Culture

Don’t Throw It Away—Take It to the Repair Cafe

This series of workshops aims to keep broken items out of the landfill, and it might help you save a few bucks, too.
Charlie Goedeke demonstrates how the motor of the fabric shaver works.Linda Poon/CityLab

Charlie Goedeke carefully examined the fabric shaver I’d placed in front of him. The motor had stopped working, or so I assumed. Using a voltage tester, he checked to make sure the batteries inside weren’t dead—they weren’t. “Now the question is, how do we take this apart?” he said. I told him that’s where my colleague, who had entrusted me with the item, struggled when she tried to fix it.

“They don’t make it easy,” he replied.