Attempting to donate furniture to charity

We has a similar problem with a sofa we got rid of two years ago. It was in good condition and had the fire safety label, we tried to sell it for a low price but nobody was interested. So we contacted our local authority refuse department who collect large items for £15 but as we are senior citizens we didn't have to pay. Apparently senior citizens can have four large items per year collected free of charge.

I tried to donate a modern dining table in good condition, no-one wanted it because I wasn't including the chairs.
After I put it on gumtree for free, I was inundated with messages.
The gentleman, who took it, put it in his van and drove off without as much as a thank you! ?

If they are in good order, why not put them in an auction? You may not get much for them but anything is better than nothing.

Oh MissAdventure I read "..and a pair of knickers, worn three times. No takers. I'm cross"

Actually, isn't there a site where worn nicks and smelly shoes go for a lot of money? You could try there?..

Have you tried your local Freecycle/Freegle? We found a home for a single bed via that
We got rid of a rarely used single bed like that. A woman said she wanted it for her grandson who had worn out one bed by bouncing up and down on it!

(We had inherited a very expensive one which was brand new.)

MissA it's amazing, isn't it.
No- one has any money but turn their noses up at good second-hand school uniform etc.

I remember when we lived in London going to a 2nd hand school uniform sale and a well known (then) TV actress buying some of my DN''s uniform for her DD.

It's the fire safety issue.

Yes. Although the fire safety label was on our suite it was very small.
Never be tempted to cut it off.

I don’t think that people should be offended because charities won’t save them the trouble of disposing of tat they don’t want any more. And everyone, rich or poor is entitled to express preferences. I despair of the Victorian do-gooding attitude in some of these posts!

tat

Well, some people may think that wooden furniture is preferable to MDF that!

It depends on what your standards are, of course.

Tat not that

Obviously autocorrect does not like tat either.

I put some things in an auction before I moved to France. The auction house had them for a couple of weeks before the sale. I had a message from the auctioneer to say they had a burglary and the sale was delayed, he said fortunately none of my stuff was taken. I was a bit miffed to think it wasn't even good enough for burglars,

sodapop

Thank you for the laugh
We always say that burglars would be very disappointed if they broke in here.

We are downsizing and I have got rid of lots of items, from clocks, ornaments and pictures to a dining suite and two huge old sofas by using our local Nextdoor website or just putting them at the end of the drive/ on the garden wall. The old sofas went to Irish Wolfhound Rescue. I expect the smaller stuff will end up at a car boot sale but that's fine - I just wanted rid.

I despair of the Victorian do-gooding attitude in some of these posts!

You've obviously never been hard up in your life, geekesse
Lucky you.

Charity shops would not take my OH's riser recliner chair even though it was only a few months old - because I had removed the fire safety label to stop it looking so institutional. I gave it to someone on freecycle.

We put my mums chair out with a sign on it.
First some kids wheeled each other up and down the road on it, then a harassed looking man asked if he could have it.

He had to come back for it, as his car was full up with mum-in-law, her frame, her wheelchair, etc. it was for her.

I love to think it's seen a bit more life and helped someone with their independence.

Well I don’t know about elsewhere but the charity shops in my area will only accept furniture and baby equipment which is in excellent condition.

I have never seen anything resembling tat in any of them so it’s certainly not a case of people using them to dispose of junk.

I'll buy anyone's junk if I happen to need it.

I really enjoy the thought of it having a history of it's own.

MissAdventure

I've currently got 3 black sacks full of boys clothes on freecycle, for the second time.
Quite a lot of it is brand new, the uniform, well I'm sure some of you know about that.
Lots of branded tracksuits, and a pair of kickers, worn 3 times.

No takers. I'm cross!

what about ringing local food bank, see if they could use it or know of somewhere/one who could.

Oh what a great idea!
I'd be really pleased if they would.
Thank you!

Callistemon

^I despair of the Victorian do-gooding attitude in some of these posts!^

You've obviously never been hard up in your life, geekesse
Lucky you.

Oh, I have. And I used to find the patronising attitude of those who thought I should welcome their junk annoying. I wanted to choose my own cheap stuff, not have someone else’s cast offs foisted on me. We once sat on orange boxes and ate off tea chests while we saved for some decent furniture.

In our area, before the first lockdown, there used to be, in some places, great big pink bins for donations of school uniform. I thought this was a good idea, but not sure how it was distributed. But sadly I haven't seen any recently.

Bluebell another funny story. I was vacuuming out my car, leant the vacuum against the front wall, went indoors to get a cloth and when I came out , my vacuum had gone. Someone must have thought I’d put it there to be taken. ???

Well, Geekesse I will be honest and say we have never been down to the last 2 halfpennies to rub together, nor have any of our family, but none of us gets rid of anything without offering it around the family, furniture, clothes, household goods. When we set up home we were very happy to have everyone cast offs until we could afford to buy furniture of our own. Despite now being comfortably off now, we all have houses full of secondhand furniture.

I am the proud possessor of a Victorian pot holder (as in chamber pot) we bought it at auction in the late 1960s, when I had no place for it I offered it round and my mother snapped it up, from there it went to one sister then the other and is currently back with me.