Donations to Charity Shops

Ok, they are all screaming for donations of furniture and other saleable items, the charities.

The first two I contacted said they are still closed due to Covid. Ok. Understandable.

Refuweegie still has it's collective head up its collective backside and has closed one storefront and hasn't got another and nobody answers their email or phone. Ok. Not surprising with that bunch.

The next one made arrangements to come get our stuff yesterday. Except that instead of showing up, they phoned and said they actually didn't have anywhere to put it so they couldn't come get it. So then why the bleep did they book the collection?

The next one was really snippy, but said they could come next Friday. So that's booked.

As insurance, I contacted another one after the cancelled pickup call and they said they'd come get it today. What they did was send someone out to look at it to see if it was appropriate. The guy was very happy with it - "it's so clean and in such good shape!". He made an appointment to come pick it up Monday at 9:00am. Just called and moved that to Tuesday. Uh huh.... Ok, so if he hasn't come by Thursday hopefully the Friday one will actually show up and take it.

If I had the time and wanted to deal with the flakes on Gumtree I could try to sell this stuff, but I'd really rather it went to a charity. I'd prefer first that it went to a family that couldn't afford it, but none of those organizations will come get it because they haven't geared back up from the Covid lock yet. So a place that can sell it, then, and use the proceeds is the next best thing. So many places won't take "electricals" - hair dryers, lamps, slow-cookers, etc.  And thankfully we kept the "fire tags" on the couch otherwise nobody would take it. (I get that.)

What ever. I will just find it disgusting if I end up having to pay a house-clearer to come get stuff that some needy family could use if they could just get to it. But I'd rather pay a clearer than bin perfectly good items that are less than three years old. 

Do you have a neighbourhood FB group? We have two for things like this and the admins remove no-shows. One is called People help the People, and the other is something like Don't Bin It. It could be worth a look to see if there's anything similar. We've donated old electricals and furniture we had no space for to people getting their first apartment and such.

Direct donations also go to people who need it and/or will love it.  Charities almost always just sell it. 

There is one charity - run by the Glasgow Housing Association - that I had always planned the stuff would go to. They clean it up as needed and put it in low-income flats for people who otherwise would have no furniture. They are, unfortunately, still not accepting donations.

If the one doesn't show on Tuesday and the backup flakes on Friday as well, we'll try the "direct" option if there is one here. I really don't want to bin this stuff.

Bless them, they phoned to let us know they were coming, showed up on time, and got the stuff out in a half-hour. Brought enough crew to manage the big wardrobe, too. (Thank God - they had to manhandle it down three flights of stairs! I felt sooo bad for them.)

So yes, the Princess of Wales Hospice Charity shop actually shows up as promised. 

Really glad to hear it! One less stressful thing to deal with now.