Do you throw toys and clothing away?

[painfullyshywhy]

I give everything to the charity shop or ask around or try to sell online (but that is so time consuming I don't bother anymore unless the item is brand new with tags) and I just can't stand the thought of good stuff being chucked in the bin.

Now, my parents are serial thrower away-ers eyeroll and my younger sister actually threw away a massive bag of fairly trendy clothing including a cardigan that my mum thought I had borrowed and she had given me a real telling off for losing it. I never borrowed it dsis had nicked it and then thrown it away instead of giving it back to dmum who lives with her! she could have put it outside her bedroom door but instead she black bagged it ready for the tip!
My old lego sets were all dumped even though I asked if I could have them for my kids when my siblings were too old for them. The same with my old guitars which I tried to bring home but was stopped because dsis wanted to learn. dumped mere weeks later.
Why do they do this?
I just can't understand why someone would throw away good stuff especially when people have shown an interest in having it! especially your own child or grandchildren!

It makes me so mad!

Another relative asked if I wanted any clothes for ds and dd as they are having a sort through. I said yes ill come to pick the bags up on xxx day. got there and they had thrown them in the bin as bin day is Tuesday and you said you'd come on Wednesday.
just tell me! or don't tell me because now I know a big black bag of good clothes are rotting in landfill instead of being reused.

I see bin bags of good stuff and toys being thrown out on my street daily. (everyone uses a little green area as a dumping ground and the council collects every 4 weeks or so) and I just don't have the space to save it all!

The cost of some things, to throw it in the bin, sometimes not even used... it blows my mind! I don't know how people can do it.

I know I sound preachy but it just feels cruel. my family know how much it upsets me, and its like they revel in telling me what they've thrown away.
The kicker is that they have about 6 charity shops and a shelter to pass before they get to the dump. and I have said I will come and get whatever you're throwing away and take it to the charity shop or give to friends children who are the same age or have xxx interests.
I don't understand it. this is more of a rant but. I needed to get it off my chest before I ring my parents up and explode!

@Ilovemaisie

Babyhere ok valid points. Although I have never had a charity shop inspect any donations I have dropped off. And I have been doing charity shop drop offs for over 25 years.

Me too. I've donated clothes and books to various charity shops over the last 25yrs and not once has anyone made me wait while they sort!

I throw away properly worn out stuff - holes rips etc. Children adult so no toys there but shredded ripped dog toys also go in the bin. In my area it is incinerated and the energy from that goes to make electricity so I don't feel bad about it...

Nothing irritates me more than seeing worn out tat being offered for sale or it being passed on to a charity to deal with. Some they can sell for rags but dirty soiled stained stuff?

@emilyfrost

thanks idiots who rejoice in sharing how wasteful they are. Well done- most of us think you're evil)

Oh yes, throwing away stuff you don’t want anymore certainly makes you evil 😂

It's not great.

If you're on Mumsnet you're fairly likely to have children. They're who you're giving the world full of landfill and the associated problems to.

Old pants and school socks...I was set to textile recycle them but emailed DS2’s infants school and they’ve bitten my hand off because they have kids who have accidents...I’ll wash it all at 60 and take it in. Win-win.

I throw away things that are too worn or broken for the charity shop. I rarely bother selling things myself because I just can’t stand the hassle and I don’t really need the money these days. I did do personal sales when dd was younger and I was a sahm so I had more time and money was more dear.

These days we keep a hamper just for collecting things for the charity shop. Kids change and grow so much I realized it was easier just to keep a bin going at all times. It makes things so much easier to have a designated spot. Just yesterday, dd pointed out that none of the cats seemed to like a particular, really nice, cat toy so she was dropping it in the charity bin.

Anything that's saleable goes to the charity shop, on a local FB free group, or to the baby bank. It's my responsibility as a consumer to dispose of the things I own responsibly, and yes, that's probably more hassle than just binning it, but if I acquired it in the first place the burden is on me to get rid of it, not to ask future generations or the developing world to clear up after my consumerist ways.

Thats the problem though, I am trying my hardest to reduce my consumption and waste and help where I can. But then I have no control over other people who are throwing out more in a week than I have been able to 'save' in a year.
It passes me off that someone can not care.

A child died because of air pollution, how can people say that it isn't their problem.
It is everyone's problem

I was having a chat about this with an elderly lady last week. She said when she had her SC, toys and clothes were much more expensive and people treated their stuff with much more respect and second hand was much more common. Because everything is so cheap these days, people feel comfortable to throw everything away without thinking twice about the environmental impact. I have recently decided to stop buying clothes made of synthetic materials because they shed microplastics each time you wash them and instead only buy clothes made of natural materials and buy less. Any old clothes or toys that I have are sold or given to friends or charity. I remember my mother used to cut old underwear or other rags that nobody wanted to use as a second hand, into pieces and she used them as shoe polish cloth or cleaning cloth for the bathroom.

Completely agree - a colleague told me she won't wear wool/leather because she's vegan, but her plastic clothes can shed and poison the ocean, no bother.

Stuff that's in good condition goes to charity or gets sold. Something that's well worn but still usable goes up on fb marketplace as free, first come first serve.

I've never had anything that didn't get picked up for free off fb marketplace. I suppose at that point I would possibly just chuck it out.

It's not great.

If you're on Mumsnet you're fairly likely to have children. They're who you're giving the world full of landfill and the associated problems to

@1990s I have children. I still don’t care. I don’t think it’ll negatively affect them or any grandchildren I may have.

If OP thinks throwing stuff away makes me evil she’d be horrified at my refusal to recycle and the myriad of other things I do/don’t do.

@StreetLightsHoney

It's not great.

If you're on Mumsnet you're fairly likely to have children. They're who you're giving the world full of landfill and the associated problems to

@1990s I have children. I still don’t care. I don’t think it’ll negatively affect them or any grandchildren I may have.

If OP thinks throwing stuff away makes me evil she’d be horrified at my refusal to recycle and the myriad of other things I do/don’t do.

I was about to write an explanation of why that's not the case. Then I realised there was no point.

i'm a bit of a hoarder, i find it hard to throw away things which might be useful someday so someone, my DH is even worse.
But when push comes to shove, i find throwing out easier than trying to "rehome".

Toys are really difficult to recycle. I wish there were collection containers for them like there are for clothes/shoes/small electricals/books.

I don't want to have to go into a charity shop with the stuff, the staff sigh because it's another load of junk for them to sort through even when it isn't junk, and then they want you to do Gift Aid etc.

Clothes are easy though because you can take to a recycling centre, usually next to the supermarket.

I'm with you, just no need! I put everything on Gumtree for free, there's usually someone who is happy to take it! And takes hardly any effort at all.

People seem to want to pay more for new Primark than second hand Next (or such like)
Yes this is certainly true with highstreet clothes. We buy a lot of frugi and scandi stuff, holds is value really well and people will take stuff with stains/rips etc if the price is right (or free) to use for craft projects or to repair.
Obviously it costs more in the first place - although not a lot more at sale prices - but far less waste, and you recoup a good chunk of the cost on selling.

I could buy a frugi dress for £25 and sell it for £20 after a years use. I could buy a dress from asda for £12 and be lucky to get 50p second hand.

@freakyfridays

and kids shoes, what are you supposed to do with them?

Some of them are nearly new, kids grow fast - and again, school shoes bought last spring didn't get much use. No one wants them! Fair enough, but what do you do with them? They end up in the tip because there's only so much hoarding you can do in a normal size house.

Pair them up and put in the charity clothing bin (those big metal ones that you find next to the bottle bank) They will recycle them or send to disadvantaged communities.

Charity shops often whinge and refuse to accept the whole lot, they want to cherry pick and leave you with the rest to dispose of. FB marketplace is just ridiculous, people expect you to inconvenience yourself when you’re giving stuff away for free. So I do end up chucking some good stuff in the bin because I don’t want them hassle of trying to give it to someone.

I literally can't compute the knowledge that some people throw perfectly good clothes into landfill.

Throw things away...

There is no "away". Away is landfill. Landfill is filling up. Wastefulness is everyone's problem and yes if you just throw things in the bin without any thought to where it goes next, wear an outfit once and chuck it, or don't care about litter/waste I'm going to judge you to fuck for it.

I don't tend to look at kids clothes in the charity shop. They usually have a very small range of sizes and 1 or 2 items in each size. I guess it's a vicious cycle, if people bought kids clothes they would stock more.

I buy and sell kids clothes in Facebook marketplace

The only clothes and toys that go in the bin are ruined or broken. Toys she's grown out of i give to charity or to a friend or family with a younger child.

Some of my DD's best clothes used to come from charity shops.
We didn't have a children's clothes supplier in our small town (we now have one v.pricey boutique one, so still hopeless) so it was far less trouble to pick up random nice bits when I saw them than go on an expedition.

As a general rule, I’ll try to pass things on if they’re in decent condition. I agree it’s wasteful to throw things out if they’re in good condition.

There’s a charity clothes bank in the car park at my nearest supermarket, so I can drop off clothes, shoes and other clothing accessories there, and there’s a Little Free Library (basically a book swap) in my village that’s handy for dropping off books.

But charity shops aren’t an easy option for everyone. There’s no charity shop in the village I live in, or the next few.
I have a car so I can drive to charity shops, but going to one is basically a special trip that’s taking me out of my way. I try and only do that when I’ve got a boot full of donations, but charity shops can’t always take a lot at once right now.

It’s honestly a lot less effort for me to get to the nearest tip.

Hello Raspberry I thought you must have changed your name as I hadn't seen you around for a while. Hope your shop is doing well, ours is doing very well since we reopened .