‘Fix-It Fair’ brings new life to damaged items, helps divert waste

Key Takeaways

Stepping into a Thurston County, Wash. Fix-It Fair, a man held onto a broken electric tea kettle and the hope that it could be repaired. 

“He and his wife used to always drink tea together, and she passed away,” said Rob Pudner, Thurston County Public Works’ recycling and waste reduction specialist. 

“But even though the kettle stopped working, he couldn’t bear to get rid of it.”

A Fix-It Fair volunteer was able to repair the kettle, and the man walked away from the event with a mended memento.

“He commented that tomorrow morning he was going to have tea with his wife,” Pudner said. “And it was just the sweetest thing.”

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Thurston County’s "Fix-It Fair" initiative was the 2025 NACo Achievement Award “Best in Category” winner in Volunteers.

More about the Fix-It Fair

Thurston County’s Public Works partners with Lacey MakerSpace, a non-profit community-based organization, to host Fix-It Fairs, community repair events where volunteers help fix residents’ damaged items, including textiles, household items, small appliances, tools, bicycles and jewelry, all at no cost. 

The items people bring in to be repaired are ones that cannot be recycled in traditional ways, so the Fix-It Fair is not only helping bring new life to damaged items but also helping the environment by diverting waste out of the landfill, Pudner noted. 

There have been three Fix-It fairs since the county launched the initiative last year, and the plan is to hold two annually, with some pop-up events in between, according to Pudner, who helps make the events possible. 

People are “hungry” for this kind of community event, he said. 

“They want to come together,” Pudner said. 

“They love the idea of neighbors helping neighbors, they love the idea of saving money. Money is increasingly tight these days, and I think the environmental theme of it all is also attractive to a lot of people. 

“They don’t want to throw something away if they don’t need to, and they’ve been piling certain things into a corner for years and waiting for an opportunity like this to come up.”

In the first three-hour event alone, 387 pounds of items were able to be repaired and diverted from the landfill. Sixty-five attendees went home with 72 repaired items, one of which was a 6-year-old’s wheelchair.

“It was good, because it wasn’t as easy as turning a wrench at home,” the child’s father said of the repair. “And with a little bit of elbow grease, [a volunteer] helped us out, so we’re happy.”

Some repairs can be made “almost instantly,” within a few minutes, while others are more complex — if repairs aren’t able to be made in roughly 30 minutes, volunteers have to move on, according to Pudner. 

About 80% of items brought into the Fix-It Fairs have been able to be repaired, he noted.

The initiative’s volunteers are recruited from Lacey MakerSpace, along with other local volunteering efforts, including a county Master Recycler Composter program and an Intercity Transit bicycle recycling program. 

Participants undergo orientation sessions to get familiar with the space and tools. 

Sometimes multiple volunteers work on an individual repair if it proves to be more difficult, Pudner noted. 

Attendees are encouraged to be engaged with the repair process, he added.

“We ask people who bring their broken items to stay with the fixer at the repair station,” Pudner said. “So that they can see what’s going on and maybe start to even participate with the repair or feel inspired to try to tackle repairs at home. 

“At a minimum, it removes some fear from the idea of trying to repair something themselves and encourages them to just think differently about how they handle items at home after the event. And instead of automatically just discarding something in the trash, thinking about what other options are available to them.”