money for nothing - chucking stuff away

[Misthios]

I do like crafty stuff and upcycling and all that sort of thing and like seeing what people do with things on Money for Nothing.

Today's show - woman pitches up with one of those massive Ikea bags of fabric and a huge cardboard box packed with buttons. Presenter obviously swoops on her and takes it all away to use.

Asks the woman why she is throwing away so much fabric/buttons. Answer - I didn't know what to do with it. SERIOUSLY?? If you don't want to take it to a charity shop, any school, nursery, Brownies/Cubs, afterschool club etc etc would chew your arm off for a donation like that.

I'm not sure whether it's that people are just too stupid to think of anything other than chucking it away, or too lazy to send an email or pick up the phone. Also not sure which of the two case scenarios is worse.

My DF was at the tip about 2 months ago and he saw a member of tip staff climbing into the paper skip and retrieving about 30 paperbacks - all fiction. He told DF he was going to take them to the charity shop.. CS would probably get £20-40 for them, depending on which one tip guy donates them to etc.

Some charity shops need to get a reality check. Saw in one last year, a guide book to Yugoslavia! WTF? Most under 30 would not know about Yugoslavia. When people did go to Yugoslavia on holidays, its more likely they went to the now Croatia.

We’ve pretty much kitted our house out from the local tip. My dh is manager there.

We’ve had rugs in brand new conditions, solid oak furniture, brand new laundry detergent and stuff like that.

it’s mental

We’ve also been able to give my dd an iPhone 12….no cracked screen or breaks anywhere, completely unlocked.

When my late DGM went into a care home for the last 14 months of her life, my parents and aunt cleared out her bungalow which was a housing assoc/council one. My aunt was for chucking all the food out - tins, packs, jars when it was still usable. My parents took the food and used it. Things that either them or myself don't eat - tinned salmon (typical old dear food) and a few other bits - I took them to the food bank bin at my work.

Almost forgot my dh’s favourite find. A shark hoover in almost brand new condition. He loves that hoover

Many years ago Misthios, the local tip had an area where you could put out/rummage treasures! I 'scored' a water feature, ercol chair frame, a beautiful huge mirror as well as little finds!
Sadly no longer allowed, maybe health & safety?
Sometimes I came home with more in the boot than I took

Totally agree with you @Misthios , i just watched it too and thought the same thing.

I had the same dining table that was on the show, it also had a couple of extra leaves so could seat 12 - I sold mine 😁 I don't get why you would take it to the tip.

Also, as someone who sews, chucking fabric and buttons, well that was just shocking. It did make me wonder whether I should start making dog bandanas though. 😅

I agree that giving perfectly good things away is a lot harder than it ought to be. We recently suffered several family bereavements and donating their goods and chattels was a full time job, involving much frustration, for months.

It honestly wouldn’t occur to me that a school or nursery would want a bag of fabric and buttons from a stranger. I’d have assumed they usually have specific art projects on the curriculum which they organise materials for and nowhere to store superfluous stuff which isn’t going to be used any time soon.

Having volunteered in one charity shop doesn’t give you any insight into what other charity shops do and don’t accept as donations. I’ve given up with them, following several occasions of having called in advance to ask if they accept X, Y, Z only to be told, after carting it up, that actually the manager has said they don’t or they’re not accepting anything today.

I sell what I can on Vinted. DH got made redundant a while back, so we need every penny we can get! Most clothes, some books & toys, few other bits. I try FB & Gumtree to sell bigger items. It can take a while, couple of months maybe, but it's successful around half the time.

Other than that, anything we don't want that is still useable, we put at the end of our drive. Most stuff goes eventually. We also get stuff from other people's drives - a nice footstool, an office chair for DS1's & a set of shelves we are using as a shoe rack, recently! It's a great way to recycle.

Sometimes you just don't want the hassle of trying to sell/donate every single thing. I am in the process of clearing out a house - it is extremely time consuming. A lot of stuff has gone to charity shops. This means a trip down to my parents house, collecting items, filling my car and then bringing it all back to my house in order to take it to the charity shops. The charity shops down there don't have any parking nearby.

I have given some bits to local cafes such as china etc. If it is the recycling centre I think it is they have a great shop where stuff that is too good to chuck can go. She was having a good look at my embroidered tablecloths but couldn't think of anything to do with them.

There's a charity shop about 15 miles from me and they have little drawers and baskets full of buttons, bits of wool, zips, fabric, thread etc. A great treasure throve for anyone into crafting.

There's a village about 6 miles from me that does a massive yarn bomb event in the summer and there's about 50-60 big displays, on a theme and dotted about, mostly in the village centre and a few more dotted about. They will take donations of yarn, even a small amount as they use a lot of bunting made from knitted/crocheted bits and pom poms hanging in trees.

I think when you're overwhelmed with time constraints, lots of stuff to declutter etc, it's tough to make good decisions on every item. We do have a doorstep giveaway in my village once a month where you can just pop stuff on the pavement and people can pick it up as they walk past. I've given a few bits away that way and I'm sure something like fabric would be snapped up.

I have discovered Anglo collections also - you register online and they come round your area once a month ish and collect bags of clothes/toys/electrical goods etc from your doorstep. They aren't a charity but do donate to charity (you can choose from about 4) and it's worth it for me to know that not too much will end up in landfill. They also took away hundreds of boxes of books (sample copies) from my previous work place which was amazing.

It’s definitely worthwhile, but not everyone has the ability to. I have adhd, and getting rid of things is a mammoth task. Emailing, dealing with people, selling it, putting it online, all add to the cognitive load of the task and mean that I never get rid of the stuff.

I only managed to declutter my own home when I gave myself permission to throw stuff out.

Asks the woman why she is throwing away so much fabric/buttons. Answer - I didn't know what to do with it. SERIOUSLY?!

But she did do something with it, she brought it to them. She could have just chucked them in her wheely bin.

I've not seen the show, so I may be missing the point.

I'm not sure whether it's that people are just too stupid to think of anything other than chucking it away, or too lazy to send an email or pick up the phone. Also not sure which of the two case scenarios is worse.

I have ADHD procrastination, I put things in my car to donate and they sit in there for months. It's not laziness, I work full time, I'm a carer, take care of my family.

I got some really decent stuff on Freegle (fabrics, clothes, furniture) that I then upcycle/use for craft projects.

I have a few time wasters selling things on Facebook Marketplace though but I have sold some unwanted stuff.

I also donate things like clothes/shoes/books to charity shops.

Ziffit is great for books. They come and collect too.

I don't think people's first thought is the landfill. It's actually incredibly difficult to get rid of things that you no longer need in some places. People have small homes and no space for stuff and need to get rid quickly so they can get on with their very busy life.

I had a toddler bed that had been used for a couple of years and was immaculate. It was only a cheap Ikea one. I took the wooden frame and slats to the "too good to tip section" at our "recycling centre" and actually got shouted at pretty aggressively: WE DON'T WANT THAT. So I put it in the wood recycling.

Haven't you seen the threads on here where people do freecycling or similar and the person doesn't turn up when the poster is waiting in, or demands delivery 20 miles away, or is just ridiculously rude: "MINE"? It's more trouble than it's worth in many cases.

People would probably give stuff if there was a quick way to match up donations with people who want them. But in reality, there isn't. It isn't as simple as making a phone call. It's a right pain in the arse and takes time and effort that people can't afford. So they put stuff in the landfill.

There are plenty of schools who wouldn't take random bags of fabric. Someone would have to go through it and no member of staff has the time for that.

It really isn't as simple as you think. People aren't lazy or stupid, they're just very busy and have had enough of wading through treacle just to get rid of stuff. So they landfill it, understandably.

I think most people get to the point where they are desperate for space and breathing room. That box of fabric and buttons won't be the only thing being taken to the tip, it will be part of a larger clear out and the only bit you saw on TV. Often these people are hoarders or clutter collectors at least and need to get things gone instead is sitting on them until they get around to taking it to where it can be donated or listing items and trying to sell them. It's not laziness it's literally because otherwise they will end up keeping it because the volume of items they have is too overwhelming to do anything with other than discard. Convincing people that trash is treasure only stands to enforce hoarder mindsets and can really ruin your quality of life. Let people throw their junk away guilt free.

Sorry I’m going to have to say you ABU. My dear departed mum was a quilter. She had two double wardrobes full to the brim of fabrics and all the rest of the gubbins. I contacted numerous organisations far and wide, and none of them wanted it.

I was so upset that all my mums treasure was likely going to landfill. She would have been sad about that.

We did manage eventually to get a crafting charity to take the stuff, but it wasn’t easy. The poor woman who picked it up only had a small car, but we squeezed it in somehow. was so relieved that it was going to good use, and with only 3 days to spare before house completion.

So no, it’s not a two minute task in my experience.

Never give good stuff away for free. If you put a realistic but lower end price on you have much less trouble. Also why not just get rid in one go. It involves much less hassle. Or if you want to let it go separately you need to make separate listings. You are deliberately making your life harder by trying to stipulate they can only have 1 thing.

This! We are having a big clear out at the moment and honestly it's a nightmare trying to pass on stuff, even good quality.

There used to be a big distribution centre for a local charity near us, and you could just take everything along, but they closed down during Covid unfortunately. The people at the shop, which is still there, said that people are giving away so much stuff atm charity shops are swamped, it's just too expensive to process and sort all the stuff they are given.

Near us the nicest and most receptive shop is Oxfam, but you have to do donations a bit at a time. Another shop treated us as if we were trying to give them leprosy.

I've cleared out my parents and inlaws houses and had to get rid of tons of stuff. The only things I couldn't get rid of on freecycle and local facebook buy/sell pages, at the gate, to charity shops and via the scrap metal man were ancient old stained mattresses.

The appalling crap people will come to collect if it's free is astonishing. Charge a £1 and nobody comes - offer it free and they'll snatch your arm off.

It's definitely worth trying to get rid of stuff.

A friend of mine refuses to throw anything away. An admirable aim. However, whenever she declutters (which is often, as she also acquires a lot of stuff she can't bear to see being thrown away by others), between posting on FB/freecycle etc, getting frustrated when people don't collect and having to do it all again, numerous charity shop trips, and trying to pass stuff on to friends who don't want it, this all takes a huge toll on her well being.

So whilst I agree we should all do a better job of trying not to just throw stuff away, there is a flip side. I guess it's key to only buy what you need/can use but that's not always straightforward either.