Fix It, Don’t Toss It

By 1808Delaware

A new kind of Saturday morning is coming to Delaware. Instead of errands and coffee runs, the Upcycling Center at Ohio Wesleyan University and Sustainable Delaware, Ohio (SDO) are inviting people to bring something broken and walk away with something repaired.

The community’s first “Repair Café” will take place from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Saturday, November 8 at Unity Community Center, 50 Ross St. in Delaware. It’s free, open to everyone, and unapologetically hands-on.

How It Works

You walk in with an item that has stopped working. A volunteer sits down with you, looks it over, and talks through how to fix it. Maybe it’s a toaster that won’t heat, a lamp that flickers, or the bike you keep meaning to tune up. Clothes, toys, small appliances, even a chipped mug—all are fair game.

The idea isn’t just to fix things. It’s to remind people that things can be fixed.

“We throw away piles of stuff in America,” said David Soliday, Creative Reuse Wrangler at OWU’s Upcycling Center. “Even things with almost nothing wrong with them. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that they can have things repaired. Repair Café wants to change all that.”

Soliday and the organizers expect a wide variety of repairs. If a volunteer can help, they will. If they can’t? They’ll at least try to diagnose the problem.

Why Repair Matters

As a culture, we buy fast and discard faster. Something breaks and we default to replacement. But the simple act of repair does a few big things:

Keeps useful items out of the landfill
Saves people money during a time when costs are climbing
Teaches skills that used to be common and now feel rare

And there’s a bonus: the satisfaction of sitting down with someone and solving a problem together.

A Growing Movement

The idea isn’t new. Former journalist Martine Postma started the first Repair Café in Amsterdam in 2010. Today, the Repair Café International Foundation supports communities around the globe—including one that launched in nearby Westerville.

Delaware’s organizers hope to host Repair Café events twice a year.