The Zebra-Striped Suitcase

In Amsterdam, a neighbour, Hilij Held, arrives with a zebra-striped suitcase.

Inside is an iron. It no longer makes steam.

Around her, on tables covered in red gingham, there are screwdrivers and sewing machines. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Volunteers wait for broken things: an unemployed man, a retired pharmacist, an upholsterer.

Welcome to the Repair Café.

That day, in 2012, the New York Times tells the story. Across the tables pass clothes, coffee makers, lamps, vacuum cleaners and toasters. There is even an electric organ, a washing machine and an orange juice press.

It all began on October 18, 2009, in the foyer of the Fijnhout Theatre, in Amsterdam-West.

The idea came from Martine Postma, a Dutch journalist. She wrote about the environment. After the birth of her second child, she noticed how much people threw away instead of fixing.

So she proposed something very simple. Bring what is broken. Handy neighbours will help you fix it, and you will learn along the way.

The first café then moved to a rented room, and later to a community centre. On March 2, 2010, Martine Postma set up a foundation to help other groups get started.

Repairing together gives objects a second life, and a little warmth to the ties between us.

The idea travelled around the world. By March 2016, there were more than 1,000 Repair Cafés, 15 of them in Canada. By October 2025, there were more than 3,800. An online database already counts more than 305,000 repairs.

Since 2017, International Repair Day has been held every year on the third Saturday of October.

In Montreal, people repair too. On Saturday, November 28, 2026, a Café Réparation will be held at the Maison Robert-Bélanger, in the borough of Saint-Laurent. Admission is free. Volunteers will help fix a coffee maker, a lamp, a toy or a torn garment.

Martine Postma sums up what pushed her to start:

A repaired object is often the start of a conversation. Around a table and a screwdriver, the "we" gets mended too.