Life After Mother: Overwhelmed by Free Gifts

My parents both gave generously to nonprofit organizations, and those organizations were very generous with the “free gifts” often packaged with fundraising appeals. My parents were both good at saving everything too, so that means I have enough fundraising freebies — calendars, greeting cards, notepads (including the kind with sticky backing), address labels, stickers, postcards, appointment books, pens, pencils, bookmarks, tote bags, dreamcatchers, gift wrap, gift tags, stick pins, key chains and more — to stock a stationery store.

I’d like to support the same causes my parents did, but a look at my budget warns me not to. When I was young I gave generously to multiple nonprofit organizations. Now that I’m into my Social Security years, though, I need my limited fixed income to pay my bills, and I need to save thousands of dollars for the day my life becomes one long stream of health ailments.

I’ve tackled the junk-mail monster, written and asked to be removed from mailing lists, but I don’t think I’ve been able to stop the flow entirely. I recycle what I can, but all these carefully saved freebies overwhelm even three bedrooms’ worth of storage space.

One reason organizing my mother’s house has taken so long is because I’ve had to sort, keep, store, use, recycle or trash years of “free gifts.” Take the stacks of greeting cards and envelopes that come with some fundraising appeals. I sorted hundreds of greeting cards and envelopes into six accordion-style expandable files. Dozens more just went into the recycling bin. I won’t have to shop for any greeting cards — for birthdays, holidays, “get well” or just about any other occasion — for years.

Dozens upon dozens of reusable shopping bags — almost all “swag” bearing a company’s or nonprofit’s logo — fill a drawer in the kitchen, clutter my car trunk, hang in the coat closet, on pegs in the service porch, on a hat rack in a bedroom, and some old-fashioned paper and plastic kinds are under the kitchen sink. It’s not even like I’m careless about using bags when I shop, but as fast as I move bags out of the house, more show up.

Not every freebie can be reused or recycled, so how much goes into the waste stream? I’ve got two drawers full of notepads, enough to last me a decade, and I know not many households are going to be as scrupulous about saving and using them as I am. Just how many stickers campaigning against animal abuse or for women’s rights does any household need? I have so many address labels, they fill one drawer and spill into another. Stickers can’t be recycled, and if there are too many to use, they have to be thrown away.

I’ve got to question the waste of natural resources that these freebies represent. If these fundraising groups care about the planet as much as they want us to think they do, then they’d be wise to design campaigns that don’t generate so much — trash.