Having worked in museum collections for a while, this is an issue near and dear to me. Because you know what hoarders, or the folks cleaning out their homes, do? Often, they bring boxes and BOXES of stuff to, ahem, museums. I have found, boxed with "donations," such DEFINITELY appropriate items as decomposing partially-eaten food and dead vermin.
Obviously, that is not how anyone wants it to be. Doesn't benefit the museum. Donors feel relieved, but they are in denial if they think that, for instance, boxes of photocopies or a cardboard-and-macaroni model of a structure constitute actual museum collections materials.
My point isn't "don't donate to museums!" My point is twofold: a.) hoarding is a serious issue, and b.) if you are going to donate to a museum, think it through. Museums are not just free storage. Contact the institution ahead of time, and figure out what they need and would keep. Because I, for one, have spent a lot of time throwing out boxes and boxes of junk that no one bothered to sort or assess for any relevance to the museum's mission and that were just dumped. I understand why folks do it: it gives people a way to feel better about getting rid of things. But the thing is, if it's really junk, the museum is not going to keep it, and they ARE going to waste a lot of resources (staff time and trash disposal costs) dealing with it.
This excellent article (The Painful Costs of Elder Hoarding) really lays out a lot of the issues. I, for one, did not know that some companies exist that actually provide a "helping you get rid of stuff" service--for $80 an hour!
I think maybe the most poignant, and apt, part of the whole piece is that, when a place is truly out of control and the hoarder passes, the heirs or executors won't even be able to make enough sense of the clutter to know what were the late person's treasured items. They'll be lost in the flood. And that is a sad thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment