Discarded or set free...

 Scrolling through YouTube shorts recently I came across this short video:

It's just 45 seconds long so not a big investment of your time, but I'd love for you to watch it and comment below after reading my thoughts.   I'm not particularly enthralled with what was created by this gal, but then again we don't get to see the ultimate finished garment.  What I am fascinated with, though, is the idea of taking individual pieces that someone else created and making something brand new out of them.

But the inspiration for this post was that I found myself surprised and a bit disappointed at the number of comments that expressed sadness that hand-made items were donated to a thrift store.  "Discarded" as if no one loved the items enough to keep them and use or display them.

To be honest, when I was younger and before I got back into crocheting, knitting, and cross stitching I may have felt similarly.  On the other hand, I know in my younger adult years I also donated things I had spent hours making when I no longer wanted them.  Some I kind of regret not having now, but that's not the point of this post.  

I'm pretty sure that today, with full knowledge of the time invested in hand-making items, I always find it kind of wonderful to see handmade things sometimes making their way into a thrift store or a garage sale or a flea market.  I don't think of them as being discarded, but rather set free for someone else to love them, to maybe display or remake them.

I actually have a small box that contains things I've made with the hope and intent that someone will discover it one day when I pass.  I sometimes use the items, but there are a few things in there that I'm pretty sure I won't ever use.  I might donate some of the items myself if there become too many to save, but for now I take pleasure in the thought that someday someone else may be tickled to uncover these things.   I'm thinking of putting a note in the box saying something like "Take and use as you wish, or feel free to donate" - just to alleviate any sense of guilt someone might feel about "setting them free".  Or maybe I should just verbally tell my kids now that after my passing, family should feel totally free to do whatever they want with any of the items I've made over the years - preferably donate rather than throw away items no one wants.   I was thrilled when after Hub's mother died in 2020 to be encouraged to go through a bag of crocheted doilies and such things that his grandmother had made many decades ago, and I also brought home some unfinished items my mother-in-law had begun, with the thought that I might finish them someday.  But if I don't, I'll eventually donate them and "set them free". 

Many readers here are (or have been) creators of various hand-made items.  You may be an artist, a seamstress, a woodworker, a crafter...   Whatever you call yourself, you know what I'm talking about.  You have creations in your home that you've invested hours in making.  How do you feel about the idea of those things eventually ending up in a resale shop?  

And regardless of whether you're a maker or not, how do you feel when you see something hand-made being sold for relatively little, knowing the time that went into making the thing? 

Another related question is... Do you struggle donating an item that was hand-made by a loved one, even if you don't want to keep it?

Any other thoughts on the topic are welcome, too!