Do you ever think about the provenance of things for sale in charity shops? (could be upsetting)

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

I often see items in charity shops and wonder about the situations that led to them being there. Some of them must be sad and others probably amusing.

Most stuff is straightforward - outgrown baby things and toys, clothes that people have replaced with new items or which no longer fit, upgraded electricals, unwanted gifts etc.

But I was doing a charity shop trawl the other day and, among other things, there was a lovely soft little teddy bear with "I love Daddy" written across his tummy and a '50th Wedding Anniversary' picture frame - quite a nice one too - although it had the 'stock' picture in there and hadn't apparently been used; unless it had and the personal photo had since been removed before donating or even by the shop staff themselves before displaying.

I've also seen other one-of-a-kind personalised items that one would have expected to mean something very special to the owners or to their descendants - not talking about generic tat taken off the rack in the gift shop with the top 20 kids' names printed on, but things engraved with a person's name and '40 years' service at XXX company' and the like. Obviously only worth a couple of quid at most to anybody unconnected.

I think the same about things that come up on eBay or for auction as well - such as this from a few days ago - a man who was awarded a very special medal, but now needs the money: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-51383434. It seems sad to me that somebody with plenty of money will end up owning it, even though it will hold no personal memories at all for them and will surely bring them much less joy than the man who was specifically awarded it. Also, this story from November about a man selling his late father's much-loved teddy: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-50574030

Maybe I overthink things and maybe some people are just pragmatic about 'stuff'. Perhaps some of the personal items came from deceased people with no family and an anonymous house clearance company has swept their former home and already sold anything valuable.

Am I the only one - just a pathetic, sentimental old fool - or have other people pondered this? Or have you given something to a charity shop that might have caused people to wonder the same? Did you find it hard to part with but needed the space, easy to offload something that had become a burden or held painful/mixed memories or just thought "I don't want this clutter" and didn't give it a second thought?

I haven’t read all this so maybe someone else who volunteers in a charity shop has said the same - it’s always sad when we are donated a dog bed, toys, food bowls and leftover food.

Indeed, there's a pet supplies section in my local charity shop. Bowls, leads, cages and other little items always make me sad. The bird cages most of all. I see people buying them and I reckon they will redo them as shabby chic decor, but I can't stand the thought of some little bird living and dying in such diminished circumstances.

LilyJade that is most unsettling.

My lovely mum died last July and I had to empty her house. She had a lot of things! She loved clothes, bedding, towels and kitchenware - there was just so much. Most of it not to my taste and her clothes didn’t fit anyone else.

Taking and leaving her stuff at the charity shop was genuinely one of the hardest things I have ever done. I wept all the way. I wanted to keep everything, every last thing.

I often wonder who brought her lovely expensive suits and how delighted they must have been to find such high quality stuff in the charity shop, which gives me some solace but I honestly struggle to comprehend that a whole life can just be condensed into nothing like that.

How many early morning cups of tea had they seen? Or commiserating cups when something went wrong.
If cups could talk...

If they were MNers, none. They all have matching sets of cups and stuff like this goes straight to charity. They buy in stuff like this from the charity shop to put out at the tea/coffee station for the builders .

My dad has already started flogging off his collections, he wants us to take a family cruise in his honour after he passes away, and giving the rest to his chosen charities and has also made it clear we are to keep what we like and give the rest to his charities. He's also having a direct cremation. As he says, in 84 years, memories are enough! We agree.

We've already been asked to go over his things and select what we would like to keep. As he says, I would rather see you enjoying it whilst I am still here.

I once bought a coat. Beautiful, long and wool. Quality item. I put it on at home prior to washing to check the fit. Went in the pocket and found a cotton hanker-chief with a name embroidered, a half pack of lockets, and a post card dated 6 months prior without a stamp. I think whoever's it was , didn't expect to die. She'd have sent the card. If she had family (outside of potentially Jamaica) they didn't check her pockets.

As a teen I loved getting velvet jackets from the charity shop. I remember finding a beautiful deep red one for £3.50. when I got it home it had a name tag inside and I laughed to my mum saying "what adult puts their name in their coat?!". Mum told me it was likely someone in a nursing home who had died. It made me so sad to think if that lovely jacket given away and I always wondered what the person who owned it would have been like.