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 think it's largely to do with the whole heirloom generation being almost gone now. Most houses now have modern manufactured furniture and cheaper, easily replaceable items.

Toys are mass produced and have little resale value. Lego being an exception.
The old handmade teddies, valuable diecast corgi cars, antique gem jewellery etc are now few and far between.

It also depends on a shops location.

I'm with the OP. It was horrible sorting stuff when I was volunteering. Now I put the rubbish clothes in a bag marked 'rag man' so they know to put it straight in recycling. I give glassed to Specsavers as they send them overseas and Charity shops just bin them. It just needs a little effort and thought

The one I worked with mostly dumped the stuff that people thought was valuable, they dumped MOUNTAINS of fur coats because they had a policy of not profiting from them, even via rag man. It was not an animal related charity. I think people thought they were doing a good thing giving these items to this shop.

That is sad TinselTwins dumping the fur coats did nothing to help animals and instead resulted in less money for charity and not making the most out of the fur that had already been produced. Why didn't they just refuse them as donations?

I definitely wasn't suggesting that the charity shop volunteers should be counting the big jigsaws - I was thinking the donor could. But @Natsku's information renders that pointless anyway - but it is a fascinating fact, nonetheless!

I also also worked in a charity shop. Amazed me when people would come in asking for a particular item and storm off in a huff if we didn't have it in stock. Like we could choose what was donated. 'No socks? Bastards!' (Honestly, we got that more than once).
But yeah, the minging crap some of us had to sort through.

Sounds like a Little Britain sketch. "Margaret! Maaaargaret!"

We donated some sofas to a charity shop once. Few weeks later we get a letter saying they got £200 for them and if we wanted the money it would be minus a 5% fee. We, of course, didn't take the money, but I wonder if anyone does?

It was the used incontinence pads I used to object to!!! Yuk

Natsku
because most donations come in in bags, that are handed over.
The british heart foundation were found to be selling fur stuff in the 90's they got really hassled over it.

Ah right. Still would have thought there would be a better option than just dumping them.

To the people who say they have to throw books away that aren't saleable, does your charity shop not sell them for pulp?
I've worked at our local CS for 2 years and I'm in charge of the book section. Every book that gets donated is either sold in our shop, sent on to our other shops or sold for pulping so we never refuse books, no matter what state they're in.

Our charity shop doesn't sell furs either - but AFAIK we keep them through the back and sell them to a loca vintage shop which doesn't have a problem with them. Same with the Dutch erotica DVDs, not something we'd sell, but happy to Music Magpie it.

If the charity shop gets in touch to say they have sold an item for X, you should say, yes I'll have the money, but I will make a gift aid donation of X to the charity. Then the charity Shop can claim an extra 25% of the value as gift aid from the government. Why the charities don't explain this clearly, I do not know.

I left 3 black bags with dh the other day, told him one was for the dump, one for me to sort later (bag of toys I'd thrown all the little bits and I wanted to put it all in sets as they were all good quality) and one for the charity shop. All he heard was bags for charity shop I feel so embarrassed and can't go into our local charity again. There were used tissues in the dump bag 🙈
I went through our churches food bank donation box just before Christmas and removed out of date tins, half a packet of pasta and an opened jar. Some people.

Why didn't they just refuse them as donations? I don't know it wasn't very well run. They didn't sell half as much to scrap as some of my local ones do, and the woman in charge of sorting was put in charge because she'ld worked there the longest not because she had a clue, she'ld be putting the designer stuff in the rag pile and nobody could tell her otherwise because she liked things done her way..

my points being:

1. Just because one charity shop like the OPs doesn't sell a certain thing, doesn't mean that everyone should stop giving it, it might be very valuable to your local charity shop which is run differently (e.g. the fur, another shop may sell for ££ to vintage shops)

And..

1. It's no good saying people shouldn't donate crap! "My" charity's "crap" was other peoples treasure (the fur, which they could have made money from, and as they were a health not animal charity I'm sure the donors assumed it'ld be welcome). Likewise, the shop near me that makes a lot from scrap and loves things like broken keyrings!

A well run charity shop would sort and decide for itself and have pathways for a variety of types of scrap and rag.

Why would a charity ring you and offier you money when they've sold your donation?

Have't read the whole thread so sorry if this has been mentioned - to the people who leave stuff outside closed shops (don't! it just gets rained on ruined and has to be cleared up) if you can't get to a shop try www.freecycle.org, this is also great for stuff that charity shops can't take like car seats, large items or anything a bit unusual. We've just rehomed two broken fence panels through freecycle it's a great community.

I really think about what I'm donating. Did a clear out recently and took certain items to the textiles/clothes bins around the corner, bagged up sellable/fairly new items to a few charity shops and the rest I did a tip run!! Simple

"For rags and scruffy clothing, our tip has a bank for cloth, and so do several supermarket car parks round my way, so it's easy to drop a bag of old clothing in when shopping (likewise books, CDs, paper, shoes)."

Those places are usually only accessible by car though.

Do the textiles/clothing bins actually recycle rags? I thought they just took saleable items or items that can be passed on - they always ask for paired shoes, for example.

Most charity shops ask people to GiftAid their donations, Amber. I've never heard of a charity shop selling goods on behalf of the people who donated them and handing over the cash
Since when did they start providing auction house services??
And more to the point; why?

I think some charities have an arrangement with local dry cleaners who will clean high quality items for free

Yes to all of those - we don't resell towels

We sell them as 'dog towels' to dry your pooch when he comes home wet. It's surprising how well they go!

Iirc there's an organisation that recycles old fur coats into comfort toys for orphaned baby animals.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do with opened, unwanted toiletries? Like if you buy a bottle of (nice, pricey) shampoo but after one wash you just don't like it - what can you do so as to not bin/waste it?

Oh my, PETA accept donations of fur coats "to cover in fake blood and use in demonstrations."

Delightful PETA...

I live in a cold country so fur sells quite well and doesn't seem to have the same negative associations as it does elsewhere.