When I mended my lamp at one of Portland's repair cafes, it was no longer "just" a lamp to me; I felt a fierce sense of attachment to it.
Along with his broken toaster, Steve Vegdahl brought a slice of bread with him to Portland's repair cafe one day last month. By the time he left, his toaster was working again—and the sweet smell of toasted wheat permeated the room.
“This is the highlight of my day,” Vegdahl said as he waited for the chrome Sunbeam, probably a 1950s model, to cool off so he could take it home. “I’m a software person; I don’t have a lot of mechanical aptitude. I’m not good at taking things apart.”
Since a woman named Martine Postma established the first repair café in Amsterdam in 2009, the concept of free events at which volunteers with repair skills assist participants with broken furniture, appliances, bicycles, clothing and toys, has spread far and wide.
More than 50 cafes operate throughout the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and, in the U.S., people have begun convening regularly at coffee shops and event spaces in New York, Chicago, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Seattle and—as of earlier this year—my hometown of Portland, Oregon, to fix busted items.
