It's genius, so much so, you wonder why you hadn't thought of it before.Â
Repair Cafes are perfect get-together for DIY projects you've been meaning to fix instead of simply throwing away and buying a new one. They are popping up all over the place, with the first one starting in Auckland's Pt Chevalier.  The Repair Cafe movement which started in Holland in 2009 has spread to more than 18 countries.Â
While watching this video (click on the image)Â one thing really shone through and that is the great sense of community at these cafes. Â The people are certainly having fun plus that sense of achievement once the appliance, clothing or bike is fixed. Â And if you don't know where to start there are a group of volunteers such as trained electricians to help fix the problem for free. Â
We used to have a dishwasher which washed and dried our dishes after 10 minutes and still went perfectly after more years than I care to remember!  The only reason we gave it away was because there was a dishwasher in our new house when we moved in, but in hindsight I regret not having it anymore because it was and probably will be the best one we'll ever have.
So at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man they simply don't make things like they used to.  I still have our food processor from the 1980's and rest assure I will be taking it along to our local Repair Cafe in Sandringham should it ever go on the blink.  Â
If you are looking to re-purpose pieces of fabric check out our blog 20 Great Ways to Use Fabric Scraps.
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Image from: https://ghub.nz/blog/kickstarting-repair-cafe
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