Clutter clean-out causing problems
New Year clutter clean-outs have seen such a deluge of donations to a New Plymouth hospice shop it issued a plea that people press pause on donations.
Waiwhakaiho HospiceShop manager Lisa Andrews said she had to make the decision to close the drop-off bay at her store on Tuesday after donations got out of control.
‘‘At this time of year while everyone’s on holiday, they’re all having a clean out at the same time,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s just got to the point where it was dangerous out the back for our volunteers,’’ she said.
‘‘We’ve only got a limited amount of storage area and we were unable to process quick enough to get it through the shop and it was building up to the point where it was becoming a hazard.’’
Most of the 150 volunteers at the store were over the age of 65 and had worked tirelessly to have the drop-off bay potentially reopened today.
‘‘Eighty per cent of our volunteers are all older people.
‘‘They can’t work like a 25-year-old, although a lot of them try,’’ Andrews said.
Before she closed the bay on Tuesday afternoon, she said the shop had received 1200 black rubbish bags of clothes donations, all within a few weeks.
‘‘We need the donations to slow down a little bit.’’
Those making drop offs at New Plymouth’s other HospiceShop in Westown have also commented about the deluge of donations and Andrews said other charity shops, such as the Salvation Army, were having the same issues. The Salvation Army was unavailable for comment.
The phenomenon can partly be blamed on New Year’s resolutions, but a hit online TV show has also spurred a huge movement in decluttering around the world.
The Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, shows author Marie Kondo going into Americans’ homes and helping them declutter their lives in five steps. It has influenced people worldwide to biff anything that no longer sparks joy.
‘‘I’m hooked and feeling the peace of an organised home. And I was so disorganised before watching the show,’’ Maree Mayer said about the show on a Facebook post.
‘‘I have watched the whole season and it’s really encouraged me to sort out our stuff,’’ Joanne Care wrote.
‘‘So far I have sorted my clothes and both of my daughters’ clothes – removed things that no longer fit or that we just don’t like or wear anymore and folded all the drawers in the way Marie Kondo does.
‘‘My eldest has cleared out her toys too.
‘‘We now have heaps of bags of stuff in the dining room that I need to fold nicely and pack for donation,’’ she said.
Andrews said that although 95 per cent of donations were great, there was often 5 per cent which was household rubbish buried among other items.
‘‘It’s an ongoing issue but we’re hoping that the public are slowly getting the idea that we are the hospice shop and not waste management,’’ she said.
Hospice Taranaki needs to raise $300,000 a year to keep providing services to the region but a large chunk of earnings continually go towards rubbish clean-up.
In 2017 it revealed it had spent $40,000 a year to get rid of rubbish that was dumped outside the Westown HospiceShop alone and Andrews said she thinks that the figure is almost at $70,000 for the whole region.