BHF refuse my donation of an antique Edwardian Windsor chair

I had a 2 year old small black undercounter freezer, bought while waiting for kitchen refurb to be done and fitting a new integrated one. I held back from tip journey because it was perfect. 2 very nasty collection drivers refused to take it saying it was rusty. It had a miniscule tiny spot of brown on a bar inside and they just looked at it and said "can't take it". Made me feel as if I was using them to remove it for free, instead of trying to help people who maybe could not afford a new one. I have a heart problem myself and I would never donate items to to BHF again after this, although I still donate in other ways.

Madeleine 45, that was such a lovely contribution! You made some valid points in a constructive and pleasant manner. So ofte the comments on here are downright rude and unnecessary!

I had to give away my parents much loved and very expensive refectory table and six chairs because no charity would take them. The upholstered chairs had no fire label and they wouldn’t take a table without chairs.

I donate all my unwanted items to a local charity as long as they are in good, saleable condition. The tatty stuff goes to huge, purpose built (not my domestic) recycling bins which are thoughtfully near where I live! That being said, I too have encountered rudeness from ill informed (is that ‘woke’ enough for the sensitive souls here?!) workers at the BHF. A beautiful solid ash unit-‘too big’ to be removed from my first floor flat. Well, it got up here fully assembled!! And some lovely, modern Darlington crystal I no longer used-‘we’ve got a lot of glass’! These items were gratefully received (and removed!) by another charity. I no longer donate to BHF although I admire the work they do. Perhaps they should train their staff better with basic levels of courtesy thrown in! After all, their jobs and much of their charitable endeavours depend on their donor supporters.

If anyone has a lot of lego to get rid of WeBuyBricks buys them to recycle - it's part of WeBuyBooks, which buys and sells on books.

Phone your local auction house, they will collect the chair and sell it for you and you will get the going rate for the chair and then you can donate the money to a cause that you love or treat yourself to a nice day out.

Ignorance ! Put your valuable items into an auction and donate what you get to another charity! Their loss -

This might be an unpopular comment, and of course the OP can leave her money to whoever she likes, but I never donate money to charity, just good quality items that I no longer have a use for. I’m highly suspicious of how much these monetary donations go to fund research etc, and how much goes to the CEO - who earn a huge salary anyway, with no doubt a flash car and a nice pension pot.

I stopped taking books etc. to the RSPCA. I just got a rude - No, we don't want that!. I take everything now to Shelter who always seem grateful for anything. Not sure if they take furniture, but a local hospice charity shop might be interested?

I think it is dreadful how beautiful furniture is now called ‘brown’ and binned or ruined by up cycling paint jobs. People will again come to see how good these pieces are and rue the day they junked precious antiques. Their rarity from thoughtless destruction with make the remaining artefacts even more valuable.

The same goes for Georgian and other good porcelain. I can buy eighteenth century Worcester cheaper than I could decades ago.

Post it on Facebook. Say they have to come for it.... and wait.

There's all sorts of sites like Freecycle and Gumtree, Facebook sites local to your area for selling and giving away furniture. Cut out the charity shop and offer to local community. In my road I'd post it with a picture on our street WhatsApp group or even pop it in the front garden with a 'free chair' label. Recycling locally works really well. Where are you based?

When we moved I donated some furniture to BHF and they were very sniffy about our pine kitchen table which they said was too big. Apparently in the area where we were living this is because the furnitute often goes to people who are being put into social housing and they really just need basic things like table and chair sets, so your antique wouldn't be what they were looking for.

meddijess

I stopped taking books etc. to the RSPCA. I just got a rude - No, we don't want that!. I take everything now to Shelter who always seem grateful for anything. Not sure if they take furniture, but a local hospice charity shop might be interested?

There are a few Oxfam shops who specialise in books, but there doesn't seem to be one in our area.

Worked in BHF for 27+ years till Lockdowns then did not go back. They (Management )had become very strange in what we could accept. Did not want too many books but customers used to ask for certain books. So when I moved a while ago I found Ofam wanted all the hundreds of books I was having to reluctantly let go! So some Charities are better than others. When I left BHF my 27+ years were not even acknowledged!

Facebook marketplace is good .I had a dark oak China cabinet which I offered free - for collection. There were four people who wanted it.A lady came within a couple of hours topickit up.She was looking forward to up cycling it -she had done lots of this sort of thing. There is obviously a demand for old furniture.I was delighted to be rid of it as it was taking up too much room.

So sorry to hear of your problem with BHS.Charities are very picky these days I've had similar problems. I''ve tried local charities with some success, local charity car boots or just a free add in local shops or newspaper - buyer collects. It is very hard to give anything away these days and there are an awful lot of very ignorant and rude people around.

I am surprised that any charity would have a policy about only accepting dining tables if they have chairs.
Not all charity shop purchases are made by those on a low income or to go into “social housing” (oh! - how I hate that description) Some people have more room than others and prefer oddments to “do up”.
If a charity furniture shop doesn’t have room for what’s being offered then they should just say that. Best to take measurements first then phone around. Also I think they would shift the stuff quicker if they had a policy of reducing items after so many weeks on the shop floor. Someone will buy most things at the right price.
Then there would be more space for new, it keeps it interesting for the customers and these businesses wouldn’t exist without the public donations who give a free product to them and the shoppers still have to pay for delivery.
How can it fail?

When I was moving house last year I had a good declutter and there wouldn’t talk a few pairs of curtains and a unit I had also for the same reasons so I put on facebook and some young lass was very grateful she knew me from coming into my shop and she was just moving into her first home so I ended up taking her lots of other stuff to and she was more than grateful. I’d still give to bhs but I’ve just given some stuff to hospital last week they sell the stuff to buy toys books etc for the children ward but they don’t take furniture

I wanted to donate a lot of my late DH's things, amongst others, to the local hospice shop. I was quite upset when I was told they would have to come and check them over to see if they were wanted. I stressed that a lot of it was brand new but they still insisted. I understood the reason why but the way it was said that upset me. As it turned out they took everything.

I offered the chair free on the local Nextdoor site and several people showed an interest. I contacted them in order but none of them showed up when they had arranged to collect. Apparently this is a common problem. One person put sruff on the free site when he was clearing out his mothers house after she had died. He sounded very upset to have people let him down so badly over and over again.
Next I contacted a local antiques dealer who offered me £30 for it which I accepted. This dealer told me that he has a lot of people contacting him after being offended by BHF. I hope this is just one really bad BHF store which I just happen to be local to. Maybe there are better elsewhere. But it is upsetting to take such rudeness from a woman who apparently earns £45,000 pa. I hate to think what the CEO gets.

I hope it doesnt sound weird if I say I actually feel better for knowing Im not the only one.

£30 will go to cancer research.

Most charity shop workers have a good idea of what will and won't sell. If it's poor quality / broken, it has to go in our bins which we have to pay for. Floor space and space in a back room is usually very limited. We have lots of wonderful donations but also have some difficult conversations when we have to refuse for any reason. Our shops raise money for a children's charity but sadly because we have good parking, we are sometimes seen as a dumping ground, especially when people have house contents to clear. My worst donation was a sports bag with a catheter in it, not to mention the broken and rusty mechano set - "It's vintage!"
I'm sorry your donation was refused but maybe they had to consider the room it would take up and would they be able to sell a single chair.

Charity shops usually have limited storage space. They are not dumping grounds for any stuff you can't get rid of. And yes they are sometimes picky because they can't take everything they are offered.
The majority of the people working in them are volunteers, that ensures that any profit made goes to the charity. The manager is usually someone with experience in retail with an ability to handle volunteers, monitor stock, keep accounts and liaise with customers. That needs decent pay.
Every item accepted has to be easily saleable, if it isn't and it sits in the shop for a long time it blocks out other goods. If it doesn't sell then it costs the charity money to dispose of it.

Why not sell it yourself and donate the money

I have used charity shops ever since I left school when Oxfam started as I could never afford new clothes. I still use them but mainly for odds and ends as I now make my own clothes.

Lately I have found charity shops very expensive, and often find it's cheaper to buy new.
One day I came across a very rude manager. I questioned the price of a framed print of nothing special, being £25. Her response shocked me, I was told in no uncertain terms that 'it's that price because if its cheaper you could go away and sell it for £80'. I only wanted the frame!

Maybe I am too sensitive but felt she was accusing me (a stranger to her) of stealing. I will not be going there again.