RE: Marie Kondo-ing the toybox and the BIG IDEA!
YEAH I love it, this is awesome! I've seen little free book libraries and pantries, but not toys! GREAT idea.
A lot of times, people think donating to charities means their stuff goes to people in need, but generally it's sold, not given. There ARE clothing banks too, but generally you have to know about them and maybe even qualify somehow to benefit from them (like, maybe you have to belong to that church or that school, or be homeless, or whatever), and you certainly wouldn't stumble across them as you walked down the street. And some people are too proud to go to a place where they would have to ask for help. And some people are too proud to go somewhere they'd have to ASK or even just be seen receiving help.
The book purging that I've been leaving in LFLs across town has all been taken pretty quickly, so there IS demand for goods without a price tag or stipulations. I hope your toy library works out the same! I bet it will, because not only are there people who have lost everything because of some tragedy or are just really impoverished, but kids stuff is grown out of SO QUICKLY. It used to be that neighborhoods were real communities and families could pass things between each other, but we're so isolated now, people just take it to the Goodwill rather than to the family down the street who they know has kids two years younger and are growing out of their clothes and toys, too. Like when I was a kid, some of the neighbor kids I played with, one was older and two were younger, plus the mom had an in-home daycare. I was surprised to find some of my old toys in the playroom there one day. I had long outgrown them, but the youngest brother and the daycare kids hadn't. I had already been having hoarding tendencies as a child, but I was OK with that because it was easier: I could see them being loved and played with for myself. It would have been harder to see my mom throw it in a dumpster at the Goodwill. So I bet this will be easier even for the hoarders and packrats.
I'm so excited to make this happen. Not only will it make my life easier, I think the kids will be happier. Plus, all those toys can be used again, they're perfectly good! I still have dolls from my childhood that river plays with. I'm not sure why we thought we even needed new ones. 😑 Lol.
Honestly, if the city didn't have so many rules and laws about what you can and can't do in your own front yard, it wouldn't be that far off base to expect that many neighborhoods could set up trading posts like this pretty easily. One house does little free library, one does toys, one does clothing, another does extra food from gardens, another tools etc...
I think we'd find we all have more than enough to last us a lifetime between everyone.
Exactly this. I think all the regulations are just power and money grabs, tbh. If people can't rely on each other, they rely on paid services or the state. If people have to ask permission for every damn thing (like building a shed on your own property), they feel disempowered to do anything about anything and look to official organizations, companies, the state, whatever to fix everything instead. And if people's rights are taken away regarding their own property, not only in the "you need permits" or "you can't build an accessory dwelling for your poor artist friend to live in or your disabled in-law" sense, but in the you-don't-own-mineral-and-water-rights sense, allowing corporations to just come in and poison your land and air and water table ...well, people feel powerless. I understand it but don't think the more individualist self-sustaining movement is going to change this; no one and no family, even, is an island; I think it needs to be about community again, or we're all fucked.