To think giving away things for free just isn't worth it?

We just give unwanted things to the local jumble sale. They take any furniture/electricals too, so I just keep stuff in the garage until the scouts rock up with their trailer.

Isn't this requirement to have the fire label still attached a bit out of date. How old would something have to be to have been made before the requirement for it to be fire retardant.

Before anyone throws any more things away please try
Anglo Doorstep.
They are excellent.
I don't know anyone who would disagree.

There’s an excellent local swap in Balham - rammed with kids clothes, all sorted by age, toys and adults’ and house stuff.

Free, useful given how pricy charity shops are.

Gets the odd hoarder but mostly lots of mums and kids picking up their wardrobe for the next growth stage.

I once put a free fridge notice at our newsagents (back in the dark ages before widespread internet). It was one of those big American sized fridges and I gave the dimensions and stated over and over it was very large and to measure their doorway/space before enquiring. Of the ones who actually showed up, most said ‘oh it’s too big’. Duh. Utter waste of time. A bloke did decide to take it but I ran into him in the town afterwards and he said he took it to the dump as he knew it wouldn’t fit but felt bad that he said he’d have it (he was in the resale business so already had a truck).
I had some pallets out front and several people knocked asking if they could have them. In the end I said only if they took them there and then as I was tired of people saying they just needed to get their truck and then disappear. After that I stuck a few things at end of my drive with a ‘free’ sign and they were always gone within a few hours.

We have a street WhatsApp - it works well and stuff goes really quickly.

I sometimes use skips if we have a lot (Hipposkips are good - they come flat packed) and those companies are required to recycle what you put in. It's a good alternative if you're time poor, especially for electricals.

Never had the patience for FB marketplace as even as a buyer I seemed to encounter nutters. But no issues with Olio - good communication, people turn up when they say, you can report 'no shows' etc.

This week got rid of a bread maker. BHF would understandably not come out for a small item, but gone within a couple of hours on Olio.

List items on free sites saying something like 'please say why you want the item and when you can collect it. I won't respond if you just ask if item is still available.

I got hacked off by people just clicking the auto response of 'is this still available' - requires minimum effort on their part and got fed up of holding items for people who didn't respond.

Also works well to leave items on front drive for collection. Plus give a time limit to collect by or it goes to the next person.

Or find a bring and take near you and give everything away in one go! And charity shop smaller/more valuable items. I only freegle the bulky stuff.

As for delivery, I just say, yes my husband has a van so that will be £60.

It’s incredibly challenging often to do anything other than bin perfectly good stuff. It’s so frustrating when you know good stuff that people in need would be able to use is just ending up in landfill.

No one around here wants anything. Putting outside with a free sticker is definitely not done around here too. I’ve posted on all our groups too and it’s such a hassle. I’ve made a pile of perfectly fine items and sent it to the tip.

Tell me about it, had a boomerang I gave away to 5 different people yet the thing kept coming back

This makes sense

people do not respect what is free

so this is a good way to do it!

yes people say FB is passe and rubbish but its still a useful tool

I used to love where I lived in London because everyone would just leave things in front of their house with “free, please take sign on it.” I used to do that with outgrown toys, we’d also even put children’s clothes out in nice weather.

I live in a shithole now, it would be spread in the road and thrown everywhere, sadly.

Yes, we did this, as we have a small front forecourt area. We collected some free 'banana boxes' from the supermarket, and put the items we were giving away in the boxes on top of our bins just inside the boundary wall (some of them were quite small, and I don't want them blowing onto the pavement). They were a really mixed and varied selection of objects and food items.

Anyway, someone kept taking the entire boxes full of stuff, box and all! Turned out it was the woman up the road who already had her house crammed with hoarded crap. So it doesn't seem really helpful for her, iykwim, for us to carry on.

I suppose we could chain the banana boxes to the wheelie bins?

Why didn't you block them as soon as they started being troublesome?

I always list things cheaply but with a nominal price. It weeds out the time wasters. I also insist on collection only. Only had one ridiculous person who wanted a mattress delivering and I said collection only and first come first served. I did tell them it had gone when it hadn't gone. Local Facebook sites seem to be better than market place.

I use Olio, but you still get people saying they'll collect and then no-shows. It's changed and become far for commercialised with adverts etc and I do think they're taking advantage of volunteers now.

Our local charity shops have started to limit donations to times of day and how much any one person can hand in.....even occasionally they will put up a sign declining all donations which is totally unhelpful if you have lugged it all from the car.

I highly recommend the Olio app - people get rated on whether they show up or not and there seems to be a high proportion of decent reliable people - I've never had a no show and you can both sell and give away for free

Why don't you take it to a charity shop?