Here's how you can get your things fixed for free at Berkhamsted's Repair Cafe this weekend

Open Door is a community and arts space where you can be active, creative and social
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A group of volunteers in Berkhamsted will be doing their bit to reduce CO2 emissions this weekend at the Open Door Repair Café.

The initiative enables residents to pop into Open Door, on Berkhamsted's High Street, with their broken belongings, where a team of expert volunteers will fix them, free of charge.

Electronic items, clothing, home furnishings, jewellery, bicycles, garden tools and glassware are among the items that can be repaired. If something cannot be fixed, Open Door commits to make sure that it is disposed of properly and recycled where possible.

Open Door Repair Cafe's first customers - two very happy little boys with their fixed table football gameOpen Door Repair Cafe's first customers - two very happy little boys with their fixed table football game
Open Door Repair Cafe's first customers - two very happy little boys with their fixed table football game

Owners can enjoy drinks and cakes in the Open Door café while they wait, and are invited to give a donation towards their repair, to help cover costs of the initiative and support Open Door’s work in the community.

Open Door is a community and arts space where you can be active, creative and social, whatever your circumstances, through a range of art and wellbeing activities, a donations café, exhibitions and volunteering opportunities.

Thanks to a grant and support from Berkhamsted Town Council, the Repair Café started in October, and will run every first Saturday of the month from 9.30am till 12.30pm. The first session saved an estimated 154.6kg of CO2 (the equivalent of flying over 940miles) and saved 31.4kg from landfill.

Jules McEachran, from Berkhamsted, brought in a broken blender, and was delighted with the result.

Open Door Repair Cafe expert repairer Gill with a child's coatOpen Door Repair Cafe expert repairer Gill with a child's coat
Open Door Repair Cafe expert repairer Gill with a child's coat

Jules said: “One of the lovely repairers took a look at it. He diagnosed the fault and set about fixing it. I went away with a working blender, that I was going to throw away!

"Thank you to the Open Door repair workshop - a great idea!"

Other repairs include a table football game, a child’s coat, a harmonium and a set of prayer beads.

Richard Frankel, Repair Café manager at Open Door, said: “We know lots of people in Berkhamsted want to do their bit to help tackle climate change.

"Our Repair Café is a great way to enable them do that, and make it fun too - meeting new people in their community, having a chat and eating cake, while our volunteers work their magic!

“One lady had kept hold of a fantastic child’s coat for five years as the zip was broken so she couldn’t donate it or give it to anyone, but she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.

"Within 15 minutes our repairer Gill fixed it on her sewing machine and off she went to give the coat to a friend for her daughter to use. We want to make these occurrences as accessible as possible, hence our donations policy, so that anyone can bring their items in for repair.”

Open Door is looking for more expert repairers, so get in touch if you would be interested in getting involved as a repairer or helping out in the café.