Repair Cafes do a lot of good by alerting people to the possibility of repair, and encouraging them to tackle tasks they might not have had the confidence to do. But there are limitations of time, tools and techniques.
Don’t get me wrong, I think repair cafes do a lot more good than harm. But their limitations encouraged us to develop the Suffolk Repair Shed along different lines. Another factor was a visit to the “The Waste Age” exhibition in the Design Museum in 2022, highlighting the sheer amount of waste we create. It is shocking to see the amount of stuff being dumped at the local tip, particularly small electrical appliances. As one of the Fix Factories found, many of the things thrown away there are quite usable.
So a number of us set up the Repair Shed in 2022 with the single and simple aim of reducing the amount of stuff going to landfill. It is a permanent facility kitted out with a wide range of tools. Customers drop items off to be repaired by the volunteers. This model addresses some of the constraints of Repair Cafes. We currently run 5 sessions a week, jobs don’t have to be finished at the end of a session and there are more tools enabling more techniques to be used. This arrangement suits repairers who wouldn’t like the pressure of a repair cafe situation, and customers who want something fixed rather than fixing it themselves.
So should we all set up Repair Sheds instead of Repair Cafes then?
No, because they are complementary. Both together works well.
What has evolved here in Suffolk is that the Shed works with local Repair Cafes, as well as running its own in a local parish room. Some of our volunteers help out at the cafes. If appropriate, jobs are transferred from the cafe to the shed. In very round numbers a typical outcome at a cafe is now that about a third of jobs are dealt with on the day, a third are really beyond help by anyone and the remainder are transferred to the shed with the customer’s permission. Even the people who arrive at 5 minutes before closing can be helped.
In all we take in around 60 items per month at the Shed, maybe 10 of those from Repair cafes, the remainder direct. That level of activity means that donations from customers cover our running costs including rent, insurance, energy and so on. We received an initial grant from the local council for equipment, and benefitted from a tapered arrangement for renting the premises for the first 18 months. The success rate is currently running at just under 80% - in other words 4 out of 5 items which come in needing attention go out fixed.
We think it is an advantage being away from the high street, in our case on an industrial estate. That means parking for both volunteers and customers is easier, rent and rates are lower, there’s space for tools and workplaces, and we can take on slightly larger jobs.
I would hope that it is possible to set up a similar facility in areas where there is a network or number of repair cafes already existing. Local conditions will of course shape the outcome, but if anyone is interested in pursuing the idea of setting up their own Repair Shed, I’d be happy to help or advise.
Moray MacPhail admin@suffolkrepairshed.org