if you take items to charity shops,an appeal

I too am sick of picky charity shops. Used to donate to our local hospice, but after the first lockdown when they refused my books and then said they only accepted good quality clothes not tatt I now donate to Cats Protection. All charity shops you need to stop being so picky.

Before lack of exercise during Lockdowns wrecked my mobility I volunteered for many years in a charity shop. We were inundated with so many donations but always accepted gratefully peoples efforts to support us! Sadly I can no longer volunteer but am told I would no longer want to be there as it has changed a lot! Hardly any books are sold, nor toys! Too many new rules as to what Volunteers can do! Only young people wanted to bring in new ideas & only fashionable clothing kept! Yet most young people do not want to volunteer for longer than instructed to cover their CV’s. This seems to be the normal in charity shops now. I live in an area where there are a lot of older people & a lot of unemployed due to the area. So recently a shop opened where almost anything can be donated & the knowledge that it will be sold cheaply to help the people buying themselves makes us give all the donations to this shop! I know larger charities doing research or saving animals will say they need donations but when too much is just sent to landfill we know where our unwanted items go now!

springishere

Freegle is great for giving away larger items and sometimes people advertise a bag of children’s clothes or a box of toys. I have given away lots of things this way.

I post larger items myself, but keep an eye open for requests for small things. It's surprising what people want-I just got rid of a large plastic 7 day pill organiser that was my late husband's..

I support what you say Bluebells (I volunteer in one of your shops). We work tirelessly - I do jewellery - love it. We get dealers in - all sorts . Turn away very little donations unless for health and safety reasons. My one comment is it’s sad the public do often use us as a dumping stop for their rubbish. But on the plus side we may get a collectable piece. So do persevere and continue donating please.

Oxfam have dedicated s/h bookshops. It’s always worth trawling them if you want to buy newish ones too.

Our little local charity shop used to be a delight, with a good mixture of clothes, household stuff, and what I particularly went for, shelves full of good quality toys, and books for every age group (3 for £1). It was always busy.

They decided to specialise a few months ago - wedding dresses and ladies’ occasionwear, with everything else crammed into the corners. I really hope they do well, but the regular customers have gone and I haven’t seen anyone yet looking at the wedding dresses, let alone trying one on in the changing cubicle that’s barely 3 foot square. We have a huge Oxfam wedding dress shop in our nearest city, with proper changing facilities, so I can’t help thinking ours will fail.

Farzanah

Oxfam have dedicated s/h bookshops. It’s always worth trawling them if you want to buy newish ones too.

A friend of mine who is a retired librarian runs one. The upside is able to spot things like first editions and other valuable books that someone like me wouldn't. People often clear out all the books from a house when someone dies, and there can sometimes be gens in there.

The downside is that local stores now don't take books, which means that the 'bog standard' paperbacks that most people want are not available, and those wanting to pass on books can only do so if they can get to a bookstore. The one my friend runs is in a city centre, which I think is true of most of them. As I said upthread, I couldn't carry a large number of books to the city and carry them from the station to the shop, so Oxfam loses my book contributions.

I think that ideally charity shops should benefit a lot of people, and a balance needs to be struck between their needs. They raise money for the charity, of course, and arguably that should be the prime aim. Then there is the chance for customers to get a bargain by shopping there, as well as the fun of browsing a random selection of items. They also allow people to declutter without feeling guilty about getting rid of perfectly good items, and have benefits for the people who work in them. My mum worked in one until it closed in lockdown. It got her out of the house and meant that she was in company for 2 days a week - it was great for her mental health and self-esteem, I think. Also, my son worked in one when he left university. He was at a bit of a loose end when the novelty of not studying wore off, and again it boosted his self-esteem. He did put it on his CV, but whether it helped him to get his job in IT or not we'll never know - I do think it shows that someone has a work ethic, and that they are willing to 'muck in', though. Charity shops also bring footfall to High Streets, and plug the gaps left when units are between rentals - they do a lot more than sell old tat.

I think that all of these benefits to different people should be borne in mind. Yes, people work voluntarily, but they get payback, too, just as having somewhere to take things that are too good to throw out benefits the donors and customers can get something back for what might otherwise have been a donation, and the charity benefits from all of it, and town centres have at least some shops open.

I think it would be a shame if this balance is tipped by making it more difficult for people to donate. I think that some of the volunteers nowadays are younger people wanting to get into retail management and so on - maybe these are the ones bringing in specialist shops and more 'efficient' systems, forgetting that the shops exist in communities and are about more than just profit?

These have now been replaced by clothing banks, so where do all the damaged textiles go? Currently into the black bin.

Is ours the only area where textiles are collected by the council? Anything in good condition I take to charity shops but the rest I put out in a bag for collection when the bins are emptied. The council then sells on the textiles. We can do the same with small electrical items, so don't have to visit the tip so often.

SillyNanny
I work in what some might call an old fashioned charity shop
Anything and everything. From pneumatic drill to sex toys ( we don’t put them in the shop ?) We get donated a lot of night time incontinence pads ?
Nothing is colour co-ordinated.
My friend was a manager for a well known hospice charity here in the southeast. HQ were on to her everyday, sometimes more than once a day to get the figures up. She didn’t stay ?

I don't understand why charity shops have a slow turn-over of books. I'm an avid reader and rely on charity shops for a regular supply of books. When I've read them, I then pass them on to another shop. I never have any problem finding books to suit me and there are obviously people in my area who enjoy the same stories as me.

Songstress stop tarring every shop with the same brush that’s your local charity shop but certainly not ours Don’t write giving all charity shops a bad nane

Maybe some shops do but we have a very good turn over of books curtain They are all put in author alphabetical order which people all comment on and like, and we sell them 3 for a £1 paperbacks, or 50p each they have a date dot on the back so they are rotated each month We have a very healthy turn round and we also sell any ‘wanted’ ones on Amazon which is something like 40 books a week making us extra cash

Another avid reader here. Trouble is once I've read a book I forget its title and even the blurb doesn't always jog my memory enough. I've come back so often with books I either already own or sometimes ones I have donated myself to the charity shops! I now put a discreet mark inside the cover so that at least I don't buy my own books back again ha!

I always ring my local charity shop when I have stuff to donate to check if they want what I have and to see when they are open to accept things. I’ve found this saves wasted trips and having to carry stuff around .

I give to the shop which has clean tidy rails and no sweaty smell , and a smiley staff member thanks me for my donation .
Books go to the charity shop selling books cheaply ...so many now charge more than one high street shop selling 3 new books for Five pounds

As most charity shops rely on volunteers, sometimes the volunteers are not there because of holidays,appointments,and other commitments.There is little thanks for this charity work from the public. We always receive donations ,even if we are bulging at the seams with bags. The money made goes to good causes ,it doesn’t take much to drop off no,longer wanted clothes and bric-à-brac.

The charity shop I usually donate to asks for people to drop items off after 2 pm as they usually have more staff in to take details.

There are six charity shops in our small town and three of them are close to the same car park. They have never refused to take books and I know they do take toys as my neighbour's little girl was proudly showing me a doll they bought yesterday. In addition, there are charity bins in car parks and the Fire Service now has a clothing bin outside their station. I have masses to donate as I'm de-cluttering before moving to a retirement apartment.

Yes, I usually drop items off before 10am, but more recently have had different charity bags dropped through our letterbox and have at times put my items in these - but only charities that I know of such as cancer uk, breast cancer and other ones, and also at our tesco car park are 2 massive metal containers for the salavation army so drop into that one thinking they also need our help as so many do a this time.

AreWeThereYet

^These have now been replaced by clothing banks, so where do all the damaged textiles go? Currently into the black bin.^

Is ours the only area where textiles are collected by the council? Anything in good condition I take to charity shops but the rest I put out in a bag for collection when the bins are emptied. The council then sells on the textiles. We can do the same with small electrical items, so don't have to visit the tip so often.

Our recycling team takes old textiles and shoes, but a friend who works in a charity shop has persuaded me to give any “rags” to the shop, as they get quite a good price for them.

There's a huge Cancer Research place near our local Tesco Extra, so that's where most stuff goes. I'm signed up for Gift Aid, there and the local Red Cross shop.

I never put out those road side bags, they are a con.

In February this year we sorted out some items to donate to a local hospice charity - clean good quality clothes (some never worn), paperback books, toys, jigsaws, and baby equipment - one item just a few months old and only used once. The charity has a very big warehouse in our main town and as we passed one day it was nearly empty so the following day we took along our stuff. As we reached the door a man stepped out with a piece of paper in his hand and said "We don't want: clothes, books, electrical goods, toys, baby stuff, prams etc, furniture, vases, ornaments....." etc, etc, the list went on and on! When he got to the end I asked "So what do you accept?" "Anything not on this list, no old tat, we have to sort it" he said. He didn't even know what we had brought it was still in the boot. My husband said "No wonder your warehouse is nearly empty then!" We walked away.

I have since sold nearly all the baby equipment privately for more than I paid for it, also two MoB wedding outfits complete with hats, shoes and bags, and some of the toys and books. We always intended the charity to benefit from them so I've put the money aside from the sales to give to them, I think it's already a lot more than they would have got for them in their shop.

But it is disappointing and frustrating to be turned away. Most people are just trying to do the right thing, reduce what goes into landfill and perhaps do someone else a good turn in the process.

MaggieMaybe I would be happy to give them to charity except that none of the charity shops near me want them - apparently it adds a lot to the work of the staff if they have to sort the wheat from the chaff. It's possible that this is because they are short of staff, or, as someone else said on an earlier thread, they used to get landed with so much dirty, unwearable stuff that they got swamped.

It looks like it is very dependent on area and/or charity.

Yes we do make money from rags so everything is useful for us We add roughly £100 a week by selling our bags of rags

It does appear to be very much depending on area thankfully we have an area that still uses the charity shops as they were designed to be used and not sniffy nosed boutiques

I have never encountered a charity shop, that had rules about when you could come and drop things off, or that made you feel they were doing you a favour accepting things.

Here (Denmark) the only stipulation is to ask you not to leave bags outside the shops after closing time, as doing so usually means they have been upended and sorted through by people who were just curious.

Here the Salvation Army, Blue Cross, Red Cross, UNICEF all have collection bins either near their shops or in shopping malls so you can leave donations at any time you like.

The same system prevails in Germany where apart from the above the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and Malta, Caritas, the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul and various other orders collect used clothes and shoes. They only beg you to tie shoes together in pairs, as otherwise they have to hunt through a ton or so of clothes to find a whole pair of shoes.

BlueBelle
Sniffy nosed boutiques that’s certainly not ours ?
Some of our regulars pop in for a cuppa.
Can you imagine The Heart Foundation doing that?