Old Clothes

black-saturn

Have to agree with some of the above posters. I used to work in a charity shop and my mum works in one now and they throw loads of stuff away which hasn't even been looked at. As well as that the workers always get first pick out of the bags they do look at.

Have you thought about selling them on ebay?

GiveItBack

P'raps if one shop won't be able to take them, another in the area will? Or as black saturn said, you could sell them on ebay (and then donate the proceeds?) If you do donate the proceeds then the charity would be able to claim the tax back too, which only one that I know of can do through donated goods in shops (so far).

PS. Black saturn, you may not wish to name them here, but I'm interested to find out which charity's shops you mean, if you'd like to PM me, I'd be quite chuffed. if not, fair enough.

lamb7994

I know in the charity shops i work in all bage are emptied and sorted as you never know what you can find in them.
On the point of first picks by employees it does happen in some shops.
Not my shops but If you donate clothes to sue ryder they can now claim gift aid/tax back on them.

James

Angel777

What a massive shame that some of the stuff is thrown out!, when i have donated to charity shops it is purely to help that charity. If i sold the stuff on ebay i would probably be able to make some money and i think i will consider doing this and donating the money.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I stopped giving to shops I've seen throwing out saleable goods without at least reducing the price first, and sometimes without even offering it for sale at all. I was actually quite annoyed (as well as pleased) to find a pair of old coat hooks in the rubbish box outside my local Shelter shop. They were just what I'd been looking for, and they hadn't been on the shop shelves (at least not for more than a few days - I look in the shop at least once a week) yet I was denied the opportunity to buy them without first retrieving them from the bin, and the person who donated them had their generosity abused.
It still surprises me that most charity shops have no facilities for washing clothes, although even the smallest ones have an iron.
One of my favourite charity shops is tiny, so in order to shift most of their donations in time to make room for new stock they have to sell stuff cheap, and it does work. The vast majority of their clothes are only £1, paperback books are 30p, other stuff is also cheap. It's one of only 2 shops belonging to a local charity, so they can't shift unsold stock around various branches the way some charity shops do. I have an arrangement with them whereby I occasionaly sell some of their stock on eBay on a commission basis if it's unsold after a while in the shop and/or would make a lot more money on eBay, e.g. some '50s sewing patterns they were trying to sell for 10p each which had been lying around the shop unsold for a while made an average of about £4-5 each on ebay. I'm careful about what I give to that shop though, since I've seen some volunteers putting stuff straight in the bin because they think it's ugly and imagine it won't sell, without even giving it a chance.

1sue23

i work in a charity shop ,you should see the rubbish that we get,alot goes into skips because it is broken very dirty or just tat .We then get charged to dispose of it saves people going to the tip ,we once got a bag of old woodchip fresh of the walls also bags of dirty socks and pants any thing that can be saved goes to the rag man for which we get paid not alot is wasted we do our best to make money for our very just cause.

Guinea_2

Drinda wrote:

Hi, I am new to this site , but i would like to add my pennyworth.

I always took alsorts of items to the local heart foundation until I found that much of it goes straight out the back and into the skip, the bags were not even opened, a young man that works near the shop regularly helps himself from the skip, a lot of it is very good stuff, he then takes it to the boot sale on Sunday's and makes at least £300. He also makes up boxes of bric-a-brac and advertises in the local paper at £5 a time

another hospice shop puts it in a bin at the back of the shop where foreigners sort out what they want and leave the rest scatterd all over the pavement.

Now myself and freinds save our unwanted goods and hold garage sales and garden jumble sales in the summer and give the money to our chosen charities.

Sorry if you think I am a grump.
Drinda.

REALLY?! I have never heard of this before and has scared me TBH. I have always donated to charity shops and hope this has not happened to any of my stuff. Recently a lady that I know (helps in my class as an ex-pupil grandma helper!) who also does a couple of days in a local charity shop takes stuff from me and takes it to her place of work. She seems VERY grateful for all the stuff I give to her so I'm sure she'll be sad to know that this is happening.

GiveItBack

There are a huge amount of charity shops remember, so we can't assume that what has happened at a small number of shops happens at all of them.

lisyloo

I do the following with old stuff in this order

give away to family member/friend
If it is saleable then sell it on ebay or in "dress agency" shop
If not saleable but good condition then give to charity shop
Use freecycle
If not in good condition then put in recycling
If not suitable for recycling then bin it

If you have blankets/duvets to give away then the local dogs/cats home can make use of them.

I think some thought needs to be put into what is given to charity shops.
They are not a dumping ground for peoples rubbish.
I always ask myself "would someone want to buy this". If it's not realistically going to sell (even to the less well off) then it's unfair to dump it on a charity shop as it costs them money to dispose of things.

I think some people (like the wood chippings example) are dumping all their junk on a charity shops without giving it too much thought.

hum_lovely

My mother-in-law vounteers at a charity shop and she says the volume they get given allows that if anything is not up to scratch ie shirt sleeves rolled up when donated, not washed, creased etc, then they can afford tp just bag it up for the rag man who pays them £1 per bag. It has certainly made me be more careful about what I donate as I don't like to think of clothes being discarded when someone somewhere can re-use them. At the moment anything I would give to charity shops I donate to Aquabox which takes equipment to countries abroad like disaster and famine zones I believe. I don't think anyone in a tsunami-hit village for example would care whether it's not the current England football t-shirt whereas it might not sell in a charity shop!