To think a skip is easier than the general fucking public

[bussteward]

I’m on a major declutter and obviously can give bags of things to charities – but the ones near me are small and can’t accept limitless donations or certain items, eg opened bags of nappies, boring baby things like mountains of vests, or “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” type stuff. Fine.

But JFC trying to give stuff away via Olio/Freecycle/Marketplace etc is a full-time job dealing with the hard of thinking. No matter how clear the ad stating the pick-up times available – and Olio even has a rule you’re supposed to mention a time in your first message – you get conversations that go:

Available?
Yes, until 1pm today or I can be around any time tomorrow if you let me know when so I don’t have to wait in all day.
OK, this afternoon.
As the ad states, I can’t do after 1pm today. Please let me know a time that suits you tomorrow.
Tomorrow afternoon.
OK, I’m not going to wait in all afternoon: so let’s say 3pm.
::tumbleweed silence::

It’s like pulling teeth.

Then there was the woman who did specify a time, forgot to come, rearranged, messaged once she was an hour late to say her car had broken down, never confirmed a new time then turned up randomly three weeks later when the item had long gone trying to give me a box of cat food. I do not have a cat.

Every pick up time comes and goes without a ring on the doorbell, then the message comes: just waiting for my partner to come home with the car then I’ll set off. OK?! But you said 9am and it’s now 9.30 and you’ve not set off, so that’s an entirely different time and I have plans.

Obviously I am not going to throw everything in a skip or set fire to it all but it would be easier. Can’t put it all out the front with a sign saying “free” because it’s constantly pouring down. Can’t specify “no fucking idiots, what’s wrong with you people” on the ad. I don’t have an AIBU because I’m NOT unreasonable: it is the people who are unreasonable, aren’t they?

Yes, why do they all come in clown cars? My favourite was the woman who came for a giant chest of drawers in her two-seater convertible.

Thank you all for the laughs and the tips – I think I’m probably too accommodating and need to start leaving stuff wrapped on the porch. I don’t care if someone nicks it if it’s gone!

I have a box of stuff I need to get rid of that I’m avoiding for this precise reason….

That made me laugh, what a cheek 🤣
Yes of course you were going to give away your brand new dog bowls bought especially for your aging dog - what an idiot!

I hope your dog is doing OK!

DF once tried to give away an exercise bike - he had a message from someone asking if he could bring it to their house so they could look at it before they decided if they wanted it!!

We've got a recycle shed at the tip that you can leave almost anything in and it gets swooped on.

I've also told people I'll leave something on the drive for them if we can't agree a time.

But yes, it's a pain in the arse.

I did this when I moved out of my flat. It was gone within minutes. Great for stuff no one would travel for like wooden coat hangers!

Times like this I'm bloody grateful to live in quite a poor area. Anything we want to get rid of that's in good condition - pop it outside and it's gone in a few hours.

Shelves, an office chair, a bread maker, garden equipment, all happily taken by the neighbours recently (decluttering pre move).

Our best one was a man collecting a single bed base. He turned up in possibly the smallest car I've ever seen, and it was like an episode of Mr Bean watching him trying to fit it in.

He gave up in the end, having bashed the wood to bits and tried to ask for his money back. I then stood having a 15 minute debate over £20 and the fact that he'd broken it ..... so he drove off like Lewis Hamilton in his cosy coupe car and said he'd be back with a van. Never saw him again.

Are you’re happy for your children to inherit it?

I just have a car boot sale now and again. I usually sell most of the stuff and come home quids in.

That's hilarious

Nah it's a total pain. I'm in another country and recently had to cart off some fairly decent furniture to the tip because after a month of trying I couldn't manage to get rid of it on facebook marketplace. People were constantly messaging then disappearing. Not showing up to appointments to collect and so on and so forth, and asking if I could deliver it to wherever, miles away. Well no, as I only have a small car and it wouldn't fit. I had to dismantle everything and take it to the tip in several journeys.
Yes, I would much rather it went to a good home but it had to go so new furniture could come in and in the country I'm in there are no projects in my area which collect furniture to help set up disadvantaged people in flats etc.
I'm from the NE of England originally and there are a lot of projects there which I used when needed to get rid of stuff which was still usable.

I’m having issues but the other way. Some
sellers reading my messages trying to arrange a time to pay/collect but then ignoring me and not responding. When a seller was confronted she said she didn’t have to explain herself… 🤦🏼‍♀️

I agree OP ! I advertised sofa and armchairs free on marketplace thinking it would be a quick way of getting rid of decent furniture! Clean ,only three years old and not even remotely shabby.
Had two weeks of complete time wasters chopping and changing their times,dates to collect etc and ne trying to work out who out of the 4-5 people were genuine.
Gave up I the end ,no charities free to collect for 2-3 months .
Husband chopped up the furniture and we took it to our local bonfire on fireworks day !

I get this. I moved house last year and tried giving lots of things away on a FB local freebie site. Some people were good, others came out with every excuse why they hadn't turned up - dog died, I had a medical emergency, I'm out for tea with the kids etc. Because I was flitting between two houses it was really difficult to wait in. Either that, or they'd say yes to a large item like a bed, without thinking about how they'd collect it.

I offered a bundle of faux flowers on Freecycle. Got a message asking could I deliver them to where she works…… errr no.

No which is why I give as much away as possible rather than throwing it away (while also limiting consumption in general and especially of new goods).

In the immortal words of Satre, 'hell is other people'. And they do seem to be worse when being given items for free than they do when expected to pay for them. One-liner responses to offered items reading 'Mine' are so ill-mannered yet seem to be par for the course on sites like Facebook.

I've been asked, politely, if a passer-by could take something out of a skip I had in front of the house. I happily consented. On another occasion I've refused an item to someone who attempted to steal it when they weren't aware I was there, telling them I'd have given it to them if they'd asked. I got a mouthful of abuse, but from the kind of people who think stealing is a-okay, I would expect no better.

I'd bag the whole lot up and donate it to the Reuse Shop at your local tip. That way the items still go to those who want them, and you're spared the necessity of dealing with the kind of entitled, ill-mannered gits you complain about, OP.

Maybe I'm turning into an old curmudgeon. But nothing could persuade me to behave in such a rude manner - it's completely unnecessary - or to claim an automatic entitlement to take, use, or abuse the property of others.

This site reeks of that kind of attitude these days. Look no further than the shit dumped in other people's wheelie-bins thread ...

https://www.tiktok.com/@chriswguerraa*?t=8antjOKu0BS&&_r=1

Check out this guy on TikTok - comedy sketches based on actual conversations between sellers and fuckwit buyers on Marketplace. Hilarious.

This is brilliant! Did they reply??

I had a bizarre one once. I was selling a buggy travel system for a tenner on Facebook Marketplace and had a response asking if it would take the weight of an adult and then asking me to sit in it to test it out!

I was clearing out my mums house after she died, we were still in lockdown and the charity shops were closed. I skipped 99% of it but got rid of a few bits on FB marketplace for free, things like bundles of books, suitcases etc. Because it was during covid I told everyone that was coming to pick something up I would leave it on the doorstep for the agreed collection time. They all turned up to collect as agreed, but all but one, knocked on the door asking me if the item on the door step, with their name on it, was theirs 😫

Twats. Every single one of them.

I feel your pain - we'll be in that situ again come simmer and im dreading it!

i think yiure def best to charge even if its a small amount.

last time i do a big free stuff thibg, i had one couple come - she was lovely, no idea how she ended up with him except obviously an arranged marriage. Anyways, tgey took a double bed, so curtains and I'd put a paintbrush on my paint tin to touch up places once the place was clear in another room. The hubby wanders into the next room, comes back asts if the paintbrush was going free, wtaf!

We had little in the house, so no security issue, but I was flabbergasted!

The last thing I offered was collected at 10.30 pm. I'd said I'd leave it in a 'hiding place' outside by the doorstep but he banged on the door. He was also rude and told me he needed more than one.

Omg the OP and the Chanandler bong thing have made my day 😂👌🏼

Agree. Have sold online for years, EBay, Marketplace, Vinted

All full of crazies, time wasters etc.

I think the cat food lady is a new low though!