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Upper Hutt Repair Café – building community and fixing stuff.

Guest User

Published 22 October 2020

Upper Hutt Repair Café – building community and fixing stuff

Repair Cafés are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together).

There are now around 1,500 Repair Cafés worldwide. Upper Hutt Repair Café is home to a community’s worth of DIY knowledge.  

Kick-started by Steve and his love for fixing up stuff in his garage, he started to think about how repair skills could be passed onto more people, saving them money and keeping waste out of landfill. He put a shout out on Neighbourly and pretty soon Lisa, Linda and Marilyn, the rest of the Board for the Repair Cafe Trust, were onboard. They now have recruited 60 volunteers to help to run the events.   

The Repair Café holds events that bring together repair experts to help people fix their belongings. Bike mechanics, qualified electricians, skilled sewers and carpenters are all on hand. Steph from Vinnies ReSew comes over from Wellington to fix up sewing machines.  

With the Repair Café about to set up a Tool Library with Food 4 Thought, as well as lots of other active groups like Menzshed, there is a real sense of community building over in Upper Hutt. 

Repair and Share 

The top three R’s in the waste hierarchy are Refuse, Reduce, and Reuse. Repairing and sharing are two great approaches to reduce and reuse. Repairing allows items to be used for longer rather than throwing them away as soon as they break. Sharing, whether among friends or through organised platforms, reduces the number of things needed. Both reduce the consumption of energy and raw materials that are locked into the production of stuff, as well as reducing waste to landfill.  

Repairing

Repairing is a great way to make items last longer or give them a new lease of life. Repairing clothing, machinery, and household items used to be the norm, but with increasing consumerism and large amounts of cheap, poorly made goods, many people have lost these skills. Learning to repair is satisfying, a great learning experience, and can save you money!  

You have two main options for repairing: paying someone else to do it or learning the skills yourself. There are loads of repair services in the Wellington including: 

If you’d rather learn yourself, check out (costs vary):  

Sharing

Sharing means the everyone gets access to a greater variety of resources: a win for all! Sharing platforms allow people access to all sorts of things, from vehicles and machinery to hiking equipment and designer clothing. The sharing economy is fantastic for the kinds of things, such as a particular tool, that you need for one project but might never use again. Hiring an item instead of buying it can save money and avoid the waste of purchasing something that will only sit in your cupboard.  

Try asking around your friends and family first rather than buying straight away. If no one you know personally can help, another great option is sharing platforms such as:  

  • Camping and sporting gear: 

    • Mutu

    • Share Gear

    • Upper Hutt Community Sports Bank based at Orongomai Marae 

  • Tools: 

  • Parties and events: 

  • Vehicles: