Miami ? Cases of bottled water and cardboard boxes full of blue jeans, diapers and cans of tuna are piled several feet high in Ruth Estriplet’s living room. The charity worker doesn’t want to stack anything above her head so she can see what’s in the boxes.

What she can’t see is a way to get all the items to Haiti.

More than three weeks after the earthquake, donated goods are accumulating at small charities, sitting in shipping limbo because of costs and a complex web of transportation logistics. The heaps of donations are evidence that many people ignored the advice to just give cash.

Estriplet and other charities opted to collect items because it has a more personal touch. She is specifically gathering donations for her hometown of Carrefour, a devastated suburb of Port-au-Prince. But it’s not clear how she’s going to get the goods there.

“We’re open to anyone who has an idea on how to do this, and we’re taking any suggestions,” Estriplet said.

Almost immediately after the quake hit, large organizations said money was the best way to help. It has never been easy to get supplies into Port-au-Prince, and the tremor has made things much worse.

Aid workers in Port-au-Prince have complained that red tape, transportation bottlenecks, corruption and a fear of violence has slowed the distribution of food, medicine and other supplies.

Some charities have found ways around the logjam by piggybacking on a larger organization or sending shipments to other Haitian ports or the Dominican Republic.