Rant/question/idea/hope of the day

(Scene from Clueless - Travis donating his bong for disaster relief)

Can someone please tell me how to donate a very large amount of old clothes, books and objects in Hong Kong without either ending up 1) wanting to just leave it all in front of World Wide House on a Sunday; or 2) wanting to scream? Meaning, the charity either does pickups or is centrally located, and takes everything. And also, which charities are most reputable? I don't even care if the recipient tries to sell the stuff and pockets the money, as long as it doesn't end up in a landfill.

In the States, we used to queue up in our car at Goodwill. Once you reached the front of the line, a guy unloads your truck, or you hand him the stuff out your window. He puts it in a big pile, except some stuff that goes in a *different* pile, which I know is the "clearly just trash" pile. I know this cos this is where he threw our old tennis balls. Anyway, what does this say about the US? It says that people perpetually have way too much stuff. It says that everyone drives, especially big cars. It says that despite years of environmental awareness, tennis players still have no real way of recycling all that rubber. But most important, US charities have efficient, organized systems of donation.

Maybe I'll set one up here.

I'm sure Goodwill in the States throws out a large quantity of stuff when I'm not looking, but today I heard from V.Li that Oxfam here has turned down her mom's clothing donations because the items were too old. Also, I once called the public library here and asked if I can just drop off a bunch of books, and they said no they have to be approved. And if they aren't accepted, do I have to haul them away? "Yes." Call me lazy but books are heavy. I have no triceps. (Trust me. I tried to do a push-up last night.) OK I know carrying books mainly involves biceps, but still, bird arms. It's not like libraries here have parking spaces, even if I had a car. It's not like I can just waltz in with a pile of books on the off chance that the government wants my free donation of reading material. In the US, the library takes everything. If there's stuff they don't want, they just put them on racks as free stuff for the taking or sell them for $1. I don't think it's inherently wrong of charities and libraries to NOT accept stuff, but it's just less friendly, less convenient that the donor has to figure out how to get rid of it - again, it's all about having a system in place to take care of the excess.

I have also been desperately seeking good used furniture, which is, amazingly, even more difficult. As the expat forums have pointed out, Chinese have "hangups" about used stuff. Lame. Like how they have to buy a new doormat at Chinese New Year, or new slippers, or whatever, just for luck. There's probably some symbolic, cultural and practical reason behind this that makes perfect sense if you put it in some old-school context. Like how western brides believe in wearing "something blue" on their wedding day, often in the form of garter or underwear. How crass, considering the tradition originated because blue's associated with purity. But to be fair, another reason it's impossible to find used furniture here is people don't have lawns, so they don't have yard sales. And everything on craigslist is Ikea, which everyone knows is bound to be in pieces once you get it home.

I once said to my husband these exact words: I just think it's dumb that people make things and bury them under the ground.

Which is exactly how Hong Kong works. I'm sure it helps with all the land reclamation projects. Recycling is a mystery here. There are tons of sightings of recycle bin garbage getting mixed with real garbage. Janitor ladies in my husband's office building (IFC y'all!) have confessed this to him this in a hush-hush manner. Yet people also say all of Hong Kong's trash gets sorted at the facilities anyway, and recycle bins are decoys to make us feel greener. But why so mysterious? Let's just lay it all out, literally.

With real flea markets.

People want this.