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

Growing up, stuff used to be important because it was expensive and difficult to get.

Over the last 40 years I've seen the value of anything used drop, most has fallen to virtually zero as almost everything is cheap and easy to replace, perhaps functionally, but not aesthetically.

Most of my workshop is populated with stuff that I value, but in the cold light of day, is worthless: nails are a case in point, as are slotted head screws. Dad left me boxes, I sorted them, put them in trays and there they sat for 20 years. If I needed a screw I bought modern ones with cross head, Torx or allen head...so all the old ones have gone as scrap.

Same with furniture: my neighbour does house clearances: dark (mahogany) furniture from the 1900s used to have value, now it is junk. He said recently we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I understand...

Information is the same: before the internet information and knowledge had value, today it is almost worthless.

Might I suggest that you all move to France? Emmaus here will take it all: used hankies, used knickers, bras, microwaves, toys, horrible furniture.

Brown furniture worthless but strangely, teak furniture (and pianos) was worthless for last 30 years now escalating madly in price. Presumably just a matter of waiting till brown comes round again..?

Oh our 1976 Macintosh unit is teak!!!

You're a millionaire Dave!

When I inherited my father-in-law's workshop, one of my most treasured discoveries was his stock of proper brass slot-headed screws. Solid top-quality brass, not the ridiculous nonsense you get in DIY stores these days. Over the years, the stock is slowly dwindling, but each use for one has to earn its right to be worthy of one of the screws, invariably in hardwood. Each hole carefully pile-drilled in two stages, countersunk, and the screw coated in beeswax before insertion.

Yes the house clearance route can be beneficial even if they given you a pittance in general terms. The issue with sentimental value needs to be managed sadly.

Most of the charities will not take furniture without the appropriate fire retardant markings, electrics without PAC testing labels (available on RS Components and Amazon etc) and so on making it ever more difficult. MiL was moved from a home to a flat for her last years and the work to reduce her belongings prior to the move was a serious effort. Even using a rental van to go to the dump was a swine of paperwork and questions. So much for embracing recycling.

MiL is stage 4 now so not looking forward to having to do the same at some point soon. Just keep enough to make the house look staged and not empty I guess.

I still have two boxes of Dad's RAF stuff that needs sorting and has done for a long time. Some wonderful photographs.

it is a sobering moment when a charity shop rejects a prized item as it "just won't sell".

We have a pretty active Freecycle community here in Surrey and many of our redundant pieces of furniture have gone through that service. I was especially chastened by the lack of interest in some expensive office furniture brought down from London to our home office and moved on when I closed it down. It eventually went to a business start up.