To ask charity shop workers what you DO and DON'T want donated

[DimityandDeNimes]

Obviously you don't want anything dirty or broken.

I'm having a massive clear out and am struggling to decide what to donate or recycle or bin.

Are you overwhelmed by stuff at the moment? My friend dropped a few bags at a huge charity shop and said their faces dropped at the sight of more stuff!

Local children’s charities, respite centres, SEN charities etc would love toys....

Locally, shops are taking many things but in many cases, you have to make an appointment, not just drop in, so check! The Oxfam bookshop takes a wide variety of books, but accepts donations only on Sundays and gets booked about a month in advance. The Mind shop will take 'drop-in' donations, but only 2 bags of donations at a time, and the earlier in the day, the better. In general, donations should be clean and of good quality; and potentially unsafe donations - e.g. electrical goods - are often rejected. Many charity shops will not take towels or bedding, especially during the pandemic

@ilovemygirls

Local children’s charities, respite centres, SEN charities etc would love toys....

Definitely, but the same standards apply as for charity shops. They have to be complete and in good condition. With CE marks.

@Time40

Charity shops are not tips for any old rags

They're not - apart from the charity shops that actively want rags to sell on for textile recycling, and in my experience that's actually the majority of charity shops.

Not any more my husband runs 2, rags have to be quarantined like all donations for 48 hours before the staff can open the bags and put them into the bags that the rag merchant provide, one of his shops only has one quarantine pen so he can only take donations that he can put out on the shop floor and sell, he did give a rag bag to someone and ask them to out their rags in it themselves and got a mouthful of abuse for his trouble so now he says no

Freegle has taken over from Freecycle in most areas, but does the same thing.
Olio started as a food-specific app to avoid food waste, so is good for offering edible food past the BBE.

Vet surgeries often want old towels and bedding.

We have a charity bookshop nearby which is lovely but they can't sell most of what they get (out of date reference, tatty copies of bestsellers, kids' series that aren't popular any more), though they get a few p per kg for sending them for pulping so do appreciate them.

Dc's school used to appreciate even tatty copies of popular books so sometimes I'd donate books, buy a couple, and be given a bagful for the school - don't think school are taking donations atm.

In my home town we have a clothes bank , similar to a food bank. They take clothes and shoes for adults and children along with bedding and some small household items. They collect too!!
I don't give to charity shops anymore when most of the time new clothes can be bought cheaper.

Our high street is almost entirely charity shops and they have always been happy to receive bags of donations.

If you are in or near London, you can book a free collection from TRAID
www.traid.org.uk/clothes-donations/

@Heffalooomia

Paperbacks can go in paper recycling.... can they not? 🤔

Actually not always, as I have said before my DH runs 2 shops, since the shops have reopened his book man will only accept 10 of their large crates of books, and wont come into the shop to pick them up, one of his shops has a large downstairs area big enough to store the crates until he has 10 full ones and a back door the company can use so he takes everything in that shop, the other shop has such a small back area even one crate would cause problems and no back door, so any books he cant sell go into general waste which costs the charity money to have taken away and he doesn't drive so can't move them to the other shop he routinely refuses yellowed and damaged books in that shop for that reason, don't assume that shops are refusing things for no good reason its usually not that they don't want stuff, they cannot physically take stuff

I have a friend that I give my stuff too and between herself and her group of friends and family they find homes for everything. I would be inclined to put things on a free site like Facebook as people that want and need stuff would benefit

Charity shop manager here, happy to answer any questions x

My area has Freegle and Freecycle. I prefer Freecycle but both are great.
Get the odd no shows and the people asking if they can have something when it's obvious that they haven't read the post properly.

I try to wait until I've had a few replies rather than just give it to the first person who asks for it.

There are four local charity shops around me. Two have staff members who roll their eyes when you drop in a donation (I am talking about in season clothes with tags that were unwanted gift, read one current big name fiction etc). The other two shop have lovely staff who are always so grateful for stuff. They also swap stock between each shop as one of the shop tends to attract different types of customer. (With donors consent).One shops main customer age group is 20-30 and the other is 50 upwards. One of those two shops also have branches in nearby towns and stock rotates between the stores.

My local shop tells me that bric a brac and good furniture always sell well. Looking at what doesn't shift for them, old faded pictures in frames never seem to shift, neither do old stuffed toys, incomplete toys or poor quality clothes.

Just wanted to say to those thinking about it, please, please don't just bin perfectly good stuff. I know it's a bit of a rant but it's so sad to hear that people are doing this as it's such a waste. There are lots of options: local charities which donate items rather than having shops, freecycle, local Facebook selling pages, zero waste giving and selling pages, pages searching for missing pieces of toys, eBay, ziffit, music magpie, or just putting it outside with a note to say help yourself. Where stuff isn't working you can try a repair cafe. Yes, it's a pain. But if you found the time to buy something it's worth, if at all possible, spending a bit of time ensuring it finds a home after you no longer have use for it. Throw away consumerism is crap for everyone. Sorry for the rant, but it's worth a try. Plus, you might just make someone else's day. We once had a lovely note from someone who took an old desk of ours from a front garden. They were genuinely grateful.

Oh and for good quality clothes you can always try thrift +. They will send you a bag to fill then give you credit towards buying secondhand clothes from them.

Some shops give you money off next spend for donations. It was in the Money Saving Expert newsletter this week.

It depends on the charity shop surely?

Some sell kids toys and clothes, others don't. Some only seem to sell expensive brands. Some seem to sell everything

The one I volunteered In always wanted CLEAN clothes in good condition, especially men’s. Also shoes and coats. Oddments of vintage china sold really well. So did hardback books. Please don’t donate trashy bestsellers - they get dozens of them.

Sorry if someone else has said this, but in my area, books can go in the household recycling (rather than bin for landfill), list is usually on your local authority website.

Have a look in the charity shop you are donating to. If they don’t sell kids clothes, toys, bras, toiletries, books, DVD’s etc etc they will just go straight out the back into the bins. Donate bikinis in the winter...bin, winter coats in the summer...bin, do they have matching hangers on all their garments...then they will bin your hangers. They will also lock their bins and smash glasses to discourage bin surfers. Small independent charity shops are usually pretty good as they tend to get less donations.

Why are people binning good stuff? You should be ashamed! All that Landfill!

Binning brand new Lego is criminal! Aside from the fact that it always sells well on eBay, local schools or nurseries would be grateful for it.

Just to respond about my post. By odd plates I meant, chipped ikea or George plates not nice vintage Doulton or Denby and like others have said, all the hangers in store are heavy duty and uniform.

You can bring a bag of clothes to H&M to recycle for a £5 voucher. The voucher can be spent on homewares too. Clothes can be any brand.