try to repair, if I can, but that is not always possible, sadly.

I have often been in Leith and seen the Edinburgh Remakery, so was interested to read, in your link, that it is a viable business and that other countries have shown interest in its business model.

I often wonder what actually happens to all the "recycling" stuff that gets collected, including electronic gadgets, laptops etc. Does it really get reused in some way, or are we being conned?

I have felt a little hopeful recently, that some of the drivers for my age group in our young adult lives are being revisited by the current younger generation.
Recycling, buying to last, knitting, sewing, mending stuff. All the young parents I know pass on baby clothes, maternity clothes along with all the equipment babies need. One lot has currently arrived back with one of my daughters for her latest babe. Good to see.

On a similar tack we have been reusing things around friends and family. Last week we gifted a still good garden table and chairs to a friends DD. DD1 gifted a coffee table and tv stand to DD3. DD2 gifted some old bricks from her garden to a friend who is redesigning hers .Oh, and I sent a large bag of fabric bits and bobs and wool to a local play group.

Sounds like a good idea GA. A good fit, go for it.

In addition to the Repair Café we have in our town I would also like to see a Men's Shed start up. Many men find it very difficult to deal with loneliness, isolation and feeling de-skilled after they retire and rarely have the same kind of social networks that women are often able to build up. I quite like the idea of sort of amalgamating the two projects.

I’ve heard off this Granny , very good idea. In our village we have a plant swap shop where if you’ve nurtured a plant too many you can either swap or just donate it.

Or you can swap the produce .

It’s a real novelty for a city girl like me .