[background noise] -We're at the Georgina Cole Library in Carlsbad at the San Diego Fix-it Clinic.

Fix-it Clinic is a pop-up repair event where neighbors come in that are skilled at fixing things, helping other neighbors fix their broken stuff.

[background noise] -It's amazing what comes in.

We fix small appliances, electronics, textiles, furniture.

We're sharpening tools.

We're doing bicycles.

My philosophy is, let's try.

We don't know if we can fix everything.

There's a 73% repair rate because things cannot be fixed, but we don't really turn things away.

[background noise] -Why can't people just take it to a repair shop?

-[laughs] We don't have repair shops.

-Can I ask what the issue is with the lamp?

-Well, there's something wrong with the socket.

This is the original socket, and it's very old.

It comes from Frederick Cooper Lamp Company in Chicago.

-How long has it been broken, do you think?

-Oh, 20 years.

-It's a reaction, actually, of the disposal society as well.

Everyone thinks, "Oh, I just can get rid of it and not think about it again," but we do not have the repair.

We're losing that skillset.

We do not have anybody in the community to do that, but I would love to see them here.

-I brought in this Predator generator, and we bought it probably six years ago from Costco.

We thought we needed an emergency generator.

We used it about three times, and then it wouldn't start.

-Good shape on oil.

I'm suspecting it's probably just got some bad fuel in it from sitting for a while because that tends to happen with these kind of devices.

We're going to go through and check everything out.

I'm going to check the oil.

It's got an oil pressure switch.

Make sure there's plenty of oil in it, and then we'll start working on figuring out the fuel situation.

-We don't like throwing out anything into the landfill, and so the Fix-it Clinic was announced, and we live really close by, so we thought, "We'll give that a shot."

-My favorite part about the Fix-it community and clinics is the volunteers, because we have these people who have so much knowledge and experience, and they want to share it.

I know for a fact that's why people keep coming back, because the experience they have with our volunteers.

-You can basically buy a whole piece here- -Oh, really?

--to replace it.

Yes, because this is quite beautiful and in beautiful shape.

-My volunteers are a senior generation.

I call them the "remember when" generation because they remember when there were repair shops available in their community, and they're not there.

We are trying to tell people, just try.

You don't always have to go and buy a new one.

You don't have to have the best and the highest thing.

You can keep the things that you like.

It's not just things.

These are your favorite things.

It's not just stuff either.

This is family.

This is culture.

This is heritage.

-It's currently going through the coil and up through here.

-Yes, but not on this.

-Not on that one.

-That's what I think is the biggest joy, is seeing their aha moment, that, "Oh, that's not hard to do at all.

I could do that."

Then that gets them thinking that things aren't just to be thrown away when they don't work.

-Now we can try to disconnect it from that side also.

-It has dowels on this side as well.

-Exactly, yes.

That's why that part broke, you see.

-Right at the two points.

-Yes.

-When we sit across from you fixing, we're not just sitting there fixing, we're educating.

We're being ambassadors to repair.

We're helping your curiosity.

We're trying to hope that you learn something that day.

I've always fixed things myself.

It's just part of my family and what I grew up with.

I think other people missed out on that from maybe grandparents or parents who were too busy working or were out of state.

Now they have a chance to come and learn from men and women of all different ages.

We've got teenagers that are 16 over there that show up every weekend.

We have fixers that are 85 years old coming in to share their knowledge to keep that going.

-I'm one of the bike guys.

That's what I come and do.

I've been working on building bikes for 30 years.

I do it not professionally.

I'm a retired scientist.

I like playing with bikes.

It's just a great thing.

You help people out in the community, and it feels good.

-Oh, it's great, man.

It brings the community back a little bit.

It's like a lot of people don't know their neighbors anymore.

I was born in the '80s, classic generation and all that.

We used to have nice stuff back then.

It's not the same anymore.

You can't fix the new stuff.

It's all just-- -Disposable.

-Yes.

-What I'm going to do is I'm going to take out the mechanism.

-One of the big problems that we have, however, is what's called this right to repair.

A lot of, especially electronic devices, are not really meant to be repaired.

For instance, right on your phones, or your laptops, or your tablet computers, the cases are glued together instead of using screws or mechanical fasteners.

Because of that, it becomes very, very difficult to get them apart without breaking something.

That just prevents people from wanting to fix them.

-We brought in a couple of sweatshirt jackets that we didn't want to throw away because my husband really likes them.

The zippers both broke.

The jackets are still good.

Luckily, he's working his magic.

I think it's amazing.

I think it's great that they're promoting recycling, reusing, mending, not throwing things away, switching up daily habits so that you're basically making the earth a better place.

-We're going to take you over to Greg and Dave.

I do believe they'll have the right tools for you.

-I brought some things, too.

-Oh, what'd you bring?

-I brought a rubber mallet.

-Oh, I love this.

[laughs] -I brought this because this is what I was using to shimmy it open.

-Just our fix-it clinic here in San Diego, we've diverted over, I think it's 9,500 pounds of trash this year.

Just this year.

That's not even our other metric.

If we replicate this across the country, in every city, how much would we be diverting from landfills?

How much money would we be saving our neighbors?

How many connections would we have made?

How much knowledge would we have spread?

How much joy would there be out there?

-Thanks for watching.

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