Clearing a relatives house, nobody wants stuff any more !

[bumblebee1000]

Clearing a late relatives house, contacted over 6 charity shops and refuges, Freecycle, Olio, Gumtree etc etc..only one bothered to turn up, the others cancelled or didn't turn up...lots of free items in good condition, sofas, freezers, fridges, etc....After 2 weeks of this, not one of the organisations took anything. The annoying thing is we sent pics and they agreed to take items, so now breaking up items and taking to council tip and booking a paid clearance company this week as house is sold and need to hurry up. All items with relevant fire labels, working etc.....Do people just all buy new things now and dont bother to get second hand..?

I suspect the peak stuff thing is true. We buy all of our stuff second hand and the bargains we have found this year have been crazy. W3 bought a big beautiful glass fronted slightly anglo Indian style cabinet which must have been £1500 new for £60 - lovely man moving house to be with a partner and had no room for it. It had been on Ebay for months without a bid.

This. The BHF took a few items from my late parents house but didn't want a lot of things I thought were perfectly good (they aren't interested in display cabinets for instance+ they only took 1 of a 2-piece-suite due to wear...).
I tried Facebook marketplace (foc) but, like OP, I couldn't cope with people messing me about.
I ended up paying the council to collect what was left.
Re. possible antiques.... a local auction house came around for valuation. But be prepared to be told that EVERYONE has a family heirloom tea-set and it is definitely of more value to you .

A friend is now in the same boat and is just (after family taking what they want) paying a house clearance company.

I love old furniture- all mine is 1940s or older, except the beds, and came from charity shops. My problem is that without a car it's a ballache to organise moving it, and I either have to pay for a man with a van or wait until one of my brothers is feeling charitable and will pick it up for me. I think a lot of people have the same problem.

This has made me laugh 😂 out loud!
Never would have thought of that!
My brother sold mum’s kelim sofa for £1350 on eBay 10 yrs ago

She was downsizing and it was huge !
Someone in Richmond bought it for a massive house.

Probably tons of farts 💨 on it! 😌😳🤣

Same. In fact we still buy second hand furniture, I can't remember the last brand new piece we bought. I bloody love the furniture recycling place!

Maybe that could be a selling point.

'Real vintage, over 1,000m³ of farts have been expelled on its surface"

We gave furniture to a charity shop and they must have got £4000 for it as they also got loads of gift aid!!

apart from a couple of industrial shelving units my whole house is secondhand

I like the quality and that pieces have a ‘history’ (maybe that’s you too MrsSeth!)

dittoing the possibility of charities that help people into homes being interested whether moving from street, homeless shelter, da shelter or refugees etc

Donning my hard hat here.....
When my DH died, I downsized quite dramatically and had a lot of decent furniture to get rid of.
Purely by chance, the week before he died, we had been scouring charity shops for reasons you dont need to know, and had been quite pissed off at the cost of a 3 piece suite that quite clearly needed a LOT of work to make it comfortable, as well as attractive.

When DH died, I gave everything decent directly to those in need. It cost them nothing, but gave them a decent base to build on.
Not for everyone, I know. But just take a walk around a charity shop charging £100 for a leather sofa with sagging seats and statched arms, and ask yourself if you'd be grateful for it.

If you put it on fb for free it’ll be snapped up. My local charity shops are always heaving with people so people definitely buy second hand (me included early 30s) I often just put stuff outside the front of the house and it’s gone within a day.

Couldn’t you just arrange how long she stays for before she arrives? And tell them not to drink your Gin. Ban the dog until it’s housetrained.

I flooded every FB group local to the house, it took 2 months to give away a brand new freezer...belive me...we have tried all the sites and organisations !

Aw for gods sake - wrong thread

After clearing out a few houses after bereavements I have become much more of a "clearer outer" rather than a go around the lovely antique emporium sort.
We still have too much stuff but I am working on it

Almost everything I buy is secondhand (clothes, hard furniture, kitchen stuff) but I draw the line at sofas and soft chairs.

People are gross, and it's very difficult to truly clean and de-stink a sofa.

They have been the biggest timewasters of the lot, went into branch with pics etc, they agreed to take it all, never turned up, contacted them several times, finally arrived at house and said some items were dusty so wont take anything...i offered them £5 to buy a duster and mr sheen spray can...they drove off !!

For me (my fridge freezer just broke)
I needed it quickly, I've no cash but can get finance and I've no van to transport one in
Otherwise I would have taken a second hand one no issue (I'm not precious!(

To confirm, we flooded every social media site local to the house, all the FB groups, all the free recycle sites, all the local charities etc etc. have put some items outside and small bits have gone. we are now breaking up items and taking to the council tip, most of the furniture originally from john lewis etc, not cheap stuff...friend is same situation spent over 2k on clearance as couldnt give items away.

Sorry to read about your bereavement. It must be particularly rubbish dealing with all this at Christmas - I hope you treat yourself to something nice once it’s done.

Round here, we have at least three charities which take furniture and/or white goods - the BHF, a local hospice charity and an organisation the local council uses to get homeless people set up with the basics. If you still have anything left, it might be worth contacting your local council’s homelessness/housing options department.

There’s a second hand shop near my office and I find it sobering to gaze in at all the bric-a-brac that other people once bought (some of which is very similar to stuff I bought), but it’s all unnecessary and ultimately, unwanted.

Our local charity shops always seem to have signs up saying they don't need donations.
I've been in a lot of them recently asking if they have wool as I want to crochet blankets for the dogs home but they only take full balls and any part used ones go in the bin!
Then it's near impossible to buy any of the full balls anyway because the volunteers have them, I've been told a few times that one or the other of them crochets or knits so they have first refusal.

Send it all to auction. Job done.

DS (27) has just bought his 1st house. All his furniture has come from charity shops and all been delivered by them at the time they said - and that includes British Heart Foundation. One of the other charities he bought from has been running adverts asking for furniture donations for all their stores. So it must depend where you live.

If you don't have a car it's to expensive to pick up. It's sad but real. People needing second hand stuff don't have a car.

To be fair, I’d draw the line at a sofa/armchairs unless they were very new or rarely used, especially if the owners had pets, smoked, or sat on to eat. It’s like buying a used mattress.

I always freecycle stuff and as long as I avoid the people who just say yeah I’ll have it I have had lots of success. Charity shops..sometimes staff can be quite dismissive e.g. what’s in your bag..it’s a new teapot and teacup set…no thanks.