Donations to charity shops

It's a major distribution problem isn't it? Trying to get things to the correct destination and make some money at the same time.
I want to give clothes to refugees but at present there is nobody able to deliver.
I think there are still 4 charity shops in our wee town. 2 have closed as they couldn't afford the rent even before covid.
Only one specialises in clothes and they have rails, sorted by size and colour - all very cheap. Everything 50p . So you could rummage and get a bargain.
I miss jumble sales too Greenfinch
You could make a decent amount of money in 2 hours for your charity. They were a lot of work but a lot of fun.

Agreed Grammaretto. The trouble in our area was that the hiring of the hall became too expensive to be viable . On a profit of £100 almost 80% had to be given back and then someone had to be paid to take away what was not sold . They were fun though.

There is a charity shop in a nearby town. I went in it once and the stench of unwashed clothes was horrible.

I was pleased to hear our charity shop donations had raised £650, they let me know as they were claiming the additional gift aid.

I worked in the Mind charity shop and we sometimes had disgusting bags full of dirty clothes, underwear, half eaten bags of crisps - we actually dressed a spare mannequin once from a particularly bad bag! I agree there are a lot of dirty lazy people about.

I had a neighbour who used charity shops as a way of getting rid of all sorts of old rubbish. She would put a few decent items of clothing and bric a brac in a bin bag and fill it up with all sorts of crap. Old ripped clothing, used candles in jars, cracked old crockery, small electrical items that were broken (hair dryers etc.) Not nice.

Having had a sort out I now have bags of wearable (shame to say some never been worn !) clothes to dispose of BUT none of my local charity shops are open ....the Salvation Army and Cancer Research collecting boxes at various walkable locations are full ...I have no car, so no trip to the tip .....soon I am just having sadly to throw them in the bin as they are taking up the whole of my spare space ............very sad

I wouldn’t dream of taking anything to a charity shop that I wouldn’t consider buying myself. And if an item has been worn that I do t want anymore (coat or jumper etc) I will wash before taking to the shop. To not wash first is just disgusting. I would like to think that my local animal charity shop is grateful for my items and not see me as a burden.

Easy way of getting rid of it, they don't want the bother of sitting in a queue at the dump. That's why there is so much fly tipping as well. Should be ashamed of themselves.

ALANaV

Having had a sort out I now have bags of wearable (shame to say some never been worn !) clothes to dispose of BUT none of my local charity shops are open ....the Salvation Army and Cancer Research collecting boxes at various walkable locations are full ...I have no car, so no trip to the tip .....soon I am just having sadly to throw them in the bin as they are taking up the whole of my spare space ............very sad

Offer them on your local Facebook page or Freecycle. Don't forget to say the size though, most people forget that.

It’s disgusting why, just why, would anyone think that was ok? ?

You also get the other end of the spectrum dumping stuff in charity shops. A few years ago our local charity shop got a shoe box full of beads along with other stuff. In amongst the beads was what turned out to be a valuable diamond 3 bar brooch which the charity put to auction and it sold for a five figure sum. The items had been handed in by the people hired to clear an old person's flat after they had died. They thought everything was cheap junk.

ALANaV

Having had a sort out I now have bags of wearable (shame to say some never been worn !) clothes to dispose of BUT none of my local charity shops are open ....the Salvation Army and Cancer Research collecting boxes at various walkable locations are full ...I have no car, so no trip to the tip .....soon I am just having sadly to throw them in the bin as they are taking up the whole of my spare space ............very sad

Don't throw them in the bin! Some charity shops will collect your goods, including the British Heart Foundation.

Type in your postcode and see if they operate in your area.

BHF

I am a regular buyer and donor at charity shops. I always make sure my donations are saleable and will occasionally clearly mark a bag rags as l know that money can be made from these.

During the lockdown I filled 6 plastic sacks with unwanted clothes, handbags, scarves, jewellery and crockery. Anything rubbishy went in the bin. I took them to St. Vincent’s which is the best op shop round here and doesn’t overprice things for those in need, unlike some.

Our problem around her is actually finding somewhere to take things, I haven’t been to every one in the town, but all the usual ones I go to have signs up saying they aren’t accepting donations at the moment.

Its the same here. We have 6 in or around our local shopping street (not town centre) and a community library that takes books - for their shelves or to sell. And I cant keep up with who will take stuff and what. One of the shops did start taking donations (knock on the door and hand in) about a week before re-opening but had to stop after half a day as they were full!!

It has always been like this. I was an area manager for BHF and when setting up shops I did some sorting of donated goods. You would not believe what people put in bags. However torn or worn clean clothing is OK as most charity shops sell their rags for money. Broken hard goods should not be donated.

I am an enthusiastic supporter of my local charity shops and have been for many years. I have bought some lovely items there and often for ridiculously low prices. I always return the compliment by taking my own and my children’s/grandchildren’s unwanted items there. Old clothes unfit for sale are taken to the local ‘rag bin’ a large skip run by the council which recycles them. I would never insult these wonderful causes by taking items unfit for sale. Nor am I tempted to sell on eBay etc although some of the things could be sold for a decent amount no doubt. I always think that if I am fortunate enough to have so much, I ought to ‘spread the love’ in my small way.

I help at our village charity shop, ( all proceeds stay in the village). We are the cheapest charity shop I know of and at the moment we have a booking system for donations as we just don't have the space to store much. Everything has to be left for 72 hours before we can sort it so we are over run with bags and boxes waiting to be sorted. We do get dirty clothes and most staff know which people's bags not to sort, some just get tipped straight into the waste clothes bags, yes we sort out the shoes etc but none of them will go onto the shop floor. We try to recycle as much as possible and do get paid for things like clothes and shoes. I sort the books and try go pass on to other charities the ones we can't use. Just passed on 4 boxes to the air ambulance collector as we are over run with books at the moment. I wish I could find out how to sell the tatty books but I can't find out how the bigger charities deal with there's.

their's not there's!

This is nothing new - I have been helping at jumble sales in the past, involving sorting the donations and I think that some people would be shocked and disgusted with some of the items that were donated that had to be thrown straight in a bin!
It is getting to the point that if local councils don't want clothing to be dumped or through the usual refuse service, that they provide a bin for clothing not good enough for charity shops, that is then recycled.

It's such a good idea to sort the bags in front of the donor.I like to donate to charity shops,but only things that people would buy.They're not there to be used as a dumping ground.It's the same with the charity bins,they had to get rid of them at my local supermarket,people were dumping old duvets,broken toys,all sorts of things.

We are lucky, good stuff goes to Ebay or charity, depending upon how energetic I feel, if they aren't good enough for either, we can bag it, mark it TECTILES and our recycling men take it - life saver

I don’t understand what they are paying for removal of ???
Our charity shop sells all the donations either in the shop on Amazon or eBay
All unwanted clothes/bedding/ material items that are not good enough are bagged for the rag man who pays per kilo
Towels/ duvets go to a local plumber who pays for bags full
Toys bric a brac and ‘small’ furniture items are distributed to other shops ( we don’t take in large furniture)

Of course we get our fair share of really mucky dirty soiled stuff that we sort through but that goes in the rag bags and has always been like that
Lastly a small amount goes into the trade refuse collection collected by the council commercial dustcart each week

No problem for us we ve never paid extra to have anything taken away

It would really help charity shop volunteers to bag up two lots when sorting out. One would be your decent, wearable items and the other marked up as rags. That way they don't have to bother sorting all the bags out. ( Just check beforehand they do send unwanteds to ragging )

It can be hard work at times but we do sell items on Facebook and then donate the proceeds to charity. It’s also possible to have a boot sale of unwanted things and we’re thinking of doing this and again donating any money we make. In our area the charity shops are overloaded with things.