I’m having a clear out....with everything closed what should I do with my unwanted stuff?

[Jolie12345]

No charity shops open, I’m a bit rural for the likes of Olio, eBay is more hard work than I can deal with right now. Any idea what I can do with unwanted clothes, shoes, homeware, toys etc? The skip on the driveway is calling but it’s so wasteful

This seems like a worthwhile way to easily get rid of unwanted kids books

www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/13900322/support-books-for-kids-joy-reading-lockdown/

I've recently done the same (to make way for new baby!) and have had to be clever about it since the charity shops are shut. So I did a combo of:

• Giving away/selling on Gumtree. I've done this for years, never ceases to amaze me what people will take off your hands if it's free!

• eBay. But only if the price is right - check first the completed listings to see if it's worth your time/effort in listing, posting, etc)

• Music Magpie for books and DVDs. Got pittance for the stuff but didn't care, just wanted it out my house. I printed a label at home and arranged a Royal Mail collection, didn't even need to leave the house!

• Gave stuff away to friends and family

• Put clothes in a charity collection. We seem to get bags through our door all the time luckily, I used to bin them but it's been great during lockdown! I also recently discovered that the British Heart Foundation will allow you to post donations right now. You just box up your stuff, download and print a label and drop it off at a Collect + point (which is usually within a local shop)

I love having a clear out, and also not just throwing things away! I think I'm Marie Kondo ha ha! 🤣

Ok here's an example. I know you said you didn't do Facebook but it's often the quickest way.
Over the weekend we cleared and rearranged teenage DS room and found a lot of old books and toys.
After sorting we had
1 bag for life of literal rubbish, broken plastic items, pocket money tat, scribbled books etc. These have gone in the bin or paper recycling.
1 bag of clothes including school uniform
Box of hot wheels track and cars
Some toy dinosaurs
Box of cars and a playmat/storage box
Few dozen junior age books

It took 5 mins to photograph the toys/books on my ipad, list them as free to collect on our very local neighborhood Facebook group of about 4k members, it allows giveaways not selling. All were spoken for by the end of the day and being collected today. The clothes I'll fold up the good ones and hold until the schools/Cubs start again. I found one collectable item worth over £10 that I've listed on eBay.
Job done.

stealthninjamum posted an impressive list of sites for reusing and passing on here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4144854-Decluttering-one-item-a-day-and-having-nowhere-to-put-it-thread-number-16

I ended up putting lots of clothes in the clothes bank at the tip. But that gets recycled.

Toys to the local preschool.

Furniture- ginger bread or British heart foundation used to do collections for quality stuff.

@WouldBeGood

I’ve also worked in a charity shop so was more philosophical about just binning everything

Roughly, what percentage of donations gets sent to the tip?

Toys to the local preschool

I doubt they'd want them.

Even in normal times preschools tend to be well equipped.

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