Mothers' experiences related to the disposal of children's clothing and gear: keeping Mister Clatters but tossing broken Barbie

Abstract

Drawing upon depth interviews with mothers, this study explores meanings attached to children's items disposed of through various channels. Items with little value (rubbish) such as broken toys were typically thrown away. Items that had deep personal meaning for the mothers but that lacked clear value to others (mementos) are kept in storage without plans for the future transfer of ownership to anyone else. Some mementos are extensions of the children's identities; they are often contaminated from use by the children and/or indexed to specific memories held by the mothers. Items that have less personal meaning for the mothers but that might be useful to other families (wares) were redistributed through giving, selling or donating. Baby wares were typically given to other mothers, while wares for older children were donated to charity. Interviewees described keeping some items on display or in storage with the intention of passing them on to children or grandchildren at a later time (intended heirlooms). Intended heirlooms have mythologized stories of origin, they affirm family identity, and some demonstrate properties of sacredness. Suggested directions for future research include further exploration of mothers' giving to other mothers and identity issues related to disposal. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Consumers' clothing disposal behaviour – a synthesis of research results

“…However, a lot of garments are still binned if the user feels that they are of no use to others, either because of wear and tear, stains, other damages or because of fashion change (e.g. Sego, ; Ungerth and Carlsson, ; Björnman and Kaloper, ; Ekström et al ., ). None of the studies included take‐back schemes as disposal options, most likely because they are a rather new alternative on the consumer market.…”

“…Selling garments was more often related to economic reasons, in addition to not wasting usable products (Shim, ; Joung and Park‐Poaps, ). Different types of clothing are disposed of in different ways; it is more common to give children's clothing to acquaintances than adults' clothing, and women's clothing is swapped more often than men's clothing (Hibbert et al ., ; Fisher et al ., ; Sego, ; Ekström et al ., ).…”

Electronic product returns and potential reuse opportunities: a microwave case study in the United Kingdom

“…Bayrus' (1991) investigation of replacement behaviour in the context of durable goods and the effect of demographic characteristics found highincome and low educational achievement to be positively correlated with early replacement of durable products, and Harrell and McConocha (1992) also found demographics (e.g., age) to affect disposal behaviour and, more superficially, disposal choice (i.e., whether to sell, pass along, or donate). Sego's (2010) investigation of mothers' disposal of toys found disposal behaviour to be affected by the personal meaning consumers attach to certain products, and in a similar vein, Mugee, Schifferstein, and Schoormans (2010) found three factors-attachment, utility, and appearance-to influence the decision of whether to dispose of a product. Finally, White et al (2011) investigated the effect different types of messages have on intent to recycle.…”

The role of identity in disposal

“…Based on previous research about mothers’ disposal experiences (Sego, 2010), we believed that we could find both packrats and purgers even within a fairly homogeneous group of mothers. Thus, we kept the demographic profile of our participants consistent to explore identity within a shared life-world.…”