Katie Wood
Freediver, Writer, Explorer
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Katie Wood
Freediver, Writer, Explorer
There is a quiet kind of happiness that arrives when a stubborn zipper runs smoothly again, when an old drill spins after you have replaced its brushes, when a scuffed mask strap gets a new lease on life with a few minutes of patient work. This feeling is not about saving a receipt or winning a discount. It is about restoring capability, recovering a story, and learning something you did not know an hour ago. Fixing is not only practical. It is cultural, environmental, and deeply psychological. In a world built around convenience and replacement, repair is a personal act of resistance that scales into community, policy, and design.
Below is a field guide to that joy. It blends research on why hands-on work makes us feel good, evidence for why longevity matters for the planet and our wallets, the rise of a global repair movement, and a practical toolkit so you can start or level up your own repair life.
Repair pulls together several well-studied ingredients of human well-being.
Mastery and momentum. When you diagnose a fault, make a small change, then test and improve, you get immediate feedback. Psychologists call the sweet spot between challenge and skill a flow state, a mode linked with deep focus and positive affect. Repair work often delivers clear goals, rapid feedback, and a steadily rising sense of competence, which are the core conditions for flow. Many crafts and hands-on activities elicit similar effects, from sewing to woodwork, and a growing body of research connects these activities with improved mood and reduced anxiety. In other words, tightening a hinge or re-soldering a joint is not only useful. It is mentally nourishing.
There is also a specific behavioral effect at play. When we assemble or work on something ourselves, we tend to value it more. You might know this as the IKEA effect, shown in experiments where people were willing to pay more for items they had partially made. Repair is a direct expression of that same dynamic. You invest effort, the object becomes yours in a richer way, and you treat it with more care afterwards. That additional care helps extend service life.
Product attachment research shows that emotionally meaningful possessions are retained and used longer. Scar on the handle, the little misalignment you corrected, the sticker you added near the switch, all become micro stories that build attachment. Attachment fosters maintenance, encourages timely repair, and delays replacement. Designers study this phenomenon under the banner of emotionally durable design, with the goal of building relationships between people and products that last. Repair is the shortest path to that relationship, because you experience how the object works and you add your own craft to it.
Repair also builds social capital. A neighbor who lends a torque wrench, a volunteer who shows you how to replace a worn O-ring, a teenager who discovers the thrill of solving a hardware problem. These interactions supply meaning and belonging, which are as fundamental to well-being as any personal win. Many people stick with repair not for the savings, but for the people. When communities fix together, they keep skills alive and pass them to the next pair of hands.
Image by Mountain Soles & Outdoor Threads
The emotional upside would already justify repair. The environmental and economic upside makes it hard to ignore.
Waste is rising, recycling lags, and production dominates impacts. Electronic waste has grown rapidly in the last decade. The most recent global assessment reports that the world generated roughly 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, with a trajectory toward 82 million tonnes by 2030. Formal collection and recycling captured a little over one fifth of that in 2022, and without stronger policies the share is forecast to fall as volumes rise. For many product categories, the largest slice of total environmental impact occurs before you even open the box, in raw material extraction and manufacturing. Extending service life reduces the frequency of those resource intensive production cycles and prevents emissions that recycling alone cannot touch.
Studies of household electronics consistently find that keeping products in use longer yields meaningful climate benefits. Doubling the lifetime of a smartphone, for example, significantly reduces its annualized carbon footprint, because most of its total impact sits in upfront production. European assessments echo this pattern across a wider set of goods. While energy efficiency in use still matters, the simplest step that most consumers and companies can take right now is to design for repair, maintain well, and avoid early replacement.
The last few years have seen substantial movement on Right to Repair. In the European Union, the Directive on common rules promoting the repair of goods was adopted in June 2024, entered into force in July 2024, and will apply across member states from July 2026. It aims to make repair easier and more attractive through better access to parts and information, standardized forms, and new consumer rights and incentives. France introduced a repairability index at point of sale in 2021 and has been evolving it toward a broader durability index, an approach that helps buyers choose longer lasting products. In the United States, New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act took effect at the end of 2023, and California’s Right to Repair Act began in mid 2024, requiring manufacturers to supply parts, tools, and documentation on fair and reasonable terms. These are not abstract gestures. They reshape the repair landscape by lowering friction for owners and independent technicians.
On the household level, the math is straightforward. A repaired appliance or device avoids the full replacement cost and pushes the next big spend further out. On the community level, shared resources like tool libraries and repair events keep money circulating locally, build skills that outlast product cycles, and train the next generation of fixers. The same logic applies in businesses, schools, and clubs. A durable, repairable equipment strategy turns into fewer rush purchases, less downtime, and tighter control over quality.
Repair culture is no longer a niche. It has become an ecosystem with people, places, data, and methods.
Repair events and the data they generate. The Repair Café movement began in the Netherlands and has spread widely. Thousands of monthly events now bring volunteers and citizens together around tables where lamps, radios, bikes, zippers, and toys get second chances. These events are not only feel-good Saturdays. They generate data. Networks like The Restart Project log repair attempts, track success rates, and estimate both waste diverted and emissions prevented. By the end of 2023, community repair networks had recorded many tens of thousands of attempts across dozens of countries, with hundreds of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent prevented. This data matters, because it arms campaigners and policymakers with concrete evidence that repair works at scale.
People often do not repair because they lack a tool, not because they lack the will. That is why tool libraries have become such powerful enablement hubs. A good library reduces the cost of entry, teaches safe techniques, and supplies a social nudge to try. In the United Kingdom, Library of Things locations have shown that borrowing at scale avoids significant emissions and saves members money. Similar models run in Canada, the United States, and across Europe. The best libraries do more than loan a drill. They run classes, publish impact methods, and partner with schools, housing associations, and local businesses. They are repair accelerators in disguise.
Even the most motivated community cannot fix what is impossible to open or undocumented. That is why design for disassembly, standard fasteners, and access to repair manuals are not minor features. They are the plumbing of a repairable society. The EU’s evolving ecodesign framework folds repairability into product r2equirements, and the emerging concept of a digital product passport promises better access to lifecycle information. Brands that publish schematics and supply parts win loyalty that outlives a single purchase. They also learn from the field, because a technician’s workaround today becomes a design improvement tomorrow.
Many of us grew up around people who fixed by default. For others, repair is a new identity. Communities that mix experienced hands with beginners move fastest. Makerspaces and repair clubs nurture that mix by creating low-pressure environments where questions are expected and small wins are celebrated. Teenagers who repair a cracked phone back or a broken snorkel buckle learn problem solving, patience, and respect for materials. These are life skills, not hobby skills.
Image by Repair Cafe
You do not need a workshop or years of practice to join repair culture. You only need intent, a safe process, and a small kit. Start here.
Adopt three anchor habits.
1. Clean and store well. Dirt, moisture, heat, and UV destroy materials. A minute of cleaning after use, along with dry storage out of direct sun, prevents a surprising amount of damage.
2. Diagnose before you touch. Ask what failed, then why, then how the system is supposed to work. Work from simplest to most likely. Is it power, connection, wear, or software.
3. Keep a log. A little notebook or phone note with dates, symptoms, fixes, and parts turns into your personal service history. It speeds future repairs and increases resale value.
Build a compact, modular kit. Start with a few categories, then expand as your skills grow.
- Fasteners and leverage. Quality screwdrivers with replaceable bits, including JIS and Torx. A small precision driver set for electronics. A 1/4 inch ratchet with metric sockets. Needle nose pliers and side cutters.
- Diagnosis. A digital multimeter, a simple test lamp, a non contact voltage tester for safety, and a USB power meter.
- Bonding and sealing. Two part epoxy, cyanoacrylate with an activator, flexible contact cement, silicone grease for seals, threadlocker, heat shrink tubing, and a small roll of PTFE tape.
- Cleaning and conditioning. Isopropyl alcohol, contact cleaner, a nylon brush, microfiber cloths, and a light machine oil. For outdoor gear, add freshwater rinse, wetsuit shampoo, and a renewer for rubber and silicone components.
- Safety. Cut resistant gloves, eye protection, a small headlamp, and a fume mask for adhesives and solder.
- Optional extras as you advance. A compact soldering iron, solder wick, flux, spare wire and connectors, a heat gun, and a magnifier.
Buy less but buy better. A sturdy driver that lasts for years is cheaper than three disposable ones. Shared spaces like tool libraries are perfect for borrowing specialty items you will use rarely, such as a torque wrench or a carpet cleaner.
Learn repair-ready workflows.
- Take photos as you go. Every screw, clip, and wire goes back faster when you have a visual breadcrumb trail.
- Make small testable steps. Replace one suspect part, then test. Change one variable at a time when possible.
- Label and sort. Magnetic parts trays or small cups keep fasteners organized by step. A Sharpie and painter’s tape label everything without residue.
- Respect materials. Plastics fatigue, aluminum threads strip easily, and rubber swells with the wrong solvent. Look up material compatibility if you are not sure.
- Know your stop points. Do not defeat safety features. Do not work on live mains if you are uncertain. When you reach the edge of your competence, pause and find help.
Image by Reddit
Pick projects that build skill fast. Early wins give you momentum.
- Everyday textiles. Hemming, zipper sliders, seam reinforcement. A zipper repair kit plus a YouTube tutorial can save a favorite jacket.
- Small appliances. Kettles, blenders, and vacuums often fail at cords, switches, or clogged passages. These are ideal for learning diagnosis.
- Outdoor gear. Mask straps, fin rails, buckles, and wetsuit nicks respond well to basic adhesives and replacements. Rinse gear thoroughly after salt exposure, lubricate seals lightly, and patch promptly so minor wear does not cascade.
- Bikes. A flat fix, brake pad swap, or cable adjustment teaches mechanical sympathy that applies everywhere.
- Electronics. Work up from a battery swap to a charging port or button replacement. Always disconnect power and discharge capacitors in devices that store energy.
Measure your impact to stay motivated. It helps to see what your efforts add up to. Track money saved, items saved from disposal, and emissions avoided. Many repair networks publish simple calculators and datasets you can use as a reference. If you volunteer at community events, log the repairs. The aggregation of many small fixes is surprisingly large in environmental terms.
Join the movement. Look for a local Repair Café, Restart Party, makerspace, or tool library. If your area has none, start with a pop up event in a school or community hall. Do not wait for a perfect plan. A few tables, some volunteers, a sign in sheet, and a kettle for tea are enough. The first event builds the team for the second.
Support policy with your purchases. Reward brands that publish repair manuals, ship spare parts, and build products with standard fasteners and modular components. Use repairability labels where available. When you vote and when you comment on regulations, support policies that expand access to parts and information. System change follows personal signals, especially when those signals are consistent.
Finally, keep the spirit. Repair is not about perfection. It is about care. A visible stitch is a reminder that something was saved. A slightly mismatched button is a story about a friend who helped. The little marks left by your tools are proof that you met a problem with your hands and made something last. This is the joy of fixing. It is personal, it is contagious, and it builds a culture that treats objects, skills, and the planet with respect.
References
UNITAR press release, Global E-waste Monitor 2024
ITU overview, Global E-waste Monitor 2024
European Commission, Directive on repair of goods
European Parliament press release
ITU, France’s repairability index
California Department of Consumer Affairs, Right to Repair Act
Office of the New York Attorney General, Digital Fair Repair Act
Norton, Mochon, Ariely, The IKEA Effect
Abuhamdeh, Investigating the Flow Experience
Van der Linden et al., A neuroscientific view on being fully engaged
Kowalski et al., Product attachment and sustainability
Haug, Design of resilient consumer products
The Restart Project, 2023 Annual Report
Open Repair Alliance, The rise of community repair