Why do people waste so much or is it me being unreasonable

Jalima's charity shop is not like mine. Cant get enough decent books but if it isnt in good enough condition to go on my shelves at home I will not put it out for a customer to be expected to buy. It then goes in totes to be sold to a company who will sell bad condition books. So nothing is wasted, perfaps a word in your charity shop managers ear about this?

About second hand books: I have a gripe about Oxfam. When Oxfam started going into selling second hand books in a big way it killed the second hand bookshops. Less than 20 years ago there was a second hand bookshop in nearly every town we visited but now they have had to close because the cannot compete with the charity shops. I mean think about it - how could you keep a restaurant open if another one opened on your street where they didn't have to pay for their stock, didn't have to pay their staff and even got a concessionaire rate for their premises?

Some people simply can't get rid of nice things! My grandaughter had a beautiful dining set & chairs, she couldn't give it away, was too broke to pay for it to be picked up by the council, and so ended up smashing it all up to tip! A lot of charity shops these days mark things up way too high, (well, round here they do!) I found a top that still had labels on selling it originally for £3.50, marked up to a fiver in the charity shop! So they have too much surplus!
Its such a shame though as my family love a bargain, and majority of my christmas presents to family are from them! They don't mind as I usually find some great things lol.

I expect that many of us have become wasteful simply because we can. My parents had to make do because they were too poor to do otherwise. I make things last because it's in my nature. I expect I'm considered a bit weird.

I can get all my clothes into one 4ft 6in wardrobe and a Victorian chest of drawers. I cannot cope with clutter and to have lots of clothes I do not wear would mommer me.

I am also a bit tight fisted. I am not prepared to spend money on clothes I am not ready to wear regularly. I have one or two friends I occasionally go shopping with and it is a case of them buying and me carrying.

One of my neighbours really does put every charity bag ,and we do get plenty, out full.
She occasionally asks me for mine as well.
She lives to shop.

I certainly couldn’t take anything weekly to a charity shop, or my house/wardrobe would be empty.

When the grandchildren grew older I left outside a Moses basket, two little chairs, a baby buggy and other bits and bibs in good condition with a note pinned to the fence that this was free to a good home. It all went within the morning and our street is off the beaten track.

Nonnie I work in a charity shop and our unsold books have always gone to a “ book man” who collected every few weeks for onward use, now he no longer is coming and our books are boxed up for pulping, it breaks my heart

In Perth oz they have a weekend every few weeks when you put out stuff you don't want onto the verge for the whole purpose of others helping themselves to it then the council clear what's left a few days later, works really well.

Still shocked. Seriously. I'm thinking about the storage space for excess clothes. And wondering how long it would take for me to have no clothes if I even took one or two items to a charity shop every week. It wouldn't be all that long and I am not short of clothes.

I could take bagsful every week because I hang on to lots of stuff that I shouldn't!

What surprises me most, ethelt, is that you have enough clothes to be taking bagsful to charity shops "every week"! ? ?

Living quite close to student territory I find that putting stuff outside the gate is usually successful - shelving units, cushions and coathangers.
Also surplus seedlings with a 'help yourself' notice!

Any upholstered furniture made since 1988 will meet the necessary standard.

We are a family of 'second roses'. We swap everything, clothes, furniture soft furnishings and when all else fails we sell or donate it to a worthy cause. Yes, we have on occasion dumped stuff that we could not get rid of any other way, but rarely.

As I write this I am wearing a skirt I bought from a charity shop and went out today in a coat I bought on ebay. Later this week my sister will be delivering some furniture that used to belong to my other sister, then my parents and then her, and which I will be taking up to DS when we go up for half term.

I must say I was quite surprised Nonnie
There will be somewhere else, I'm sure, as quite a few places seem to sell books for charity, not just the charity shops.

I have a funny story I often put stuff outside the back gate and it’s usually gone in minutes One day I put some piping outside which disappeared very quickly later that day a knock at the door and an elderly man said I picked up some pipes from outside your gate this morning do you happen to have the brackets that go with them ???

Jalima we have a charity book shop and our doctor's surgery also take books and patients buy them and give whatever they feel they can and all the money goes to charity. Round here books are very welcome.

Most of the 'good' stuff taken to our tips are shipped off to 3rd world countries.

They spend quite a lot of money renovating something that the previous owner thought was just rubbish fit for the tip!
I got an idea for what to do with our kitchen chairs though

I've seen that programme, Jalima, and some of the transformations are amazing, but I must have peculiar taste. We sit here saying something will never sell and it goes for hundreds. Then we saw a lovely table upcycled from, if I remember rightly, an old mirror and nobody wanted it. Except us.

I agree ethel
However, when I took a pile of stuff to the charity shop the other day, the manager said 'I hope you haven't brought me any books, we can't get rid of them'!
I hadn't because I pass them on to family and friends.

Have you watched the programme where the presenter asks for objects which are going into the tip then upcycles them with the help of experts? Some go for silly prices afterwards. I think it's called Money for Nothing.

A charity took our three piece suite because it had a fire certificate, otherwise they couldn't take it. And my neighbour had furniture refused by the local Council furniture recyclers because it was melamine not real wood.

Probably not enough of us , Ethelbags1, I have filled charity bags that have been left outside the door,stating that they will be collected on a certain date, but they never appear , so then have telephoned said charity who do eventually come & collect.Also we have a clothes bank nearby so we can take them there,bigger objects seem to more difficult to pass on. I think perhaps the effort can put some people off,also furniture has to have fire safety regulation labels on them for them to be accepted by a charity .

Our local authority will come and collect free if you are older - furniture etc.

here we use free section of craigslist
called "curb alerts"
a few photos and a come and get it
have had all sorts of things hauled away

Quite often sofas etc cannot be given to charity as they don't meet current fire safety regulations.
We do seem to have become a throw away society now. I read recently of a lady still using her 50 year old New World cooker it had only had one part replaced in that time.