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Every month, Ally Brisbin, Carla Bruni, and a passel of friendly volunteers show up at the Kitchen Sink café’s Community Glue Workshop and seek to put appliances, toys, clothing, and just about anything else you can imagine back in working order. At a recent clinic, they shared their words of wisdom for prospective fixers and ordinary owners of broken stuff alike: Nothing is off limits … When asked about unusual objects that had passed through their hands, every fixer had a story. They’ve replaced the ropes on a cat tree, maneuvered an underwire back into someone’s bra, repaired old slide projectors and garage-door mechanisms—even coaxed a little boy’s antique toy robot into flashing and lurching like new. Complex modern electronics aren’t necessarily off limits, either. Sometimes a malfunctioning laptop just needs to have its case opened and a loose component nudged back into place. … though not everything can be fixed. It’s true the fixers are occasionally foiled by problems such as defunct or missing parts. (Though even this isn’t necessarily a dead end—most months, one volunteer brings along his 3-D printer to fabricate small plastic pieces.) Sometimes that means you can rest easy knowing you’ve done all you can to resuscitate that old blender; sometimes it just means you’ll leave with suggestions rather than a completed repair. And the search for a fix can be satisfying in itself. During October’s clinic, 71-year-old librarian Satia Orange brought in a wooden radio/cigarette case, carved and painted to resemble a bookcase; as a little girl, she used to play with it in the office of her library-director father. Although the fixers couldn’t find the problem, they noted that the wiring was in good shape and could probably be fixed by a radio specialist. In any case, Orange clearly enjoyed the chance to share the antique and its story. Boldness is rewarded. “This may work or it may ruin it,” said fixer Brian as he peered inside an old electric razor, soldering iron at his elbow. After some deliberation, the razor’s owner decided to chance the repair—and, success! Consider that if you’re bringing in an already broken object, you probably don’t have a great deal to lose. And be honest with yourself: will you really call around to repair shops, or will it go back into the closet if you don’t experiment with a DIY fix? You need fewer tools than you’d think. But more glue. “We don’t use many power tools, truly,” Carla Bruni says. “We don’t really need to.” Screwdrivers and pliers go a long way—even further if you have an inexpensive soldering iron kit. And it never hurts to stock up on glue. Bruni: “I joke about how I mostly just glue things. But honestly? There are so many kinds of glue! I’ll be honest, I did not know how strong Elmer’s glue is … There’s shoe glue, specifically, you know.” Ally Brisbin recommends the website This to That for figuring out exactly what variety of sticky stuff you need. Don’t hesitate to access the hive mind. It’s common to see two or three people gathered around any given “patient” at Community Glue, and any one of those might well call a friend or family member for further guidance. YouTube tutorials have proved helpful to the crew on occasion, as have reference books such as Fixing for Dummies. “It drives [our carpenter] Paul nuts every time we put it out,” Bruni says. “‘It makes us look like dummies!’ But it’s got everything.” This wealth of resources means that people often come in to work on their own tinkering or sewing projects, knowing that enthusiastic helpers are just a table’s length away.

You can smell the sawdust as soon as you step off the Red Line at Berwyn. In front of the Kitchen Sink café, a few onlookers gather as a power drill hums. Right there on the sidewalk, an elegant but badly cracked wooden chair is being made safe to sit on once more thanks to the help of an amateur carpenter. “What I want to know is how Ally finds all these volunteers!” exclaims the chair’s owner, an older woman sitting inside. She sounds almost suspicious—there has to be some kind of catch, right? Who are these people who show up every month with toolboxes, soldering irons, and sewing machines? What possesses them to spend their Sunday afternoons fixing strangers’ stuff for free? The answer starts with Kitchen Sink owner Ally Brisbin and with Carla Bruni, who was once just a regular at the café. Last year, armed with little more than enthusiasm, curiosity, and a talent for making friends, the two started Community Glue Workshop as an effort to bring neighbors together and give new life to objects that would otherwise wind up in a landfill. For a few hours a month, the café becomes a clinic for broken toasters, stuck zippers, and many, many lamps—at least four will pass through October’s clinic before the night is over. Connected by Curiosity For the most part, the fixers don’t come armed with any formal training, just a passion for taking things apart. One volunteer I talk to is a product engineer, but his partner in solving the mystery of a malfunctioning monkey lamp manages a string of Burger King restaurants. Brisbin is good with jewelry—earlier tonight, she swapped out a necklace chain that had been made of highly allergenic metal. As for Bruni: “I don’t know what I do,” she laughs. “I do a lot of gluing of things; sort of the dumb labor. My larger function tends to be making sure people are busy and happy—making connections, getting the right things to the right people.” Those connections have been long-lasting, to a degree that’s surprised even the founders. “At the beginning we were like, ‘We need to make sure that we have a ton of people to draw from, because people get burned out,’” Brisbin remarks. Instead, a solid and growing core group of fixers keeps coming back. “We’ve had a lot of friendships happen,” Bruni says. “A lot of mentorships between the fixers as well, which has been really neat … That helps keep people engaged, to know that you can learn more skills.” How the Fixing Spirit Spreads People who arrive toting a couple broken appliances and not much hope tend to catch the fixing bug fast once they arrive at Community Glue Workshop. That would include the man who’d been working intently on a jammed cash-register drawer when I first walked in. Bruni explains: “He emailed me a few times asking me about things and was like, ‘I just want to come to observe today.’ And he immediately started working. He was just like, ‘I need a screwdriver!’ … And I knew 100% that was going to happen. It always happens.” The clinics have been so successful that I wonder whether Brisbin and Bruni have any plans for expansion. But a worldwide empire of repair cafés isn’t in the works—not that it hasn’t been suggested to them. After a recent appearance on NBC Nightly News, Bruni says, “a lot of emails came in from people around the country asking, ‘Hey, do you guys have a clinic in our town?’ … But, you know—this is about relationships we have with people; that’s a really huge part of it … I think things work really well locally.” Instead, she says, they’d eventually like to put together a guide so that other people can follow Community Glue’s example in their own neighborhoods and communities. For now, though, anyone’s welcome to show up to the Kitchen Sink on clinic nights—check their Facebook page or website for dates, which tend to be announced a few weeks in advance. Feel inspired to get your hands dirty? Click here to read some rules of thumb from Brisbin, Bruni, and a few other Community Glue fixers.

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