How to get rid of an obscenely large no. of bags for charity?

The charity shops and help organisations are just inundated with donations at the moment. The local shoe and textile recycling bins are overflowing too.

Is there any way that you could store the bags (perhaps in a garage) for a few months? Otherwise, try Freecycle or Ebay as they may attract people who sell at boot sales. Anything is better than sending to landfill.

Round here the Warehouse for, I think, Cancer Research has appointments - might be worth investigating.

I had fourteen bags picked up by the British Heart Foundation an hour ago.
It was booked online and they phoned back to make a suitable time. I had tried to phone my usual BHF shop, but they weren't answering their phone.
The men were masked and gloved and kept to social distancing.

I was embarrassed by the number of bags I had, now I don't feel so bad.

I've put clothes in the Salvation Army clothes bank in my local car park-they are the only ones which I consider donating to.

Can I respectfully request that when donating to charity shops, could people ask themselves will someone really buy this?
I ask this because I don't think some people don't realise that the charity has to pay for their skips.
I work for a very small charity where sometimes the cost of the skips can wipe out a days takings ( that's in 1 week)
I completely understand that some might be offended by what I've said but it has to be said.

I'm not offended MerylStreep. My clear outs have been annually since I retired. I follow the rule that if I haven't worn something for a year, I don't need it. Good quality stuff goes to the charity shop. Any clothes that won't be a pleasure for someone to wear, or worn clothes get recycled by one of those recycle fabric places. Towels, bedding etc go to the dogs home.

I'm not offended either.

I did ask our local Red Cross shop if they accepted donations of clothes which probably weren't suitable for sale eg old t shirts (clean) and they do because they sell to the ragman by weight.
So I label the bags
The manager also took some old duvets for the ragman. I'd normally take them to the dogs' home

Iam & Callistamon
Thank you. I just hope my comments make people think.
I do understand that most people don't think of how we dispose of the rubbish/crap ?

I agree with Meryl Streep about the need to be selective in terms of only donating quality items with a high probability that someone will want to buy it, particularly as many charities are short on volunteers to check sort and label and serve in shops at the moment. Mini skips are anything from around £120 to hire for a week and people should not expect to use charities as rubbish collectors. If you intend that the proceeds of sale are to be used for charitable purposes, you also need to check whether the charity itself will be collecting and selling the items and reaping the sales receipts ( and potentially gift aid) or whether the collector of the goods is a collection agency that simply collects and makes a nominal donation of around 20p a bag to the charity and who then trade the donated items for profit and resell the choice items on ebay or other outlets. Sometimes the organisations that do this do make it clear that only a nominal amount is going to charity but others are, I feel, deliberately vague about the distribution of proceeds of sales and the private profiteering.

Having once had to clear through donations at a school, nearly new sale, I know what you mean Meryl Streep. One bag was full of dirty, unwashed long Johns! Why would anyone do that?

I have chose to donate to British Heart Foundation, as I'm taking part in a research project at Glasgow University hospitals trust, which is funded by BHF.
It's good to know my donations are helping.

Yikes Marydoll !!

(Re the long johns)

Our local Hospice has a warehouse (for storing donations made to its charity shops) and currently they are asking people to phone to make appointments to take in donations. If you have a local Hospice, MaryTheBookeeper, then it might be worth you making enquiries?

It is a pity that the traditional jumble sale has fallen out of favour but they too became non cost -effective with the hire of the hall and paying someone to take away the residual jumble at the end.

So many of the charities have had so many donations in the last few weeks. I think that most are following the guidelines and storing donated goods for at least 72 hours before even sorting them. One charity near me, Emmaus , has had several storage containers donated to them for this purpose as they accept furniture as well as clothing and household goods, so that slows up the whole process. Along with that, the actual footfall in town centres has dropped so obviously the turnover is lower.
I am trying to gradually put my bags into the skips for the Salvation Army that are in the car park of one of the nearest supermarkets.

I have quite a lot of stuff to donate. I've been taking one or two bags with me every time I walk up to the high street in the morning and check if the charity shop has space. Last week I had to go to five shops before finding one with space. Most are storing donations for 48 hours in the changing room so once it is full they can't take any more.
I don't normally use the bags that come through the door as I think many are just making money and not donating to charity but have used them since lockdown as at least the clothes will be used, not go to landfill.
I tried to donate to the local women's refuge but they only take size 6 to 14 and a lot of my stuff is bigger. I find it strange as I can't believe all women in refuges are slim.

If the items are in good condition why not put on market place on facebook for free. I have done this with a couple of things including a computer chair and with in 20 mins they had gone. Items left on doorstep for the person so no contact needed. I even did it with a glut of rhubarb, i couldnt believe how many people wanted it, and have sent me messages asking for some in the future if i have any.

I just had a call from the BHF this morning. They’re coming to collect my large mirror and several bags of clothing next Thursday. Might be worth giving them a ring? I arranged the collection on-line and got a message to say they weren’t collecting but when I checked again yesterday their collection service was up and running again. I live in the North-West.

You are exactly right MerylStreep people don't want to or can't be bothered to go through their stuff to see if it will be of use to anyone. I work in a small voluntary library and people often bring in boxes and bags of books which are dirty, old and in very poor condition. Their excuse " I don't like to throw books away" . Unfortunately I have to.

Not sure why a charity shop would be using a skip for clothes - they can be sold on by weight.

I took all my OH's "hanger" clothes - suits, jackets etc. - to a charity shop yesterday that was open and receiving goods - it raises money for a teenage cancer charity.

The rest (in bags) is going to the local wildlife trust shop.

I have got rid of a fair bit of stuff on freecycle and facebook groups. I am just stuck with my grandmother's dinner service - it is beautiful but takes up a lot of space. You cannot sell them - I have looked into it. They are not popular at the moment.

sodapop Most of the charity shops where I live won’t take books any more. I think the idea of a community library sounds great though, especially for children’s books. I can’t understand why people would donate dirty books though.

Well my charity shop is accepting them so bring em on down We do have to quarantine for 48 hours so once our pens are full that’s it for the day but from there they get sent to the shed and then we start again the next day so it is first come first served and usually by lunch time we put a notice out to say no mor3 today

I am doing my bit by not having a clear out.

Actually, we did start clearing out earlier in the year so got rid of quite a lot including two pieces of furniture just before lockdown. I presume they're still stored in the shop.