Giving things away

Greyduster, that is weird! My dd has 3 lovely sofas from charity shops, none of which came with chairs. The most expensive was £50 - I couldn't believe it, since it's a nice colour, SO comfortable, and long enough to double as an occasional spare bed!

Touch wood other dd will be furnishing a house soon, from scratch, and I know she'll be looking first and foremost in charity shops.

I must be lucky as I have no bad experiences with freecycle.Surprised to read that you could give away a guinea pig chicklette though it ended happily.My 2 local freecycle sites have a strict No Animals policy.
There is a furniture recycling scheme near to me where they collect and restore unwanted furniture,then sell it cheaply to families in need.I wonder if there may be something similar local to you nvella.Might be worth contacting the Salvation Army or a homeless charity to see if they can put you in touch with such a scheme-at least you would know that your items were appreciated.

Freecycle/Freegle are run by a bunch of control freaks. No-shows are frequent. But, hey, I don't want it. I want rid of it. So why should I care if it's going to a deserving case or to a boot sale?
I've furnished my house from Freecycle. I find it amusing when I pick up the Ikea stuff which has been replaced by something 'better' (i.e. more expensive) which turns out to be almost exactly the same :-)

I've had similar experiences with Freecycle. Some people have been really grateful-I remember one young lady who couldn't believe we could give her things for free, she was almost in tears. But others have been awful, not turning up etc. I remember one man who let me down 3 times so I gave the item to someone else, at which point the first man became quite abusive. It's very strange. I've never understood why some people say they want an item then never collect.

But we once had a wonderful experience. We had one Guinea pig left after others had died. We were moving house so decided to try free cycling him. There were some odd responses, but the people who collected him were taking him as a surprise for their daughter and we're thrilled. They sent us photos the girl cuddling the Guinea pig and we were left with a lovely warm feeling ?

A friend put a fridge freezer outside with a notice that said "free to a good home" it stayed there for days, Their son said "put a sign that says £25" it had gone that night..

We gave our sofa to a charity that furnishes flats for disadvantaged people. The would only take it if it had all it's fire safety labels though. I've never tried giving anything away, except to relatives.

I have recently used free cycle go give away a cooker and fridge both in good condition. Both recipients were thankful.

'd be irritated too nvella.

I've had very good experiences giving stuff away on Freecycle - people who came to collect (many were Eastern Europeans) were grateful. One woman who scored a leather bucket chair (for her teenage son's bedroom, she said) - returned a few days later with a potted rose plant and said she wanted to thank me again.

In my area there is a very lively and well supported closed Facebook group of Mums of all ages, also Streetlife, where stuff is swopped, borrowed, sold for a fiver or a tenner and it all works very well, it's a very happy, friendly group.

We had a similar problem with a G Plan sofa we were getting rid of. It was in superb condition but DH never really liked it and he wanted a leather suite. We phoned up a local hospice charity and they said they would send someone to fetch it. When they arrived the driver said "where's the rest of the suite then?" I said there was no "rest"; there was only a sofa. I never said anything to them about chairs. They wouldn't take it, saying that they would never get rid of just a sofa on its own! I'd never heard such tosh! We advertised it in the post office window as free to a good home and it was gone within a week. No-one asked for the chairs!

Recently we had 2 five year old leather sofas to give away. I still had the receipts.

After 3 weeks of making appointments and waiting for the van drivers to turn up, no charity would take them! They were too big! Apparently people in need live in small flats!? The van drivers had orders only to accept certain sizes. In fact one was visibly upset because they were such good items.

Moving day was imminent so DH took the chain saw to them and then went to the tip!
What a waste!

Somebody wanted 40 coat hangers and I could oblige but he did not bother turning up. An email to say he had changed his mind would have been polite, especially as he was the one requesting the s*****g items!

I have been very lucky with the stuff I have listed on Freecycle, those that have collected items have always expressed their thanks.

Like Aggie our local recycling people have a shop where items are for sale even electrical, once they have been PAT tested.

We have a system like that at our dump but we also have a charity which will collect any unwanted furniture (labelled or not) refurbished if necessary using unemployed or disabled people and then sell it on. Mostly to my daughter who distresses it and sells it on.

What a brilliant idea Aggie !

Our council recycling center has a "shop" where you can off load stuff and pick up stuff . If it is obviously beyond use the workers tip it , but they have a team that paint and tidy up some useful items

We've been having the same issues Nvella .

I was in marketing for many years and one of the things that was true throughout that time was that free things have no value . So I think you're absolutely right.

When we recently replaced all our dining room furniture they would only take 4 of the 6 chairs because 2 had no fire proof labels ...yet they were clearly a set of 6 .

We have been digging out a lot of our things for the grandchildren , cot, high chair, bouncy chair , buggy and car seats. All lightly used but I couldn't give them away for love or money . They all went to the tip - such a waste .

Maybe they think they are doing you a favour by taking it off your hands? It's very rude in my opinion.