Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Why is it so hard to give things away..?

My father died back in April, and I'm doing the house clearance thing.

Some of the stuff isn't rubbish, and we ALL acquire 'stuff' that's personal over the years, but I'm quite taken aback by charities reluctance to accept household items. I know they won't have things such as electrical items unless it's PAL certified, or seating without a fire label attached, but things like dining tables, chairs, nest of tables, bed frames etc etc.

British Heart Foundation (Northampton is local to us) spend far longer explaining what they won't accept than what they can, and as they're all volunteers trotting out the mantra, many aren't 'people' people and come across very abrasive. We've tried the local Air Ambulance (clothing only) but they get loads donated from Amazon to sell on these days. There's a local church based charity but it's a similar story there.

The moral is, do some life laundry before it overwhelms everyone..!

In the meantime, apart from the old lads clothes, the rest will sadly be skipped for landfill.

Sad isn't it..?

PS - I've not discovered his old 1928 Bentley in the barn, yet..

My sympathies Steve. We had exactly the same experience a few years ago. It really made us look at our stuff and make some hard decisions about what we keep for our kids to cope with when we're gone.
Nick

I've been going exactly through the same as yourself.
Luckily though I contacted Cancer Research the local branch and they put me in contact with the regional office and they sent a chap around in a Luton.
I boxed up the stuff and they collected over 20 boxes. They were telling me that because of Covid they had a massive backlog.

Steve, try searching for local housing support charities, they often accept furniture, by coincidence the Beeb has just shown someone who has benefited from such

Went through a very similar thing when we ‘de-cluttered’ before moving house. Also my late and very good Swedish buddy told me a story, don’t know if it’s true or just an illustration….

Someone had a surplus of apples from their garden so put a large box outside their house with a sign ‘Sweet Apples, please help yourself’. After 2 days they were all still there so the sign was changed to ‘Sweet Apes 1 Krona each’.

The next morning all apples had been taken but no money left. The moral is people will only bother if they think something is of value I guess?

BR
Colin

When i cleared my parents house nearly everything went to a womens refuge, the problem for charity shops is trying to sell whatever they take in

There's a trend round us to put stuff on the pavement.

I tried that with the mother in law but she kept coming back indoors..

My thoughts entirely, Jon. I sat & watched that article open mouthed this morning..!

Have decided to de-stress and walk away for now.

It's kettle time..

same experience here I'm afraid.

We tend to donate to the local hospice as a first choice but they can be very 'picky' with some items - I guess they are constrained by various regs....?

We had some luck in finding a local residential charity where e.g. homeless, ex-cons. ,etc. re-furb. e.g. furniture , etc. and then sell on.

In doing so, they generate a small surplus whilst learning some trade skills

James