AIBU to issue a plea on behalf of charity shop volunteers?

[LunaLoveg00d]

We know it's the decluttering season and we know that lots of us are chucking out stuff the kids have grown out of or have got bored of to make way for the new stuff they got over Christmas.

But please, no charity shop wants a jigsaw with bits missing, a colouring book with half the pages scribbled on, a doll which has been given a "haircut" by its previous owner, trainers encrusted in muck, odd socks or cushion covers which someone has spilled red wine over.

Just CHUCK THE BROKEN AND MINGING STUFF IN THE BIN - if it's not good enough to be in your house any more, why would you think it would be good enough for other people's??

(Frazzled after a morning trying to sort out the lovely, quality donations from the post-Christmas crap.)

I'm not sure what you could do with opened stuff - certainly our policy isn't to sell it. It's such a shame as the other day I had a Clinique makeup palette handed in and because they donor had taken off the plastic cover it had to be binned even though the makeup seemed to be untouched.

Would a food bank take it?

This comedy sketch mentions a couple of the things that charity shops might not want.

It is amazing what you can learn about different ways to recycle what I thought was rubbish!

Please be careful not to give your old clothes to traders who will sell them in African markets.

Much better to give it to someone who turns it into insulation material

When my dad died, someone from the Salvation Army came round to help clear out his clothes. They sort them into sellable in charity shops, give to people in hostels, rags. They visited the home and took the stuff away.

I would like to make a plea to charity shop volunteers. I used to donate stuff to a shop near Tesco which had a layby outside where you could park. Last time I went I had several bin liners of clothing, curtains etc and several boxes of other goods. The two ladies in the shop watched me coming in pushing the door open with my bum and said nothing. I came in with the second load. They said nothing, didn't ask if i needed help. Didn't offer to hold the door open for me. No 'thank you', not a word. Just watched from the desk. I don't go there any more.

Today I went to a different charity shop. Parked outside and opened the boot. I had one box of good kitchen stuff. A lady came out and said we don't take in stuff in the afternoon. I pointed out that I could only bring stuff in the afternoons.

Is it really worth my while donating stuff. I feel as if I am being a nuisance. Maybe I should take it all to landfill. Nobody makes me feel like an inconvenience there

I do sympathise. I used to live opposite a charity shop and got chatting with them on a similar basis and this was often an issue that came up. What was even sadder was an old bloke who would turn up every night at 11pm and go through the bags that had been dumped outside their door for anything wearable or sellable.

One of the issues there though, was the staff there were EXTREMELY fussy about what they took, and would go through the entire bag you brought in, and inevitably give you 3/4s of what you brought to them back (stuff that was wearable and undamaged but that they thought no-one would buy). The issue was that they were a standalone charity, someone like Oxfam would send clothes off to be sent to other shops, or recycled, they didn't have this luxury and had to pay for commercial waste collections. So people ended up not giving it to them directly to subvert this (and most of it donated this way would end up being binned). And hence the old man on Chingford High Street at 11pm.

Not only do people ditch stuff on the charity shop doorsteps around here, they even ditch them on the Salvation Army Church doorstep!
Plus they will try and hand stuff in during the week even though the two operations are separate. Heard one woman arguing with a volunteer who was reluctant to accept her lampshades, "Well, what do you expect me to do with them?". He was too polite to suggest she get back in her car and drive the 3 minutes to the actual shop. But then you can't park right outside the shop. He only took a coat off her because the Foodbank and goods for the homeless are distributed through the Church.

YANBU - definitely! I was doing my stint in a CS today. Our very large bin was full to bursting which meant there was no room for the crap that I was sorting. All these bags have to sit around in the back of the shop, which is where we do the sorting, and cause no end of problems. They are a hazard and often block the fire escape!

We can't recycle cardboard either as it's no longer economically viable for people to collect it. This puts extra strain on our bin which, incidentally, now has a lock to prevent Tom, Dick and Harry from dumping their rubbish!

Until you work in a CS you don't know the half of it - including how bloody awful the public can be!

PLEASE: if you want to donate ask the CS what they can take!

@BoiledSprouts Try ringing your local Salvation Army Church. Ours has a 50p table and all sorts of toiletries, and everything else small known to man, goes on it. With all the groups that come through, as well as the actual congregation, on a bad week it makes about £20.

Bags left on the pavement will most likely be taken by the bin men. I was chatting to a volunteer who said they hadn't had many donations, and I told her I had seen the bin men taking the black bags away that had been left outside.
It was sad because someone had opened them up and thrown the stuff about and we had gone and got new bags and put all the teddy collection (proper bears not just toys) and nice scarves and clothing in them and put them back in the doorway only for them to go in the rubbish cart. One sweet little bear had been picked up further along by someone thinking he was a lost bear and put on the side and we had put him back in the bag, I would have rescued him if I had known.

I put my rags in a bag labelled 'rags' and leave them in the top of my donations, also often use boxes and tape them shut because people rummage in them while they are waiting at the bag of the shop to be taken through to to the stock room, and help themselves as there are no prices on.

Annoying is the one woman volunteer who always grabs things as soon as she sees them and puts them by the till for herself for 10p, it does put me off donating. No-one else gets a chance to buy at full price.

I have also seen people (theives) arrive with a van and sort through the excess stuff at the back of one of the shops, they have a shed which is full, when it hasn't been broken into, but in order to open the back door they have to leave boxes at the back and it just gets stolen.

One shop has tried to go upmarket and sanitised the shelves and racks, there is now hardly anything to look at and they dump all the cuddly toys etc. outside on the pavement in black bags. Once again, toys kicked up the street, new ones with tags on, which some child would have loved to have. Just left for the binmen. (Cancer Research )

Why is there a problem with textiles going to Africa? The UK suppliers/donors are paid per tonne for it and it's a business opportunity for someone over there to sort and sell it? As per this article. Am I missing something or is it to do with the effect of Western clothes on local markets.

Re opened but hardly used toiletries, I think you can pass them on to women's refuges as pp often turn up with literally nothing so would be grateful for them. I've done this before but it was a Xmas appeal.

It has destroyed a lot of the local textile industry. There are loads of articles on it from newspapers of all persuasions! Some countries are considering banning the import of second hand clothes.

Any clothes I'm not sure about goes in a bag marked "I'm not sure if these can be resold". I save my tat up and donate it to the fake charity bag pushers. You know, the "For every 8 million bags we collect, we donate 5p to the charity on the front. Now give us your designer stuff so we can sell it for profit on eBay". I'll probably go to hell anyway.

I volunteer in a charity shop, and you wouldn't believe some of the shite that gets given to us, and the stink! Some of it literally does have crap and vomit over them, not to mention the broken crockery and video tapes, nobody uses them any more! We've even had sex toys! Used! I ask you! I worry what goes on in people's head sometimes!

My daughter loves buying dolls and making them over so don't be too quick to throw them away. She once bought a doll without feet because she had the shoes for that doll (they don't come with feet!) The lady in Oxfam let her have the doll super cheap. If a toy isn't complete as long as it says so on the box I've no issue with that, usually you can make up parts.

Unfortunately I'm one of those rude charity shop volunteers at the moment who wouldn't offer to help with your bags - because I've had an operation and am not allowed to lift things. I don't want to explain that to everyone though! I always do say thank you to people who bring bags in though, that's common courtesy.

It's also rubbish if volunteers are taking items for themselves and buying at ridiculously low prices. Bigger chains have policies about this - ours certainly does. We're not allowed to buy anything before it goes on general sale in the shop, and anything you've got your eye on has to be priced by someone else. We also write everything bought by staff or volunteers in a book so the manager can spot who is buying what, and at which prices. Stops people buying a brand new winter coat for 50p.

Where we live there are textile recycling banks nearly everywhere you would find a bottle bank. Put your old crap in there! Send your nice clothes to the charity shop so I can buy them

DD and I sat and counted pieces for 3 jigsaws last week, to check for missing bits before taking to the charity shop. Two of the 250 piece puzzles had about 5 or 6 pieces extra so we ended up doing them to see if it was all there.

If it says 250 on the box then I bloody expect 250, NOT rounded down from 256 fuckers.

Getting first dibs is one of the perks of working in a charity shop but definitely should not be priced by yourself - in mine we could call dibs but the "supervisor" (sort of, she had been there the longest) would price it but we did sometimes get lower prices but that was just when it was something big that took up a lot of room so we wanted it gone quickly.

I think it's grim that people dump their crap on charity shops.

I always think about whether or not I would buy it. And if not, then it goes in the bin.

I agree with previous poster about experience dropping donations off, I don't expect a fanfare but a simple thankyou goes a long way. There is one charity shop I don't donate to any more since they glanced over, pointed to the door at the back "leave it there" and carried on with their conversation, there weren't even any customers in there they were just chatting between themselves, I would have understood if they were busy helping a customer or something. Made me feel crap

That's a one time thing though, all of the others have said thankyou, some multiple volunteers who have been there at same time. I leave happy, they get future donations. I've even been told they can't take any more donations and it hasn't put me off because it's said with an apology. Kindness, a simple word (thanks or Sorry) and a smile go a long way

I came on to post the fact that 500+ piece jigsaws don't have exactly the number of pieces stated on the box, but I've been beaten to it! But yes, there's no point in just counting the pieces, because, even if you have the exact number, they might be from different jigsaws. You really have to make the jigsaw to be sure you have all the bits.