BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Tool Library in Buffalo loans out thousands of tools every year, so you don't have to buy something you might only have to use once.
But it also hosts "Dare to Repair" cafes where you can bring broken items and have volunteers try to fix them for free.
On Monday afternoon, 2 On Your Side spoke with the Tool Library's Executive Director about how this helps keep things out of our landfills.
At the Tool Library's new space on Main Street in Buffalo, they are busy year-round.
"We absolutely have a lot of your winter weather gear. So shovels, ice choppers, ice picks, a roof rake, which has not been taken out yet, so if someone needs to rake their roof, please come to us and borrow one, but also lots of indoor projects as well. I think with people cooped up, they tend to look at painting, wallpaper projects, so lots of things like scrapers, paint roller cages, extension poles, and then just kind of, you know, classic carpentry stuff," said Darren Cotton, Executive Director of the Tool Library.
Being able to borrow tools, instead of buying them, saves you money with library memberships starting as low as $30 a year. The Tool Library also hosts monthly "Dare to Repair" events.
"We'll be headed to Black Rock Riverside in February and then out to Newstead in March, but yeah, we encourage people if you've got a lamp, vacuum, small appliance bring it on in to Dare to Repair and we have a really wonderful team of volunteer fixers who will basically sit alongside you, kind of troubleshoot what the problem is, teach you a few things along the way, and then hopefully you go home with a perfectly working item and I will say, to-date we've had about 36 events and our success rate is just under 72-percent. So chances are, if you bring something in, it will successfully be fixed," said Darren Cotton.
And you might learn a new skill, so the next time something breaks, your first instinct isn't to just throw it away.
"We've actually had people who will come back and say, you know, I had two of these things so I brought one in, fixed it, and then because you showed me what I needed to do, what sort of parts I needed, I was able to go home and fix the other one," said Darren Cotton.
The Tool Library is mainly volunteer driven, so you might be able to help.
"We're always looking for people who have some time that they want to maybe invest, share in their community, so we love for people to come by, again, more information on the website, and you have to know absolutely nothing about tools. When I started the Tool Library, all I had was an 8th grade shop class as training, so we absolutely are open to all skill levels whether that is no skill or whether that is you're an expert carpenter, we would love to have more people in this space," said Darren Cotton.
