Last month I had the joy of being involved in the launch events of two repair cafes.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a repair café is a community pop-up event where people bring items that they watch being repaired by local volunteers. It was an idea dreamt up by a woman called Martine in Amsterdam – and you can read more about it here.

It sounds simple, but getting an event like this up and running is complex. Add the last 16 months to the mix and it is even more so.

But it is totally worth it. Years ago people repaired because they could not afford to buy a replacement. Now we repair because we cannot afford not to.

But for me the most striking thing about attending a repair café is the confidence that it gives you to tackle your own repairs at home. For us as a household it has given us the confidence to undertake a repair we would not have considered previously avoiding having to chuck out a TV. And that was just the beginning…