Charity shops QUESTION

I think many of the charity warehouses are full, BHF in our area is. I guess you have to approach the charity. A neighbour of ours is downsizing and had some nearly new beds, a new sofa and a TV to get rid of, she couldn’t get any of the big charities to take them, she eventually got a local refugee/ homeless charity to collect. Another way of donating stuff is to put on Facebook marketplace, you usually get someone who will take free items.

Do they really have warehouses? I have not heard of this concept before, except for possibly very large ones like Oxfam.

Around here, when Charity shops opened after the last lockdown, most, within days had notices to say they could take no more stock as they were packed to the gunwhales.

I didn't get my lockdown stash to a shop for a couple of months - just managed to do it before the next lockdown.

One of the hospice shops in this area (WGC Hertfordshire) has a warehouse. I believe you have to contact them and make an arrangement to take your ‘staff’ to them. Iguess there are numbers on their websites.

Stuff not staff!!

Our two local charity shops has closed permanently. The one about two miles away will not take any stuff.

I volunteer for a local hospice charity, all their shops are closed, and whilst they do have a central sorting office which is open for selling things on eBay etc, I don't think they are accepting anything from the public.

I imagine like everyone else, lockdown induced a clear out and now we have bags of stuff we can't get rid of!

We have no warehouses and when the last lockdown ended we and the other charity shops in my area were taking in donations every day but as we had to double bag and stand them for 48 hours we could not take in the same volume as before but we advised people to bring as early as possible each day and once we were full for that day we were full but then opened up for new deliveries the next morning
We had three different storage areas for day 1 day 2 and day 3 and moved the bags through those three points

I volunteer at an air ambulance charity shop and we have a warehouse. There is not enough donated by people walking in to run the shop. A lot comes from clothing banks and businesses etc. People can drive to the warehouse door to donate.
The shops and the warehouse is closed during lockdown.

Our local Hospice Shop also has a warehouse and the furniture/household side is open to browse and buy (pre Covid). We went to drop off a bed and chatted to a couple who were looking to furnish their student lets.

i don't think people who are letting accomm should furnish it from charity shops.
they should buy new cheap furniture, landlords' specials, which is widely available.
i would be annoyed if i was paying rent for charity shop furnishings.
also it's not the intended target purchaser.
i know it's a bit off topic but so many student digs are a real con.

I volunteer for a (very) local charity, working on the warehouse, sorting goods and packing up the shops requirements.
The last time I 'worked' would have been the beginning of December?
The ware house is full. Shops are closed and there is just nowhere to store donations unfortuneately.
I also completely understand your point wellbeck I actually said something similar when I first started volunteering.
BUT, as I was told, we are here to raise funds for the charity, who buys the goods is none of our concern. ( I was incensed at the time at people buying up books for pennies and reselling on Ebay for pounds).
As a charity relying hugely on volunteers, we just did not have the capacity to sell online, we were happy with the funds raised, what people chose to do,with what they bought was their business.

Took a while for me to accept this, but I got there in the end ?

Unfortunately people are leaving goods outside our local charity shops, even though they have been begged not to. All has to be destroyed.

This might be of interest - www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/get-involved/recycle-your-clothing

I furnished a flat I rented out, entirely with second hand furniture, good quality sturdy furniture, mostly bought at auction, that could survive the depredations of young people.

Furnish a flat with new cheap furniture, landlords' specials, which is widely available. and you will need to completely refurnish every year because such furniture is cheap and nasty, easily broken and impossible to repair.

When the flat was let it was freshly decorated with a new kitchen and carpets and curtains. I bought a really nice teak dining table and chairs and large shelving unit in the living room, but a new 3 piece suite. One bedroom had teak furniture, the other had freshly painted solid wood furniture.

The flat was purpose built when teak furniture was all the rage and my letting agent was more than happy with how the flat looked and was furnished.

I never had any potential tenant turn the flat down because of the furniture, nor did it ever suffer any significant damage.

My home and my children's homes both contain good quality furniture purchased from charity shops.

I know this is slightly off topic, but someone mentioned selling things on Facebook market place ( could also apply to eBay etc). How do these things work during lockdown, ( if it is to large an item to post), I presume you can’t go in someone’s house,( and not a wise), so do people leave things outside or what?

I have passed thins on through Freegle during Lockdown. The usual practice is to arrange when the item will be collected and then leave it on the doorstep for the recipient to collect.

Thank you M0nica.

Yesrerday I got a leaflet from this one asking for furniture donations.

www.betel.uk/our-businesses/betel-uk-furniture/

I think I've mentioned this site before but it's a great way to dispose of unwanted furniture and household goods. Look up Freecycle for your area. It's a free service and providing during lockdown you can leave the goods outside no need to worry. Cant recommend it enough.

The Freecycle in our area has been discontinued at the moment.

My sister has just had 4 bags picked up by her local hospice. They posted on Facebook that they would collect.
You could try looking on your local Facebook page.

We've been getting rid of DVDs and books by selling online.

We've also used Freecycle quite a lot - just leave it in the porch for someone to pick up. This month we've got rid of a halogen oven and a big mirror. Perfect time to do it when people are at home to pick up quickly. Can't remember if Freecycle restricts where you can pick up from but Freegle does.

I manage 2 charity shops and as a paid employee I am furloughed which means that I am forbidden by my charity to do anything to make money for my charity during lockdown otherwise we could lose our furlough funding. Warehouses that are usually manned by paid staff will have the same problem, exceptions to this are clothing banks which now have the same classification as waste disposal and are deemed essential services and staff allowed to work, charities manned by volunteers only, or community hubs run by charity workers who have essential worker status

welbeck

i don't think people who are letting accomm should furnish it from charity shops.
they should buy new cheap furniture, landlords' specials, which is widely available.
i would be annoyed if i was paying rent for charity shop furnishings.
also it's not the intended target purchaser.
i know it's a bit off topic but so many student digs are a real con.

As long as the furniture is safe and a reasonable quality, I see nothing wrong with it being used for this purpose, better than always buying more ‘stuff’.

The same as decent clothes from charity shops. As long as it’s clean and serviceable. A local homeless charity will only accept new bedding, this seems strange as it’s surely better to have say a second hand, clean quilt to wrap yourself in than nothing.