Laptop acting up? Here’s how to repair your stuff for free

For this week’s Reality Cheque, we’re looking at how you don’t always have to buy new or pay through the nose for getting stuff fixed.

At a Toronto repair cafe on a sunny day in June, Joseph Chan walked me through how to fix my bluetooth keyboard, which has been generating a nonstop string of periods every time I turn it on. Chan volunteers at Humber College’s repair cafe in his spare time. Carefully prying the keyboard open with a tool and guitar pick, he inspected the wiring and the printed circuit board. Around us, other volunteer fixers were working on a digital camera, a laptop and a vacuum cleaner on the fritz. Periodically, a volunteer rang a bell to announce an item had been fixed.

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After about a half hour of tinkering and a liberal spritz of electrical contact cleaner, my keyboard was working again—saving me $30 or more that I might’ve spent to replace it. Turns out, repair cafes have popped up in cities across Canada. And even with our “buy it, replace it” culture, they’re getting some traction, fixing things we’d normally toss out.

What’s a repair cafe? How much does it cost to fix your stuff?

Repair cafes help people fix their broken stuff for free—keeping their belongings out of the landfill and saving them as much as hundreds of dollars in the process. The volunteer-run events aim to encourage people to maintain what they have rather than discarding something that’s fixable, buying new and contributing to a culture of overconsumption.

Wai Chu Cheng, the co-founder and executive director of Repair Cafe Toronto, says most people who come to the organization’s events do so because they want to reduce waste and live sustainably, and “they also want to save money.”

She launched the repair cafe in 2013 with two co-founders. In their first year, they held about one or two events per month; now, they work with community organizations to hold up to 20 per month. “We’re really getting a lot of demand every year.”

Cheng says her organization aims to help people see repair as an accessible option. “We are so used to not fixing, that we don’t think we can do it.”

Why we stopped fixing things

Remember when repair used to be a more common practice? Even if you don’t, know that things have changed. For many products it has become difficult or costly, says Komal Habib, an associate professor of industrial ecology at the University of Waterloo. For electronics and appliances in particular, product manufacturers largely don’t supply repair manuals to consumers or independent repair businesses. They sometimes withhold, or charge a high price for, specialty parts or tools needed to fix an item.

Manufacturers sometimes make their products more difficult to take apart. For example, by swapping out screws for glue to hold components together. Items can be designed to break more quickly or look outdated, or companies can stop servicing them. It’s all part of planned obsolescence, a business strategy that encourages you to buy new.

“What it does is just adds costs for the consumer,” Habib says. She pointed out it can often make repair almost as expensive as buying new. “An average consumer will think, ‘OK, if I repair my phone it costs me $400, but if I buy a new one it’s $600, so why wouldn’t I just get a new one?’” she says.

Habib co-authored a paper earlier this year that found Canadians typically toss our electronics before they’ve completely failed, which sends more tech waste to landfills.

Across common household electronics and appliances—including cell phones, laptops and desktops, televisions and microwaves—two in three product replacements were made for reasons other than total functional failure. Those include upgrading to a new model or a minor fixable issue like a crack in a cell phone screen or a battery that doesn’t charge as fast as it used to, Habib says.

What repair cafes do: Small effort, big impact

Repair cafes are typically staffed by volunteers who can fix small appliances and electronics (like blenders, coffee makers, toasters and computers), clothing, jewellery, bicycles and small furniture. If the volunteers can’t repair something themselves, they’ll give advice on what to do next. Most volunteers sign up because they’re passionate about sustainability and enjoy the challenge of fixing items.

Repair Cafe Toronto events have diverted 81% of items brought in from landfill, either by repairing them or providing advice on how to fix or maintain them, Cheng says.

The Arusha Centre, a Calgary-based environmental and social justice organization, runs repair exchanges with several community groups throughout the year. Sierra Love, a program manager for the centre, says that in 2025, the cafes had an 80% repair success rate. The organization also started trying to estimate how much money attendees saved by repairing instead of replacing. It estimated people who brought in bikes saved an average of $100, those who brought in clothes saved between $15 and $50, and people who brought in sewing machines saved on average $200.

Sabra Ismath, a journalist in Toronto, estimates she saved $100 to $150 by going to a volunteer bike fixing event in her neighbourhood during the pandemic, instead of going to a repair professional. Ismath had an old bike with flat tires and a rusted, tangled bike chain, and at the event was able to get her tires filled and the bike tuned up. For Ismath, who says she’s trying to save money where she can, “It was really nice to know it was free.”

Monse Videla, a Toronto-based strategist and content creator, says going to a repair cafe saved her from having to spend $250 to replace her mid-century-inspired soft pink Smeg toaster, her “favourite thing in the kitchen.” When the toaster’s lever broke last year, Videla had just been laid off; she didn’t want to spend the money on a replacement, or pay a professional for what could be a costly fix. Two volunteer fixers at the repair event spent an hour and a half working on the appliance, and handed it back to her as good as new.

She now volunteers for the Toronto cafes and says she’s been motivated to buy fewer things, “take better care of them and have better quality items.”

Cheng says she encourages people not just to try to fix when they can, but to look for products that are higher quality and designed to be repairable when buying new.

“It saves money in the longer term,” she says.

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. Should Canadian drivers opt out of add-on car insurance?
2. Car insurance reform in Ontario—what you need to know
3. How to spot deepfakes; tips from investigative journalist Craig Silverman
4. Here’s how Canadians can save on baggage fees at the airport
5. Which provinces have the best wines for the best value?