In 2025, I attended six of the Repair Café events hosted by Kansas City’s very own Re.Use.Full (more on Re.Use.Full below!).
Repair Cafés date back to 2009 in the Netherlands- the idea is to bring in items to repair (clothing, jewelry, computers, appliances and light fixtures, bicycles, furniture, etc.), where skilled workers or volunteers fix your items for your while you wait- you meet like-minded people in the meantime!
In the past year, I’ve brought in the following items for *free* repairs with great success:
- A bicycle– look, I’m featured in this article with my bike!
- 2 beloved bracelets that had broken clasps
- 3 pairs of my signature navy yoga pants that I wear (and wear out!) at work
- A favorite sweater that had holes in both armpits
- A pillowcase with a hole
- Inner linings of 2 beloved coats
- A rhinestone belt that had pieces falling out
- Tent bag- the straps were coming off and needed some love from a sewing machine
- My SCUBA gear bag- buckle had come off
- My husband’s coat had a loose button
- My pea coat I’ve had since COLLEGE didn’t fit anymore (shocker), so my volunteer moved the buttons… Now it fits again!
- A pair of my husband’s work pants with a hole in the crotch
- A travel packing cube with a busted zipper
- A beloved reindeer light fixture that I put out at Christmas
- My kipling backpack with a broken cinch
- A re-useable tote that had a hole in it (not any more!)
- Our hedge trimmer that was previously jammed up
- A really nice garment bag that was slightly ripped at the top
- Soooo many socks with holes…
… That’s a LOT of items that I didn’t have to spend the money on to replace. My frugal and environmentally protective self was doubly thrilled.
Often my Simplicana clients (and my own self) ponder throwing things away when they break or get a hole… But if we re-train ourselves to think *first* of the option to repair, think about how many fewer items we could send to the landfill, and how much money we could save. Repair culture is my new way of life.
Re.Use.Full has put on a Repair Café “pop up” event in a different part of our metro nearly every month for over a year now. (There is talk of them opening a permanent spot to do the events in a brick-and-mortar setting, so follow them and stay tuned).
Re.Use.Full, founded by Leslie Scott in 2020, offers much more than Repair Cafés- their website provides a local directory here in Kansas City for where to donate items to- just type in your item that you want to donate, and up pops several options of KC charities that would love to give your old stuff a new home. My Simplicana clients and I use their amazing directory page whenever we are not sure where to donate tricky items (most thrift stores do not accept mattresses, cribs, car seats, breast pumps, scrap metal, etc)- but it still means a lot to me to keep these items out of the landfill send them where they make the most impact. It’s also a great tool for when my clients’ donations won’t fit into my little Prius- at Simplicana we haul your donations to charity free of charge, but for bulky items like furniture, you can click the “Charity will pick up my items” option on Re.Use.Full’s directory page to make life easier.
In addition to this, Re.Use.Full hosts FREE educational webinars (I led one back in January on creating your own eco-challenge), and also FREE Un-Dumpster Days, where you can take all of your unwanted items to donate, and volunteers will send your items home with the best-fit charity in attendance that day.
Note– While it’s so nice that Re.Use.Full keeps these events completely free, if you have the means it is a nice practice to leave a cash or Venmo tip if you are satisfied with the work that the volunteers do!