It seems that after the Netflix show “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” took off, more and more people have been using her method to remove the excess from their lives. So much so that the donations which result from people ‘tidying up’ their lives has gone overboard. It’s actually becoming too much for certain charities to take in.
The charity in question, Lifeline, spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Commission on the issue. It is believed that a combination of Christmas cleaning and the popularity of Marie Kondo has led to massive amounts of donations across Australia. While this might seem like a wonderful problem for a charity to have, the reality is that they are underequipped to deal with it.
How Lifeline works in Australia is that several donation bins are situated across the country and are sorted through and emptied out by employees periodically. What’s happened is that these bins have started filling up much faster than usual but can’t be attended to as quickly. The charity simply doesn’t have enough funds to hire the number of employees it would take to complete the work on time.
And that’s not even the whole problem. People aren’t letting an overflowing bin stop them — they’re simply continuing to pile the clothes on top of or around the bin. The donated items then become unusable because charities are forced to classify these as ‘contaminated’. In turn, they end up spending even more to have these unusable donations sent as landfill.
(Also Read:Â 5 Ways to Declutter (The Japanese Way))
People are being urged to direct their donations towards other charities instead, even if they may not be as convenient or accessible as Lifeline.
Do you think there’s another way to solve the problem of over-donating?Â
Source: ABC
