Have you ever noticed we live in an administrative hell-hole?
I am often exasperated at the amount of paper that comes into the house, even now while in pandemic aka electronic times.
Note: I am no longer parenting children in elementary school where the paper influx was beyond ridiculous. I ranted about this enough in years past so I won’t rant about it again. You’re welcome.
My complaint here isn’t so much about the actual documentation, which (in some cases) I understand is necessary and important for a variety of reasons.
My main complaint is about the redundancy of most of the paper coming into my home.
My other complaint is the duplication.
Take a wonderful local charity my mom sends funds to. The Donkey Sanctuary allows people to adopt donkeys and as a result they receive photos, newsletters and updates quarterly about the state of health of their donkey. It’s a wonderful way to give a gift that isn’t another superfluous (i.e unnecessary) item which ends up cluttering the home. (This was more of a case when the kids were young… remember the mountain of plastic toys? Stuffies? Legos?)
However, the charity often sends us duplicate information in separate envelopes even though both kids share the same last name and live at the same address.
It bugs me even though I understand how this happens; it’s a technical issue where the computer simply spits out each donation person individually.
Why does it bother me, you ask?
Because every time I turn around someone makes some statement about climate change, waste, destroying of forests, yada yada.
How much of this paper gets handled once (or possibly never?) and then gets chucked into a bin?
The same thing is happening with the hospital documents my mom is receiving from Switzerland. She was injured there and spend a week in hospital, which generated mountains of paperwork.
We’ve received a letter from the hospital every other day for the past week. I asked, why don’t they just send all of the documents in one envelope?
Apparently, it’s because each doctor (she had a team of doctors caring for her) sends their own from their department. Even though they all reside inside the same hospital.
Huh.
It’s a technical thing, I realize. It has to do with the management of their own departments etc… But it still generates a lot of paper. Also, the insurance receives their own copy, as well.
Fortunately, hospital documentation isn’t an ongoing thing for us and we are reaching the end of the administrative process, which will eliminate the paper trail. I’m happy about that.
One of the worst experiences I had with this paper redundancy was with another charity.
I remember once many years ago I made a financial donation to the Cancer Society. I received so much mail from them for months afterwards, it was overwhelming. I got multiple calendars, stickers and labels, pamphlets and cards, posters and invitations to so many events, my head hurts just thinking about it now. This was the main reason why I stopped making financial donations to that organization. They were, at least here in Canada, by far the worst in terms of the volume of useless mail coming into the house.
Before you jump all over me about the good work the many volunteers are doing at the various cancer societies, or the massive improvements the medical and research side of things have done, I’m not knocking that side of things. I’m complaining about how much paper they generate, how much of the donated funds are attributed to postage, and how much ecological waste they are producing.
I don’t want my money going to calendars and glossy pamphlets. I want it to go to the research, the science, and the care.
Am I the only one who feels this way?
Writer of Words etc 
Some charities have become big business. Your not seen as a supporter now, rather a customer
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Yes, that sounds right.
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Hi Claudette,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I have stopped donating to certain charities because of that. I want my money to get to the cause that needs it instead of wasted in paper and postage.
Blessings to you! ♥♥
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We are not alone in this. 🥰
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Is “adopting a donkey” a subtler way to say “paying for ass”?
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No it is not. (This time.) 😛
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I agree. I can see that mailing stuff may have been an important way to solicit donations in the past, but come on people, switch to online! Sending out return address labels for people to use is a complete waste of money, given that they would be of no use whatsoever to most people. I wonder if they still use mail because a lot of their donors are older and mail is still the best way to reach them.
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I don’t know what the percentage of older people is who donate by mail etc but I suspect that number is dwindling…
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And probably will until eventually the non-internet people die off, not to be morbid or anything…
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Or the internet explodes… 😀
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I’d rather have a book of stamps 😁
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I’m with you. I can’t believe the duplicate things we get! Does my household need 3 letters from our political representatives? It’s the same address…one letter to resident is more than sufficient
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Yes, that’s right. It’s almost like the right hand doesn’t talk to the left hand even if they share the same office… 🙄
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Yup
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I stopped giving to a lot of charities for the same reason. All the crap they send. The cheap plastic imported pens that have an environmental footprint along with all that other cheap imported promotional stuff that non profits as well as other businesses use. The labels really make me angry. It pisses me off that these companies are printing my personal information on them without my permission. I actually wrote a blog about it last Christmas after I received them from three different charities. The wastage is beyond belief. Especially those ones with metallic foil imprints because they are not recyclable. I have a ranting letter on my computer that I now send back to all of them in their postage paid envelopes voicing my complaints. I just edit it to suit the junk and the charity. It probably doesn’t do much other than make me feel better.
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See? I knew I wasn’t the only one… 😬
Thank you for this comment.
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I have the same issue with charity mailings. I make regular donations to a couple of charities and can get really irritated at the amount they spend on sending me regular updates — all of which go straight into the rubbish.
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A lot of people seem to be of the same mindset.
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There’s definitely a ton of paper being shuffled around. Mine comes mostly in the store flyers and junk type mail as I immediately opt out of anything paper from all entities I have to deal with, including healthcare and just go for the paperless options. If I do donate to a charity I try, after the first mailing to go to the website and unsubscribe from their stuff. I know where to find them if I want to send money again, but there are those who like the idea of a reward coming in the mail, so to speak.
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I get it. Some people still prefer hard copies. I suspect the majority don’t, though…
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