A drizzly Saturday morning comes to New Paltz, New York. Old lamps, broken mixers, blunt knives, and stuck zippers go to a church basement. About a dozen volunteers join a Repair Cafe. It is a free event. People help neighbors fix home things. They do not throw them away.

Repair Cafe starts in the Netherlands in 2009. It grows into a global nonprofit. It has more than 59,000 members. It has about 4,000 cafes. It fixes close to 850,000 items each year. Founder Martine Postma says people need to change their mind and the economy. She says Repair Cafes show that bigger change is needed.

In New Paltz, 50 people bring about 85 items. They bring an antique fan, clothes, stuffed animals, family photos, and jewelry. The experts fix 71 items. They find four need more work. They say 10 cannot be fixed. Organizer Holly Shader says the events help people work together. She says they also make things last longer.

The article also points to the Buy Nothing Project. It also points to right to repair laws and tool libraries. These are part of the same trend. Founder Liesl Clark says the movement is a safety net for millions. She says people do not need big stores for everything. Engineer Peter Counter says repair skills have faded. He says community repair works because volunteers make it cheap.