Shop Charity in '23!

flamingo747

@Paspatur that's awful, isn't it?! 

Wednesday2000

Nice cupboard and coat!

I'm in more of the decluttering mindset for next year, but I will join the 2024 thread to see what you guys have found!

I'm sure I will buy things throughout the year from chazzers anyway.

DigForVictory

Some skillsets are hazardous. Himself was a gifted restorer of tools. We have a hammer trolley, several boxes of saws of varying sorts, all of impeccable quality, recovered from unloved rust. Chisels and screwdrivers so many that I just walk past them like so many wax flower arrangements. A windowsill & seat crammed with intriguing kitchenalia, mostly bottles - all containing chemicals that are not going to be easy to dispose of (where identified) let alone restored to safe use.
Could I have tried to keep him to "one in one out"? No. We had three sons, then two - who gets the lathe is open to negotiation but they also get to lug it down two flights of stairs. He might have sold a few duplicates but he'd have ended up having to keep accounts as he'd buy lumps of rust for pennies, soak them in solutions, rehandle them if needed & behold, another Lazarus job. (Research historians are fun to live with so long as you're not of a nervous disposition.) Just I can't tell you what half of the tools are, there are some specific to jewelers, to farriers, to a Victorian cooks. (For raspings - Mrs Beeton used them in her soup for benevolent purposes - I just thank any gods listening I am not expected to run a house where I cook in my laundry tub...)
The upside of all this is I will not be reverse shoplifting. Not least as I can barely lift much of it, let alone nonchalantly drop if off with a charity shop that can sell t shirts & earrings but a chisel is more of a mystery. (We bought their stray metal knitting needles - that couldn't be displayed lest some young person decide to take up criminal activity equipped from a chazzer. Any chisel would be hidden in the same crate & cause ongoing consternation, being sharp as well as bewildering. 
Happy hunting!

Brie

Friend has suggested a pilgrimage to a local chazzer that her OH refers to as the Harrod's of second hand shops".  Coffee and cake would be needed to get us through the experience no doubt.  No date yet set.  

(fyi - it's the Julia's House shop in Creekmoor)

Cherryfudge

@DigForVictory, I wouldn't suggest you donate any of the tools, as I expect they are too personal, but it gladdens my heart to hear of them being restored! A friend of ours is local rep for a charity that rehomes tools to areas of the world where they can be the foundation of a career for someone - whether chisels or sewing machines.

Often tools are another casualty of our throw-away society, but unwanted ones can still work for good. I often see old, rusty ones at car boot sales, but the older ones are generally strongly made and those I've inherited from my Dad are still good after many years.

Brie

@DigForVictory
Could you make it your sons' job to declutter the tools??  Take what they want, negotiating between them? 

And then getting them to dispose of what's unwanted?  Check if there's a charity workshop somewhere in your vicinity.  The group I work with has a carpentry workshop where they train the homeless and those in recovery to make things to sell to further support their work.  They are always on the look out for extra tools which they can either use in the shop or outfit one of their graduates so they can work independently.   (1) Facebook  

And if you look through some the more beautiful tools maybe there's some that would make a lovely display as a remembrance of your OH.  A zillion years back I had a boyfriend who used to pick up old tools from boot sales always looking out for things made of rosewood and brass - they were (unlike him) drop dead gorgeous and deserved to be on display rather than packed away.  Maybe some small items could go in a box frame to hang on the wall??

Rosa_Damascena

Paspatur said:

Not charity shops but I found this report fascinating, we seem to be filling the world up with cheap plastic clothes
https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Take-Back-Trickery-Compressed.pdf

^^I took the time to read this and find it shocking, thank you for posting @Paspatur . The sample size is tiny, but multiply this by what we are taking out of our cupboards and it's a multi-billion tonne problem  . I don't want to donate to a "recycling" scheme only for the garments to acquire a further carbon footprint and pollute the lives of others. What gives us the right to dump our trash elsewhere, surely this is something COP should have addressed by now?

@flamingo747 - I totally agree. We need to be aiming for a steady-state of growth, and instead of producing more stuff bridging the gap with green industries. The fashion industry needs to change its MO for a start! The real reason the UK is pushing for "growth" is to keep its place at the G8 table, it's about global influence and to hell with the environmental consequences.

I found this to be a good listen recently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001stxc . Each episode is only 15 mins long so it can be demolished alongside 1hr 15 of housework- but there are just 2 days left on the first episode so dive right in!

Paspatur

@Rosa_Damascena thank you for that, have listened to the 1st one and will definitely listen to the others

Miró

Toddling around Portsmouth today in a howling gale and sideways rain we were ‘forced’ to take shelter in various chazza shops.  Managed to find a pair of bottle green shoes that I have been looking for…M & S faux snakeskin but real leather…..£10. but b/n and just what I wanted 🤗

Wednesday2000

We went to meet my bro and GF today in Greenwich today. I stopped by the Traid charity shop in Lewisham first as I read it was a very nice shop. I bought a Snoopy Oodie from there and a black fleece top from Scope, I think.