Lots of people are discovering the joys and virtues of decluttering. And I totally applaud that! Passing on your unwanted stuff to someone who has immediate use for it is definitely a wonderful thing – for you, for them, and for the planet!
But, there are some irresponsible decluttering behaviors that are undermining the social and ecological good we’re trying to do.
One is thinking that disaster victims, people in less-well-off countries, and so on automatically want our old clothes. We need to pay attention to the wish-lists of aid organizations, and not send things they are not looking for. Just because our closets are bursting doesn’t give us an excuse to offload our unwanted junk onto other people.
Same with books, or anything else. We accumulated our clutter; no one forced us to. We need to do due diligence to distribute it responsibly.
Don’t be one of the people who, for example, contribute to the ugly phenomenon of huge bales of raggedy clothing that are getting sent to African countries. Of course people don’t want garments that are stained, ripped, and otherwise disgusting.
Sometimes, the best destination for clutter is literally our own backyard. I routinely compost books and clothing that are too far gone to be of use to people. (As I have written in my book and elsewhere on this blog, at our house clothing and other fabric goes through a cascading hierarchy of household rags before finally getting composted, or turned into trellis-tying strips, or other downcycle uses.)
Decluttering feels really good. Once you have your stuff in a box, there’s this strong urge to just dump it and be free. But putting your clutter onto other people isn’t right.
Today I made a post on my neighborhood Facebook group, asking people to stop using our Little Free Library as a bulk drop-off spot:
Please do not use the Little Free Library as a dumping ground. I have limited space in my library and it’s not kind to dump a bunch of books if the library is full. Now I have to recycle or throw away your books.
And actually, there’s even an extra layer of difficulty, because you drop about 50 or 100 pounds of books off, so unless you are Hercules, you are obviously coming into the neighborhood by car.
When you guys do this, I get to try to redistribute the excess books on foot. Or I get to feel guilty about dumping them in the trash.
Fortunately there is a church right down the street, so I usually just hand-carry the excess books there. But why should I have to do this, when you are in a car, and you could’ve dropped them off at a thrift shop???
Other donation destinations, if you have too many books to fit on the Little Free Library shelves, include the public library. The public library has an ongoing book sale and will take your books and sort out which ones are sellable. Proceeds go to the public library, always a wonderful cause!
Also: You are blocking the sidewalk when you dump bags of books on the sidewalk. The sidewalk-using public deserves more respect than that.
And, you are leaving the books out exposed to weather when you dump books instead of putting them inside the shelves. Books deserve more respect than that.
Glad you feel good about decluttering your bookshelf, but please respect that the library is a Community asset.
We are always happy to see people bring books. With a caveat: Any books beyond what will fit on the shelves, please do not leave them here.
Running a library is a delight, but it is really quite a lot of work, surprisingly so. Please don’t make it more work than it needs to be!
— Your friendly but weary librarian, Harvey Ave Little Free Library, charter #9278 (just celebrated our 11th anniversary!!)
For more information about little free libraries, and how you can start one in your neighborhood, please visit the little free library website www.littlefreelibrary.org
I am also always available to help people start little free libraries in their own neighborhood.
PS. Sharing is caring! Please spread the word about not using little free libraries as a bulk dropoff station.
(Part of me was saying to myself, well at least people seem to have progressed; they’re not dropping off boxes of dented cans of beans anymore. But maybe I shouldn’t say that out loud; I might jinx myself …)
Disposing of unwanted stuff responsibly, by finding people and organizations who can truly use it and who want it, is a beautiful experience.
Another dimension of decluttering we want to be cautious about is tossing old things that represent unfulfilled goals, dreams, and aspirations.
For example, a few years back, I bought a huge collection of beads from someone who had once had a bead store. It was one of my dreams at the time to basically have a bead store’s worth of beads. And to be making all kinds of beautiful creations with them. And teaching various beading workshops and so on.
But that particular aspiration has sort of fallen by the wayside, as I have gotten more deeply into writing and other types of work. However, to just dump the beads on someone without first ascertaining that the person is truly excited and eager to have them, would be extremely disrespectful.
But, there’s even more to it. In my case, I still do have some aspirations to do some kind of projects with the beads. Possibly little workshops for the community, for nonprofit organizations, nursing homes, homeless shelter?
And, I’m still occasionally enjoying making a creation here and there for my own use as well, or for a gift for a friend. So, simply donating the collection in bulk to the makerspace of the library, to a theater, or to someone else who might want it, would not quite yet be appropriate. It may become so, at some point down the road. But being a responsible declutterer means being loyal to my own past intentions too. (It would be different if I were completely decided that I was totally done with beads. Then, a different approach would be called for.)
One thing I’m having a blast with the past few years is my collection of sewing supplies which comes from multiple generations of women in my family. I can see in the collection the tendencies that my ancestors share in common with me. Always wanting to make sure we have enough of a certain color of zipper, size of needle, etc.
Over time, I have been using the supplies steadily. And really enjoying what I’ve been making. Not only what I’ve been making, but the act of using up these good-quality materials (such as packets and packets of bias tape, all different colors and widths), and using the needles and other tools some of which came to me still in their original packaging.
There is a rather large collection of zippers, and I may still donate some to the craft section of a good thrift store. I also might not need the several hundred tapestry needles I seem to have. On the other hand, needles don’t take up very much space …