Don’t break down those big boxes your holiday gifts came in just yet! You can reuse cardboard boxes by packing them up with donations and shipping them to Goodwill— for free.
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully,
everyone is blessed.
―Maya Angelou
I know you’re already being good little boys and girls and breaking down those big boxes to be recycled. And that’s definitely a good thing! But did you know you can reuse cardboard boxes from Amazon or any other place, any time of the year, to pack up donations to Goodwill and have them shipped for free? You can even have them picked them up right from your house or office!
Apparently the Give Back Box program has been around for a while, but I’d never come across it before, and this is a great time to spread the word: everybody has big, sturdy boxes from their online orders being delivered.
Gathering up donations at this time of year means you can declutter to make room for the new items you’re gifted; you can clean more easily, which helps with lifting your mood (there’s seemingly a connection between clutter and mental state, especially as we grow older), improving your feng shui, and obviously making for a cleaner house for the new year ahead.
Going through the hidden recesses of your closets and the dark corners under your bed will undoubtedly uncover treasures you’d forgotten about so they can be used. Choosing items to donate is a good exercise in giving for kids after the craziness of the holidays.
And it goes without saying that Goodwill donations are tax-deductible, support jobs in your community and help those in need!
So here’s what you do.
Hang onto those boxes your holiday gifts arrive in.
Go through your house and let go of all the clothes, shoes, jewelry, books, toys, household items, etc. in good condition that you no longer use or that don’t “bring you joy.” Be ruthless! Trust me, it may be hard at first but you will feel so good once you’re done.
Pack your box up. There is no weight limit, but *no electronics, any liquids, fragile, hazardous or volatile items, or ammunition.*
Create a Give Back Box account. This lets you create and print your shipping labels.
Ship your box. You can send it UPS or USPS, by dropping off or ordering a pickup online.
Get a Tax Deduction receipt. After you ship, you can itemize your donation online and Give Back Box will email your receipt after the donation has been received and processed.
Now, obviously, if you have a Goodwill nearby, it’s just as easy to do the dropoff yourself; this is to make it easier for those who don’t have a donation dropoff that’s convenient or don’t have a way of getting donations there themselves (or maybe have a bad habit of letting Goodwill boxes sit in their car for months at a time. Ahem.).
The week after Christmas tends to be Goodwill’s busiest of the year, so if you’ve a couple of hours free consider checking in with your store and seeing if they could use help receiving donations!
Need decluttering inspiration?
These are my favorite books about decluttering and getting your house in order.
I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
-Charles Lindbergh
I read a lot of press releases every day for a lot of reasons. Usually I just take note of a company name or a post idea, but I thought this one was cute and worth sharing 🙂
Wild birds may not really be in a humorous mood as they look at what lies ahead for them this winter. So BirdFeedersPlus.com has developed a Top 10 List to draw attention to their plight. It’s intended to be a tongue-in-beak, bird’s- eye view of what they’re probably tweeting about this Christmas season. However it is a serious matter to wild birds trying to make it through the difficult weather conditions they’ll be facing. Humans can make a difference in improving their chances of survival by providing them with food & water.
TOP 10 Reasons to Care For Wild Birds this Winter
–from a birds’ eye view:
10. Have YOU ever tried bathing in the snow?
9. Spring is HOW far away?
8. WE should get some credit for being the FIRST ones to start the “tweeting” craze – and we did it without cell phones
7. It’s not like we’re asking for steak & potatoes – just seeds would be fine (plus some heated water)
6. We don’t have fur coats like our other outdoor companions
5. You think we LIKE those stupid unheated houses with one little hole & no windows?
4. We’re your feathered friends!
3. How would YOU like to go months without mating?
2. You think YOU hate cats!
1. It’s still politically correct & you’ll be a better person for caring about us.
____________________________________________
(This is me writing again.)
Birdfeeding in winter is hugely rewarding, especially for kids. The bare branches on the trees make birds easier to spot, and since normal meals aren’t as abundant (insects, berries), they’re much more willing to visit feeders close to your house.
Learning bird identification hones observational skills and critical thinking; invite your kids to research their backyard birds, sketch them or graph their finds for bonus educational boosting. Journal bird sightings and then bring the journal back out next year to predict when your favorite birds will reappear.
But mostly backyard birding is a good way for kids to become familiar with the way that nature depends on our care… and the way the lively lilt of a bird’s song and happy tilt of its head make our own lives richer.
It doesn’t take much. There are tons of tutorials on DIY birdfeeders from upcycled materials, and storebought birdfeeders and baths make lovely holiday gifys that keep on giving. But really, it can be as simple as seed tossed outside your window.
Seriously, try it. You’ll be amazed at how checking in every day lifts you from your seasonal stress.
Are you a birder? Do you set out feeders in winter?
The shooting of an endangered gorilla was tragic. Let it also be meaningful.
The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats.
This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
E. O. Wilson
On Saturday, a little boy infiltrated a gorilla exhibit and consequently a gorilla named Harambe was shot in his own enclosure by zoo officials. I was at the beach with family and not actively monitoring headlines, but I still knew all about it. My timeline was filled with outrage that the decision had been made to kill a rare gorilla rather than tranquilize it.
On Sunday, the information had spread that tranquilization wasn’t really an option because the drugs would take time to take effect and there was no way of knowing how Harambe would react: possibly violently due to the perceived violation, perhaps unpredictably due to the drugs in his system, perhaps clumsily as the drugs took hold. In any case, tranquilizing a gorilla currently holding a little kid is only presenting more danger.
So the outrage shifted: none of this would have happened if not for that kid getting in there in the first place. Where was his mother? Why wasn’t she watching him? How could this have happened?
The internet knew: bad parenting, that’s how. There was lots of finger pointing and cries of neglect. People wanted this mother’s kids taken away. It was mob mentality at its worst.
On Monday, the backlash began. “How can you be so high and mighty and self-righteous?” this new group self-righteously demanded of the parenting critics. They told stories of times they’d lost track of their kids. They reminded everyone that becoming parents doesn’t turn us into super humans, that we all make mistakes. (To be clear, I mostly agree with this group, but holy carp there was a lot of high and mightiness going on.)
On Tuesday, people started posting about Netflix acquiring Disney movies, so, you know, they were distracted. I saw a couple of people grumble that the problem is that gorillas shouldn’t be locked up in zoos anyway, but that was it.
And I patiently waited, scrolling through the think pieces that littered my timeline, for the outrage and the finger pointing and the blame game to die down. Waited for people to start sharing the news that really mattered, that would make Harambe’s death meaningful. And I just haven’t seen them. I’m sure they’re out there, but they couldn’t fight the loudness of the outrage.
So, here we are. I’m writing the post I couldn’t find to share. I’m getting noisy.
Oh, the outrage. And the outrage at the outrage. And the accusations of being outraged at the wrong things. It’s exhausting and not very productive.
I really couldn’t get over how people were jumping to blame based on a headline they saw, without bothering to click through and read the articles and expert or eyewitness accounts.
I also kind of couldn’t get over the fact that people only cared in this situation because they’d humanized the gorilla; a major sticking point was whether he was protecting the child or no. All gorillas deserve the right to a full life. All animals deserve protection. Many species are crucially in danger of becoming functionally extinct. Can we direct all that outrage and energy there, please?
Sometimes situations just suck
Look. This whole situation was a tragedy, from start to finish, but once that kid got in the enclosure there weren’t a lot of options for a happy outcome. Yes, it all could have been avoided if the mother had kept her son in a vise-like grip once he announced he was going to try to get in the gorilla exhibit, but seriously? We cannot be 100% locked-in on our kids every moment of every day nor should we be.
My son Maverick was a Junior Ambassador for the zoo when he was 9. That meant that he got to wander around the zoo, without adult supervision, before it was open on Saturday mornings, to road test new maps and such and offer feedback. It didn’t occur to me to worry about him wandering into an exhibit; if you’d asked me, I’d have assumed it couldn’t be done.
By the same token, if you’d asked a zoo worker if a four year old could climb in with a gorilla, I’d assume they’d have answered it couldn’t be done. Those exhibits are tiered; there’s a barrier to keep the public on this side and the gorillas on this side and a frigging moat in between. No one anticipated a kid being capable of figuring out how to maneuver his way to the gorillas, having the attention span and will to do so, and being small enough to wiggle through. It was a perfect storm of kid-dom.
Which brings me to my next point.
Never underestimate what kids are capable of
It’s a tragedy and a damned shame that Harambe lost his life because adults didn’t really think through all potentialities and the tenacity of preschool-aged boys. But we can’t possibly plan for every potential outcome and kids are clever, man, they are quick. Don’t talk down to your kids, they are capable of a lot more than you give them credit for.
We need to teach the importance of zoos and proper zoo etiquette
I am not anti-zoo; I am pro humane treatment of animals in captivity. While I don’t love the idea of animals being closed in, I understand and respect the role zoos play in conserving animal populations globally, through breeding programs and education programs.
Our job as parents is to communicate to our kids that the zoo is these animals’ home. They have been displaced from their natural habitat, or maybe they were born into captivity. They are subjected to prying eyes and loud voices all day.
Tell your kids to respect the animals’ need for privacy, or rest, when they retreat to quiet parts of their enclosure. Help them to develop empathy for the animals.
Point out, read, obey and enforce signs around the zoo. Most glass-enclosed animals will have a sign posted requesting that you not tap on the glass. Nocturnals might ask that you not take photographs with a flash. And the gorilla exhibit generally warns not to make eye contact, as this is considered aggressive. “No littering” is probably posted everywhere. Talk about why these signs are posted, and what it means for the safety and general well-being of the animals.
Extend these lessons beyond the zoo by reading more about the animals, by watching documentaries, by looking at pictures. This is how you raise children to love animals, to become future conservationalists.
To love a thing, you have to know it first, and for many kids the zoo is the best way to do that. Zoos are important.
Support your local zoo and conservation programs. Advocate.
An endangered western lowland silverback (mature adult males are called silverbacks), Harambe was one of 353 gorillas being bred in US zoos. His unexpected death has repercussions within the captive gorilla community: he was troop leader to females in his enclosure, and the breeding program will have to adjust for his absence to keep gorilla partnerships compatible yet genetically diverse.
Incidents like this should serve to draw attention to the fact that zoos need more support, not boycotts or calls to cease existing. Zoos do important work: protecting at-risk species, educating the community and allowing zoologists to conduct research to better serve animals in the wild. Support them by visiting them respectfully. Buy a membership, and visit at different times of year and times of day so you can be there at less busy times and see all the animals when they are most active. Attend the zoo’s fundraisers and special events.
Allow your child to get up close and look into the animals’ eyes, when it is safe to do so. Let them forge connections and memories that you can’t through a screen. See if they can become involved in youth zoo programs, like Maverick did. As adults, some of our strongest convictions and basis for action can be traced back to the memories formed from childhood experiences. Give your kids those experiences, empower them to do what they can to help, and model that same behavior by taking your own actions.
Money is the easiest and most helpful way to help animal populations right away, and for gorillas time is critical. There are four subspecies of gorillas: the Eastern lowland (fewer than 5,000 in the wild), the critically Cross River gorilla (less than 300), mountain gorillas (around 700) and around western lowland (150,000-200,000). Putting money in the hands that can help existing gorillas— and other endangered species— is the best way to be useful right now, but the greater threats are habitat loss and climate change. Those are threats that need everyone’s assistance. ADVOCATE. Let people know that you care enough to try to make a difference. Share ways to conserve energy and habitat. “Adopt” a gorilla or a whole mountain gorilla family. Shop on Amazon by starting on the Amazon Smile page, and a portion of what you purchase supports the conservation organization of your choice. Buy sustainable wood. Do what you can.
Every bit helps, but doing nothing helps no one.
photo via gorillas.org
For more info on gorillas, and what you can do to help:
