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I’ve been a bit bored lately (this is good!), and reading more random news (as opposed to my usual focused read my two current favorite columnists, check out headlines at the news I subscribe to, and move on to other activities). Basically, I searched on “decluttering” on google news and hit something that puzzled me.
Down the street from us, in the parking lot of the hardware store, Julie’s Place, etc., there are a number of donation bins for clothing, shoes, etc. There was one for books; I’m not sure if it is still there or not. Periodically, as I am decluttering, I bring bags down there, if I don’t have the energy or inclination to go to Savers or the library or HG or whatever. Eventually, I have to go further afield, when the electronics build up, or there are household items that don’t belong in the bins or whatever. But, I’m lazy, they are there, etc.
I knew there were some Issues associated with the donation bins. Like, there are some very clear cut ism issues, in that the bins are placed in higher income / wealth areas, even tho people who live in other areas are arguably more in need of convenient locations to donate the things they no longer need, thus forcing those people to either just put them in the trash (no guilt reduction service) or drive further to a church charity drop-off, Savers, the library, etc. I also know that there is a certain amount of unintended / deprecated uses of the bins: in the past, they used to be pried open and people would toss the contents out and then live in them on cold nights because warm and protected from the elements. The bins have become a lot more resistant to those unintended uses. People also attempt to get things _back_ out of the bins after they have been deposited. I know, you may be thinking, gosh, I can just imagine, you realize there was money in the pockets of those jeans you donated or whatever, but no, that’s not the issue so much actually.
While random commenters who, for whatever reason, think we should hate or at least disapprove of decluttering advisors such as Marie Kondo argue that it’s a really big problem that everyone is giving away all their stuff after binge watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix show, because all our Crap then has to be sorted through and much of it thrown away anyway, thus breaking the business model underlying the non-profits who operate the bins, in practice, those non-profits are actually doing basically okay, modulo some seasonality issues (e.g. people tend to donate summer related items at the end of summer, vs. in the spring, etc.).
And because the bins are in zip codes with higher than median wealth / income, they often contain all kinds of sell-able goodies. That’s why the nonprofits run the bins. Duh. However, there is a problem with this.
https://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Woman-dies-after-arm-get-stuck-in-clothing-drop-off--box.html
This is a tragic story! Mom / grandma of some dies after breaking her arm in one of these boxes, leaving behind a grieving family. So sad! I first encountered this particular story at Sandra Rose’s website (I don’t know who that is) and it had an update saying the earlier version of this story said the woman was donating when her hand was trapped. The link above makes relatively clear, and the updated version at the website I first encountered this story at, this woman was standing on a ladder or step stool or something and removing bags from the bin. The supporting device gave way, she became trapped and died of exposure. Because honestly? No matter how manic I get, I don’t usually go out in the cold, dark world at 2 a.m. to drop off bags at the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station. But it _does_ seem like a pretty good time to extract valuable items from the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station without someone coming by and asking you what the hell you think you are doing.
Still! A very sad story, and while her behavior is definitely NOT what one would hope for in a beloved mom / grandma of some, driving a black Hummer SUV, with an attached photo, nicely made up and dressed well, at the same time, stealing from a charity bin does _not_ strike one immediately as a candidate for the death penalty, especially not due to broken arm and exposure.
Indeed, there are reddit threads about a whole spate of homeless deaths in Canada, the US and elsewhere, in which homeless people become trapped in the bins of the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Stations and die tragically. Articles and the aforementioned threads entertain the various possibilities, but of course, it isn’t entirely clear which of several intentions led to these tragic deaths: were the people trying to find a warm place to stay? Clean clothes to swap for the ones they had on? Saleable items to raise money, perhaps to buy drugs and/or alcohol or whatever?
Trial lawyers have stories on their websites, trolling for people who might want to sue, on the basis of losing a loved one or at any rate a biological close relation to the Un-Warning-Labeled Maw of a bin at a Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station.
Makers of bins for Middle Class Guilt Reduction Stations have suspended the production of new bins, pending design changes to prevent theft but also not accidentally murder thieves (hey, the law is super unsympathetic to active security measures, and while these probably aren’t actually intended to kill, the effect is distressingly apparent).
Commentators are many: churches which would have to close up, but for the revenue from the bins (to learn this after reading how our decluttering castoffs are a bane is, really, a little surprising); people who think we all just should suck it up and go donate at the charity shops themselves and ban the bins entirely; people who think that bins killing homeless people is just fine, I mean, they are _stealing_.
Honestly, how is it we keep devoting so much online emotional energy to the morals of self-driving cars, and banning stores that refuse to accept cash, when we have _this_ trove of moral dilemmas to exploit?
Down the street from us, in the parking lot of the hardware store, Julie’s Place, etc., there are a number of donation bins for clothing, shoes, etc. There was one for books; I’m not sure if it is still there or not. Periodically, as I am decluttering, I bring bags down there, if I don’t have the energy or inclination to go to Savers or the library or HG or whatever. Eventually, I have to go further afield, when the electronics build up, or there are household items that don’t belong in the bins or whatever. But, I’m lazy, they are there, etc.
I knew there were some Issues associated with the donation bins. Like, there are some very clear cut ism issues, in that the bins are placed in higher income / wealth areas, even tho people who live in other areas are arguably more in need of convenient locations to donate the things they no longer need, thus forcing those people to either just put them in the trash (no guilt reduction service) or drive further to a church charity drop-off, Savers, the library, etc. I also know that there is a certain amount of unintended / deprecated uses of the bins: in the past, they used to be pried open and people would toss the contents out and then live in them on cold nights because warm and protected from the elements. The bins have become a lot more resistant to those unintended uses. People also attempt to get things _back_ out of the bins after they have been deposited. I know, you may be thinking, gosh, I can just imagine, you realize there was money in the pockets of those jeans you donated or whatever, but no, that’s not the issue so much actually.
While random commenters who, for whatever reason, think we should hate or at least disapprove of decluttering advisors such as Marie Kondo argue that it’s a really big problem that everyone is giving away all their stuff after binge watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix show, because all our Crap then has to be sorted through and much of it thrown away anyway, thus breaking the business model underlying the non-profits who operate the bins, in practice, those non-profits are actually doing basically okay, modulo some seasonality issues (e.g. people tend to donate summer related items at the end of summer, vs. in the spring, etc.).
And because the bins are in zip codes with higher than median wealth / income, they often contain all kinds of sell-able goodies. That’s why the nonprofits run the bins. Duh. However, there is a problem with this.
https://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Woman-dies-after-arm-get-stuck-in-clothing-drop-off--box.html
This is a tragic story! Mom / grandma of some dies after breaking her arm in one of these boxes, leaving behind a grieving family. So sad! I first encountered this particular story at Sandra Rose’s website (I don’t know who that is) and it had an update saying the earlier version of this story said the woman was donating when her hand was trapped. The link above makes relatively clear, and the updated version at the website I first encountered this story at, this woman was standing on a ladder or step stool or something and removing bags from the bin. The supporting device gave way, she became trapped and died of exposure. Because honestly? No matter how manic I get, I don’t usually go out in the cold, dark world at 2 a.m. to drop off bags at the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station. But it _does_ seem like a pretty good time to extract valuable items from the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station without someone coming by and asking you what the hell you think you are doing.
Still! A very sad story, and while her behavior is definitely NOT what one would hope for in a beloved mom / grandma of some, driving a black Hummer SUV, with an attached photo, nicely made up and dressed well, at the same time, stealing from a charity bin does _not_ strike one immediately as a candidate for the death penalty, especially not due to broken arm and exposure.
Indeed, there are reddit threads about a whole spate of homeless deaths in Canada, the US and elsewhere, in which homeless people become trapped in the bins of the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Stations and die tragically. Articles and the aforementioned threads entertain the various possibilities, but of course, it isn’t entirely clear which of several intentions led to these tragic deaths: were the people trying to find a warm place to stay? Clean clothes to swap for the ones they had on? Saleable items to raise money, perhaps to buy drugs and/or alcohol or whatever?
Trial lawyers have stories on their websites, trolling for people who might want to sue, on the basis of losing a loved one or at any rate a biological close relation to the Un-Warning-Labeled Maw of a bin at a Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station.
Makers of bins for Middle Class Guilt Reduction Stations have suspended the production of new bins, pending design changes to prevent theft but also not accidentally murder thieves (hey, the law is super unsympathetic to active security measures, and while these probably aren’t actually intended to kill, the effect is distressingly apparent).
Commentators are many: churches which would have to close up, but for the revenue from the bins (to learn this after reading how our decluttering castoffs are a bane is, really, a little surprising); people who think we all just should suck it up and go donate at the charity shops themselves and ban the bins entirely; people who think that bins killing homeless people is just fine, I mean, they are _stealing_.
Honestly, how is it we keep devoting so much online emotional energy to the morals of self-driving cars, and banning stores that refuse to accept cash, when we have _this_ trove of moral dilemmas to exploit?