What do charity shops not want?

[Liveinthepresent]

Or do I leave it up to them to decide?
Am doing hasty decluttering before DC2 arrives.
Are shoes/ underwear / unopened toiletries a no no?

Anything broken or with missing parts. Anything else should be good especially clothes because they can sell them for rags

Shoes and unopened toiletries are fine.

I would say kids underwear fine and adults unused underwear fine unless it's something like vests.

I think most don't want video tapes now.

I mean that if it's something like vests it'd be fine if they're used.

But,as noisy says anything unsellable in the shop can go for rags,it seems.

Does depend on the shop, but, as long as it's not broken, then most shops like most stuff.
Yes to shoes.
Any clothes that are stained / bobbled / broken in some way I tend to bag up with a big label saying "rag man" as, each and every time I've asked, I've been told they are very happy to sell cloth by the weight to the ragman, so they would like it.
Some places tend to specialise in things like books.
Some will still take videos, but fewer now than still do.
Electrical stuff - will depend on the shop - a lot can't take but then some shops have an electrician test stuff, and do a thriving business with stuff like that,.

They don't usually take anything electrical, also video's.
Some of ours restrict intake of crockery, vases, pictures etc as not always space to display or store.
I think they are all different, maybe good to call and ask.
Several of ours do free pick ups as well, especially if you have several loads.

You can put used underwear or really old stuff in a bag for rags. They weigh them in for money and if you label them as rags they won't rifle through them.

Thanks all - as you can tell I am a novice at this - must do it more often!

That's interesting, I didn't know about the rags - I always filter out holey or stained clothes.

I like that they can sell old clothes by weight - it saves me having to decide whether to give something to the charity shop or not . I also like the idea of labelling old clothes as for the ragman actually, as I always feel a bit embarrassed in case they think that I think that they will sell them .

Not many people know that you can donate rags. My sister works for a local charity with around 15 shops. Last year they made £36k from rags!

Dirty rugs and carpets are not required - I was in the shop when staff unrolled one of these in really unbelievable condition, telling all customers that they had to pay to have these items taken away.
You wouldn't donate these and I wouldn't either, but somebody definitely did.

My local charity shop wouldn't take a childs bike seat (for the back of an adult's bike) or a woggle (those long polystyrene bendy things that kids learn to swim with) "because of health & safety" (I guess if they were in some way damaged and someone else used them and got injured.

Also, they wouldn't take an old tv with a VHS slot in it.

Once we tried to get rid of an armchair that was only a few years old to a furniture charity place and they wouldn't take it because we couldn't find a label to say it was inflammable (or whatever it is that shows it's safe).

What about soft toys, is there any scope for charity shops selling them? We're drowning in them and I'm too scarred by Toy Story to chuck them out!

I work for a charity that DO take broken electrical items as they strip them down and sell off all the bits they can so if you're in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire or North Essex and want to be rid of broken bits PM me please.

Didn't know that about rags. Was about to put some stained stuff in bin.

How does that work? I mean are they literally turned into rags? Or into stuffing for things?

All our charity shops take electrical things now.

They sell them too. They have someone who checks them over first.

Don't know how it works orderinformation but over the years I've checked with several different charity shops and they are all very happy to take them with stains or bobbles or broken zips or tears or whatever, so I guess they must pulp them in some way.

Some stuff that is trained or torn can still be sold secondhand in countries where there is a high demand for secondhand clothes, and where it's very easy to get clothes altered or use the material to make something else. Stuff that wouldn't be sellable is shredded and used as filler.

Here's Oxfam's list

Things like old towels, pillows and carpet are often welcome at animal shelters if the charity shop won't take them :)

Orderinformation sometimes rags are sold on as just that - my Dad used to buy bags of washed rag for cleaning up at his printing works.