9. Peter Skinner - Repair Cafes

Life Done Different

I hate it when I break things because I only have three options: 1) I can try to repair it myself, which isn’t really an option 2) I can pay for a professional to fix it, which usually costs more than the product itself or 3) I can ditch the old one and buy a new one. And this is the cycle that Peter Skinner is trying to fix. In 2012, Peter founded the first repair cafe in the United States. Based in Palo Alto, California the repair cafe is a periodic meet up where you can bring in your broken items and have a volunteer fix them for you. Or better yet, you can work alongside the volunteer and you can learn how to fix them together. Hopefully by the time you return home, your item’s working again, and you might have a new since of confidence in your DIY skills. Today, Peter and I talked about the repair cafe movement, where it came from and where he sees it going. Beyond the meet ups they’re doing some really cool stuff, like partnering with engineering and design students to encourage repairability as part of product design. I found it all really inspiring and hope to bring some of my broken items to their next meeting on November 5th. Who knows, maybe I’ll cya there. In the meantime, please enjoy this talk with Peter Skinner.