Repair Cafe Palo Alto

What do you do when you’ve got something you like but it no longer works?  Throw it out and buy a new one? Stick it in the attic, the basement or under the stairs?  Pay to get it fixed?  Fix it yourself? 

Chances are you toss it out.  Or maybe you store it away until that magical day when you can figure out what to do with it.  Right.

We’ve established the Repair Café Palo Alto to give you another option.  The Repair Café Palo Alto is a volunteer-run, community service dedicated to encouraging the repair and reuse of goods rather than relegating them to landfill. 

Consider this:  In 1960, each person in the US generated 2.68 pounds of waste per day.  By 2000, the average was 4.65 pounds per day.  This is the most in the world.

The first Repair Café was started in Amsterdam in 2009.  Since then, over 30 Repair Cafés have sprouted up in Europe.  Others are forming elsewhere around the world. 

The Repair Café Palo Alto is affiliated with the Repair Café Foundation in the Netherlands.  We are the first Repair Café to become operational in the United States.  (Though we are affiliated with the Repair Café Foundation, we are self-funded and operate independently.)  Learn more about the Repair Café Foundation in the Netherlands: www.repaircafe.org

Next Repair Cafe:

July 21  -  11am to 3pm

Museum of American Heritage

351 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto

========================================

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more details.

How it works?

We will hold Repair Café events periodically.  Bring your broken things and work with our Repair Volunteers to assess what it would take to repair them.  You can work with our Volunteers to do the repairs yourself (with their guidance) or have them tackle the job directly.  With luck, you’ll walk away with a once-again useful item and some knowledge of how to repair other things in your universe.

What to bring?

  • Small household appliances like toasters, hair dryers, mixers, vacuums…
  • Various electronics including computers games, tools and other devices...
  • Toys, furniture, luggage, kitchen items...
  • Bikes, clothing and other sewing projects, jewelry...

Of course, there is no guarantee you’ll walk out with a workable item.  We may not be staffed with the right skills; it may take some time to research and/or find repair parts, or it may just not be feasible to repair your item.  But we’ll give it a shot.

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for more details.