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!

I phone and ask what they are taking. Our local animal charity takes worn out clothes as sell them to the "ragman" so I separate saleable and non saleable and label the rag bags for them. There is a small animal rescue shop that are happy to take most things so I like to select extra special things for them as they are so grateful. I work near a charity shop and they have thrown out some fab stuff. If still there on bin day I have taken it and sold on local selling sites then donated the money made to the local animal charity. This particular charity buys in a lot of stock so maybe could buy in less and utilise what people donate🤔

@CornflakeMum, there is a box you can tick when creating your listing to hide from friends.

l agree with someone's comment that although the shops are extremely full there didn't seem any discounting. l suggested to one today when they had refused 2 donations while l was there if you sell everything for 1 pound you'll soon get rid of stock and have room for your donations.

Just as an addition to what to do with your books - I went to my local library, told them what I was wanting to get rid of, and did they want them?

They welcomed them with open arms, explained that the books may not necessarily be kept at my local branch - not a problem for me, as I just wanted them to be used - and told me that they were very much appreciated.

@nzborn

l agree with someone's comment that although the shops are extremely full there didn't seem any discounting. l suggested to one today when they had refused 2 donations while l was there if you sell everything for 1 pound you'll soon get rid of stock and have room for your donations.

I am sure the manager liked to be told how to do her job especially by someone who doesn't know how things work, my DH has in fact tried that in one of his shops as a one day promo , he still could only have 6 people in the shop at one time and even for a quid people don't want to queue outside, the upshot was that he had exactly the same amount of transactions as the day before with only a fraction of the takings so both he and his area manager wrote it off as a bad idea

I have listed lots of items for free using the OLIO app which is fab. I have also put out a box of items at the end of my drive for people to help themselves during lockdown.

Books I have taken to my local Morrison’s who have a charity book sale shelf for customers.

l agree with someone's comment that although the shops are extremely full there didn't seem any discounting. l suggested to one today when they had refused 2 donations while l was there if you sell everything for 1 pound you'll soon get rid of stock and have room for your donations.

But they're not looking to 'get rid of stock' purely as a favour to people with more things to donate. Why is the older stock any less of an asset to them in generating income than whatever new stuff people might bring in? It's not like it's been sitting there, freely available to buy, but with no interest shown, as the shops have been closed for months. If they sold everything for a pound, that would just make the grumblers complain more when they were back up to their normal prices at what a 'rip off' it is.

Also, they already sell plenty of things at less than £1 depending on what it is. If they price everything at £1, whether it's a nearly-new Hermes bag or a well-loved children's book, their best stock will fly out of the door - most of it to car-booters and other resellers - and they'll be left with all of the cheap stuff that's now overpriced. I can't imagine it going down well to have said kids' book 'on special sale' at £1 and then, if unsold, going back to its normal price of 20p the following week. You'd also have people with multiple purchases happily saving many, many pounds on the £1 designer bag but then complaining at how disgusting it is that they have to pay an extra 80p for the book.

Agree with others that reducing the price in a charity shop doesn't necessarily clear the stock, I occasionally do a "pound rail" but it doesn't really work that well; those of us who work in charity shops know that it is not a "price issue" that doesn't move stock ... it's because no one wants it.

In the charity shop I mange I frequently offer a discount or suggest a customer makes me "an offer", that can work sometimes but if your pricing strategy is correct, and your stock is good, that really won't make much of a difference. I've even put out stuff for 'free' or 'help yourself' and can't get rid of it .

In terms of what we want ... good quality items will sell, ragged books, broken toys, chipped china, 'free' garage glasses (remember them?!), free DVDs etc are useless and we have to arrange to responsibly dispose of them. I've calculated that approx 50% of our donations are unsaleable. Agree with a PP that some donations consist of the contents of your child's toy box or desk - just chucked into a black sack and given to us to sort through. I've had to sift through homework notes, food wrappers, dirty knickers, pound shop tat, used pencils, birthday cards, hair bobbles etc etc . (That example was actually from a 'friend' of mine last week).

Having said all that, we do get some fabulous donations for which we are very grateful, my shop's sales are well up on last year .

A very good thread. It would be useful if the charity shops could respond on this. I contribute but also buy from these shops quite a bit and the differing shop policies would be most useful to know.

I agree that it is gross the way that some people use charity shops as the council tip.

I was in Marie Curie a while back and heard the shop staff shrieking in the back. They had opened a bag and found a pair of knickers with a used sanitary towel stuck on them . The manager told me she had had quite a few vibrators donated too! I’d only open bags if I were wearing an industrial pair of rubber gloves...

Ive got to say im quite surprised at rhe attitude of some on here. Sounds as though many only want tbe good stuff and arent bery grateful even though theyre getting it for nowt and making some money on it. Some posters seem to think charity shops are doing people a fsvour by taking things off their hands!

Although obviously vibrators etc are inappropriate! Im clearing my wardrobe out and i wouldn't donste underwear although i will donate a top thats about 10yrs out of date and similar

I’ve had a massive clear out over the past 6 months and what wasn’t good enough to sell, I gave away free on FB. My clothes clear out (lost 4 stone since March) went to a clothes bin in the local supermarket car park.

Of course charity shops want 'good stuff' - would you want to come into a charity shop and buy stained clothes and chipped china Madein?

And it's hard to show gratitude for a load of unsaleable donations that you know are going to cost the charity money to dispose of responsibly.