Charity shops full!

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Tried three different local charity shops today and none of them are accepting donations as they have too much stuff. I wouldn't care if I was donating rubbish, but it is all good quality stuff. Clearly everyone else had their clear outs earlier than me...

£4/top (what I paid yesterday) still seemed like too much. They were busy with customers in my town, at least.

I took some bags to my local and they took what they wanted and rejected what they didn't want, so I took it home and recycled it or disposed of it.

I agree with this approach, as they are then not left with the job and cost of disposing tonnes of rubbish.

They usually get loads before Christmas.

You could find a clothes bank etc instead.

Why not take them to cash for clothes. Granted you might not get much for them but its better than nothing.
I'll probably be flamed for this but I'm a big girl, so Im.sure i can handle it, but I can't help thinking its rude to turn away donations. Even if they just put them in the back room somewhere.
They might be glad of them one day.

spider trouble is when the back room is full, along with the kitchen and everywhere else, and they have a shortage of volunteers to get it sorted fast enough

I took 2x big black bin bags full of clothes and several ornaments of my mum's she no longer wanted to our local Barnardos this morning. Woman very grateful. Quite a few customers in the shop too. This is an out-of-town-centre shop, maybe try further afield?

Yep I had to turn away donations at the oxfam shop because we had no more space. People got quite cross so I opened the door to the backroom which was filled to the ceiling with black bags. That made them less cross and a bit more understanding.

It's not rude to turn away donations when you are in a small building staffed entirely by hard working volunteers !

Funnily enough my local charity shop is also full today and wouldn't take our stuff

Ours are full too. They only have so much space to store things.

i looked at things today in the local charity shops, agreed £4 for a top is too much when i can buy a brand new one in the shop opposite (literally opposite!!) for £3?

I have to say our local charity shops are well priced. I’ve been today and the books I got were 50p to £1. Board games are brilliant buys too usually about £2.50-£3.

I'll probably be flamed for this but I'm a big girl, so Im.sure i can handle it, but I can't help thinking its rude to turn away donations. Even if they just put them in the back room somewhere.
They might be glad of them one day.

Not going to flame you but this is just not possible. They don't have the space, their back room is overspilling and they have to dispose of skips of rubbish. They're classed as a business so have to pay for disposal of rubbish.

And they get ALOT of rubbish and unusable junk as many people see them as a dumping ground.

It's the same in my area too. I think it's a reflection on the increasing amounts of stuff we've all been accumulating over the past few years as everything's become cheaper. And now the trend is to declutter and live more simply, so the charity shops are inundated.

I walked past a charity shop before opening time the other day and someone had dumped bags and bags of clothes, shoes, books, toys etc outside the front door overnight. I'm sure they told themselves they were doing a good deed but looked more like fly tipping to me.

(Sorry to derail OP, I know this isn't what you did!)

Thing is with pricing it depends what you are buying. I got a lovely Phase Eight top (which conveniently hid my early pregnancy bump for work) for £4 and an abercrombie jumper for £6. Both in excellent condition. I'm sure I could have got a new top in Primark or similar for less but the quality isn't the same!
Having said that I do think volunteers need to know their shops - I see a lot of primark stuff priced higher than it is new.

@Mississippilessly I noticed a lot of Primark the other day too, and not even nice Primark. They'd be better off selling job lots of that sort of stuff on Ebay or Cash 4 Clothes and then they could showcase the better quality items. It would be worth more of a look

Ours said it was full when I tried to drop in the summer. They have a warehouse locally though so dropping there is always an option.

I've not used them yet, but I've heard good things about goneforgood.org.uk which I guess takes to warehouse where it can sorted and maybe sent to less full shops.

Sounds frustrating, but yeah, seems lots of people are having clearouts recently. I've boxes all taped up to go, but need more to finish - and that was just the toys that weren't broken or had missing bits.

Iv stoped donating to my charity shop, every time I went the woman was stood out the bag door smoking and would shout for me to bring the stuff to her! Plenty of other places that need clothing donations and toys

Our local one is also not accepting donations at the moment, and does this frequently. I was in there the other day and someone rang up to check before coming down.

There is a large Barnardos donation centre a few miles away, they will usually take stuff if you drop it off early. Also there is a local church that has a monthly jumble sale and they always take stuff.

Our local overstuffed chazzer is currently doing a buy one get one free on CDs and DVDs, and books are 25p each. Clothes are still a bit overpriced though tbh.

As an ex charity shop manager, I'll put my tuppence worth in. We did get overwhelmed with stock, I know its frustrating for customers to be turned away with donations . It was
equally frustrating for us . Also we could only take so much stuff, due to health and safety and practicalities. Volunteers were the backbone of our shop but we didnt always have enough of them.
Also people do view charity shops as a dumping ground, you wouldn't believe some of the donations that we got. I hated car boot season, we inevitably used to come in on a Monday morning to a pile of junk on the doorstep. This was a bloody nuisance and had health and safety implications, plus it all usually had to be chucked. We had to pay for its disposal too. We used to politely decline when we were full. I hope this helps people see things from another perspective

Don't you have charity clothing bins locally that have space for donations?

It isn't just clothes - quite a bit of crockery, some toys and books etc. Too good for car boot or tip, and I can't be faffed to eBay it all.

I'm going to stash it in the garage and try again in Feb, I think.

The thing is OP if those shops are anything like the one I work in they won’t have had the regular rag/recycling collections over Christmas and New Year so everything grinds to a halt until that is cleared. When 80% of donations are actually unsuitable for selling on then the rubbish soon piles up and it is literal rubbish in a lot of cases. Just today I’ve had broken/incomplete toys and games, cds and dvd cases with no discs, lids for storage boxes but no box, a saucepan with food still in the bottom, half a dogs Christmas selection box, various crisp and chocolate bar wrappers and a pile of black food trays that you get ready meals in!
Head office have told us we’re not allowed to be picky either with donations in case customers complain

I got turned away today. They are accepting one small bag per customer. I was particularly annoyed b/c I walked past the shop yesterday and checked there was no sign about not accepting donations (got caught out last year as well) but the sign must have gone up during the morning today. I was slightly ungracious as I was on foot so had to lug it all home again.

I work at a barnardos. We take everything even tho we are currently overwhelmed tbh. People don’t forget the shops that reject their donations. We have been getting up to 40 bin bags of donations a day over the Christmas period when we are short on volunteers too 🙂

Clothes shoes and electricals that aren’t suitable for sale are recycled which we get paid for. Also scratched or damaged cds DVD’s and books. Although we haven’t had a collection in 2 weeks which has added to the chaos.

Either try again later on or try a barnardos.