...to expect a charity shop (business) to take my donation when I deliver it to them?

The oxfam shop in the town near to me has a very small back room. I don't know how they manage.

I have had to stop my DH from sending stuff to a charity shop as its total rubbish. Trouble is he hoards thing and doesn't seem to understand that some things are unsaleable.

Grannyknot, they do it just to get rid of it - they don't want to make the effort of taking their rubbish to the local tip/recycling centre!

Not everyone has a car.

But if they just want to get rid, why don't they put stuff in the bin?

Clothing that is not worth anyone wearing can be recycled as rags. The charity gets money from that.

Ana is right. So much of what we saw was rubbish....and unfortunately even if some of it could have been recycled it ment a member of staff kindly bundling it up and taking it there themselves. Obviously that did not happen often so it would go in the shop's expensive trade bins and thence into landfill.
Many charity shops run on so much good will and I was always amazed how much behind the scenes stuff was done with such good humour. The local antique shop would cast an eye over anything we thought was valuable. One lady, an ex librarian, sorted books so that nothing of value went astray, similar arrangement with jewellry and watches. Someone else picked up all the glass that did not sell and took that to recycling. Etc Etc.

Because with bins commonly being emptied only fortnightly, they need all the space for their household waste, I presume...

Sorry, Hilda, my post was replying to Bags!

The stuff gets collected from the charity shops where I live. The vans deliver stock from somewhere and collect other rags/stuff and take it away to be sorted and sold on.

They do that here too. They seem to take stuff which isn't selling in one shop and take it to a shop in another area. Another van takes away the absolute rubbish.
I know this because there's a charity shop behind the office where I work, and the vans often block my parking space... (Most of the drivers are lovely, though, and will move when asked!)

Interesting thread! Have just spent the weekend clearing the house of 24 years of gathering objects. Today trips are planned to the tip and the local charity shops. We will share our things around 3 local shops. I hope they take them!
Some smaller, and possibly more desirable objects we are taking to 2 small local charities, in a small town.Both are entirely volunteer run and all the money goes directly to the charity concerned. One of which built, runs and maintains the town's swimming pool.
Yes, we have gathered that much stuff over the years. When DH can be persuaded to have round 2 of the clear out, there'll be more!

bags why is it important that not everyone has a car? I get most places I want to get on public transport (although I do drive).

Where do you live, Grannyknot?

What kind of things do you transport by public transport, and how far?
Where is your GP? your dentist? your hospital?

How far is the bus stop from where you live and from where you are transporting these things? How far can you walk?

All these answers and more are relevant to your question.

Age Scotland "Still Waiting" Campaign

elegran I am getting confused now! My OP was a bit of a moan because the charity shop wouldn't accept my donations.

Then Bags said "not everyone has a car". But the point is I walk to my charity shop (and of course I realise that not everyone can), but I don't understand what whether anyone has a car or not has to do with it. Genuine question.

Now we're on to all your questions! . Not sure why you're asking but:

I live in London.
I take anything and everything on public transport, if it is too heavy, I take it in my wheeled trolley.
The bus stop is quite far, but not too far for me to walk to.
My GP is 20 minutes walk away from me or 10 minutes on the bus.
My dentist is in Hungary (but comes to London every 3 months).
I don't have a hospital (so far).

Flip me Elegran! Where's your bright light and knuckledusters?

Perhaps on the day you went Grannyknot one of their volunteer sorters had had to pul out at the last minute, and they were getting a huge backlog. Nuisance for you though after lugging it!

j08 . I've learnt a lot about charity shop, I had no idea that volunteers had to do the sorting.

Sorry for the third degree, grannyknot (You held up under it very well!)

But there are many places, most of them outside London, where the buses only run once a day into the nearest town, and passengers have to walk a long way from their home to the nearest bus-stop, using a stick to help them. even the shopping trolley is hard to manoeuvre with only one hand. Many others live in towns, but have difficulty getting to and from the bus stop, or on and off the bus, and even in a big city like Edinburgh, they may have to get three buses to go what is a shortish district as the crow flies - One to avoid a steep hill, one into the town centre, one out again to their destination. The Age Scotland link has some interviews with such people.

No problem! . I'm sorry for the people who struggle to get around and those who don't have public transport or drive, but I still don't understand what that has to do with charity shops turning donations away ...

I work for a charity shop in Germany and we get too many unsalable books. We prefer it if people ask if we take books and we can tell them, not more than five and a load of academic books would be refused.
We also don't take classics with small print.

Best to ring up first. The days when charity shops took everything are now over.

Gknot, late getting back to your question about cars or lack of. Here it matters. There is only one bus an hour to one place! No buses to the dump, which is at the top of a long hill. Perhaps I should add that not everyone lives in a city with regular buses going everywhere useful. Not a criticism; just a remark to perhaps explain some difficulties some people may have.

Re bin-filling – our absolute rubbish only gets emptied once a fortnight. Sometimes I don't take it down the hill for a month. It's never full. Where does everyone's rubbish come from? Mind you, we are only a three person house. Most of our rubbish is recyclable. That bin (paper, plastic, metal) usually needs emptying after two weeks.

We tow the wheelie bins back up the hill behind the car. Yes, it is that steep, not to mention bumpy. Everyday things are just much harder work in some places. I'm not complaining, just explaining

Oh, I see!

My remark about everyone not having a car was in response to ana's remark about people not being bothered to take their stuff to a recycling centre. Where I live, If you don't have a car, getting to the recycling centre with anything remotely difficult to carry for a couple of miles is virtually impossible.

I see too now

So do I!

I was just offering an opinion on why some people take their rubbishy tat to charity shops. We get a lot of bags left for doorstep collections, which would make it even easier...no need to transport it yourself at all!

We don't get any doorstep bags.

All I'm saying is that in some places, it's not at all easy to get to the dump/recycling centre unless you have a car. Perhaps the people who take 'tat' to the charity shops think that the charities can get the stuff to a recycling point for them. From reading some of the responses on this thread, it looks as if that's quite a sensible thing to think.

It would still be preferable if they didn't do it, but what I've said could be an explanation. Sorry. I just like thinking laterally and giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Still seems a bit of a cheek to me...charities do ask for 'saleable' goods to be donated.