I volunteer at a charity op shop and every now and then, boomers use us as a pseudo-cleaning service. The shop has a pickup service, so if somebody isn't able to drop off donations themselves (i.e. can't make it to the shop or what they're donating is too heavy like furniture or white goods), they can come by and pick it up for you. You have to negotiate with the shop manager first, though. One old lady had tons upon tons of black plastic bags filled with junk and old clothing which probably hasn't been worn in several decades, and she decides she wants to 'donate' the whole lot to us. Of course, she can't drop it off herself, so she expects us to drop by and pick it up for her. She not only did this once, but twice. The manager of the shop told her no the second time around and she got mad. Then he told her that we're a charity, not a cleaning service.
Another time, I went to help with moving some donations, and it was some old house where the steps were stupidly tall and they wanted to donate this massive, hardwood table they had in the living room. The screws on the table were burred (which meant you couldn't unscrew them) and they were also rusty just as an extra fuck you. There was no way in hell we were going to move this table out of their living room in one piece. They were nice enough, but this wasn't a job for a group of volunteers. They should have paid for some professional movers. In the end, we told them that we wouldn't be able to remove it and they should just leave it behind for the new homeowners.
That massive hardwood cabinet or table is a nice display piece inside your tiny living room, but when you're a fossilized 80 year old and you need to get rid of it, what then? What's the value of it? They also clearly weren't donating it to us to be charitable, but just so they didn't have to pay someone to do it for them.
