What to do with items no wanted

aussie_in_wales

When I last moved I put items I no longer wanted outside my house, with notes on them. They were gone in an hour. I guess it depends on where you live but this could be an option?

Natbag

aussie_in_wales said:

When I last moved I put items I no longer wanted outside my house, with notes on them. They were gone in an hour. I guess it depends on where you live but this could be an option?

We've done that too with some stuff we were happy to give away for free, with a post on Facebook to let people know as well. It all went quite fast! A couple of bits didn't go, so they were added to the tip runs (pre-booked, as you can't just turn up at our local sites since Covid).

lookstraightahead

I'm worried about giving electrical items away as they are not pat tested 😂

sheramber

Piano= advertise free for spares or repair. Collection only
Electrical items- os there a local charity that gives goods to people who cannot afford to buy/ homeless who are setting up first  home. They will test before passing on.
Do your council collect unwanted items? Electrical items are recycled.
Table advertise free for upcycling. Collection only.
Wardrobe advertise free for collection.

badger09

British Heart Foundation will collect almost everything you don't want. Only exception I'm aware of are mattresses and chairs/sofa with no fire label. If you phone them, they'll tell you what day they collect from your area & arrange collection to suit you, or you can book online. We got them to collect several lots of furniture, crockery, linens, clothes etc before our recent move as I CBA trying to sell it all bit by bit.
https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-furniture-collection-near-me

Ashworks

We are posting loads of stuff on Freegle to give away, and selling higher value stuff on FB. Freegle is a brilliant thing!

zagubov

Freecycle area groups may overlap. I post onto three of them as they intersect around my location. Stuff gets grabbed immediately.
Don't take reusable stuff down the tip.
I remember when I had no need for my Dual CS505 turntable and when I gave it to the guy at the tip, I mentioned it was totally in working order and was high-quality for a vinyl player. As I drove away I glanced in my rear-view mirror and saw him forcibly cracking it against the skip to get the metal out of it.
Never again.

Murphybear

We had 2 small leather settees that we wanted to get rid of when moving and when mentioned this to the removal men one asked if he could have them.  Problem solved 

deannagone

badger09 said:

British Heart Foundation will collect almost everything you don't want. Only exception I'm aware of are mattresses and chairs/sofa with no fire label. If you phone them, they'll tell you what day they collect from your area & arrange collection to suit you, or you can book online. We got them to collect several lots of furniture, crockery, linens, clothes etc before our recent move as I CBA trying to sell it all bit by bit.
https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-furniture-collection-near-me

They don't, they are fairly picky, I had a very nice carved sideboard (two piece, real wood), they came round to look at it and rejected it because there were two tiny wear marks on it.  Said people wouldn't want it.

Nebulous2

We decluttered and cleared our loft during lockdown, when the charity shops were all closed. 
We put small stuff, such as board games outside with a sign saying free stuff - help yourself. 
Bigger items we sold, I prefer Gumtree, my wife Facebook marketplace, but both work and they were split roughly 50:50. 

In contrast to many of the posts above I've had a lot of issues giving stuff away. People say they want it, don't turn up, ask for additional photos, ask for measurements, ask me to deliver and generally question my motivation. Asking for a token amount is much more straightforward and generally faster. 

We had a dining table and 6 chairs. I posted the table for £15 and someone who paints and sells on furniture bought it that day. The chairs were offered free, had three different sets of interested people, sat for almost two weeks and on collection day the final prospect said he had hurt his leg and couldn't come, so they went to the skip.