Salvaging household items

Go to a Repair Café—or start one

Posted 1/15/25

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The idea of salvage discussed in the articles on pages 10 and 11 isn’t just for buildings. It can be applied to the everyday items we use, use up, and all too …

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Salvaging household items

Go to a Repair Café—or start one

Posted

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The idea of salvage as discussed in articles like "Setting a standard" and "Lessons from a garage" isn’t just for buildings. It can be applied to the everyday items we use, use up, and all too typically throw away. But we don’t have to go along with the idea that everything we buy is destined for disposal in a few years. The problem is, many of us have never learned how to go about fixing things instead of throwing them away.

But some people do have that expertise, and a lot of them are your neighbors. The question is, how do you find them?

The concept of repair cafés is to bring together people who need things repaired with other people in the community who know how to repair them. The events are free, and provide congenial social gatherings as well as a means to the end of getting things fixed. First developed in Amsterdam in 2009, this idea gave birth to an international group that calls itself simply Repair Café. It has no formal or tax status, but has been spread around the world by word of mouth, and by volunteers inspired by the concept. 

One of these, John Wackman, brought the idea to New Paltz in 2013. Others in the area soon picked up the idea, and there is now a sub-organization, Repair Café Hudson Valley (www.repaircafehv.org), which includes the Catskills area and Capital Region as well as downstrate. There are four Repair Cafés in Sullivan County: Hurleyville, Livingston Manor, Mamakating and Tusten. The events held by the Cafés are scheduled irregularly, and posted on local media and Facebook sites. The River Reporter typically publishes them on its Where and When calendar, both print and online. Two of them, Livingston Manor and Tusten, have upcoming events currently scheduled.

Hurleyville

www.repaircafehv.org/hurleyville 

The Hurleyville Repair Café was started in 2023 by Catskill Mountainkeeper, and the events are hosted at its offices at 220 Main St. According to the Café website, current volunteers include “menders, an electrical and mechanical repair specialist, a small engine specialist and sometimes an itinerant bike repairman.” 

Livingston Manor

www.repaircafehv.org/livingston-manor

The Livingston Manor Repair Café is supported by the Livingston Manor Library, Sustainable Hudson Valley and Calliope on Main Foundation. Events are held at the Livingston Manor Presbyterian Church, 568 Old Route 17. Items that can be fixed there include “electrical appliances, small furniture pieces and other wood items, toys, clocks, clothing and other fabric items.” Their most recent event announcement adds guitar tuning and string replacement and mechanical items. The website cautions that volunteer fixers may not be able to fix items that are mostly plastic.

Mamakating

www.repaircafehv.org/mamakating

Mamakating Library, 128 Sullivan St., Wurtsboro

The Mamakating Repair Café grew out of Dialogue to Change, an initiative by the Sullivan County Human Rights Commission engaging in conversations about the causes of poverty. That group formed a committee to create a Repair Café.

Items that have been fixed at Mamakating Repair Café events include clothing, lamps, clocks, toys, small furniture, electronics, frames, jewelry, mechanical items and more. 

Tusten

www.repaircafehv.org/tusten

The Tusten Repair Café is sponsored by the Tusten Town Board, the Narrowsburg Chamber of Commerce and the Tusten Energy Committee. It meets four times a year at the Tusten Town Hall, 210 Bridge St. in Narrowsburg, with dates announced shortly before the events (see sidebar, above left, for next event). Items that typically can be repaired there include lamps, vacuums, clocks, chairs, electrical items, small appliances, digital devices, clothing and textiles, dolls, stuffed animals, toys, and jewelry; you can even have your tools sharpened.

repair cafe, sullivan county, ny, mamakating, tusten

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