When was the last time you donated to an op shop?

[Trillian]

I do it all the time. As soon as the kids have grown out of something I put it in the 'Vinnies' box that I have in my room LOL - it's a huge plastic tub that I am constantly putting outgrown clothes in because I do it as I fold the clothes - anything too small that I cannot pass on to anyone that I know goes into this box and as soon as I get a boxful it gets bagged up and taken to Vinnies. After the Black Saturday fires I got rid of a lot of stuff that we had that we didn't really need - pram, new doona and pillows that came with the kids beds and we didn't need so that was a great opportunity to have a huge clean out. I have also donated all the old baby toys to our local hospital's childrens ward. We just don't have the room to keep stuff now so it has to go. I don't have anything in my wardrobe now that I don't wear because it's all gone too. Same with household items - I got given box after box of crockery by my aunt and mum whenever they updated and it was all just here doing nothing and all that got taken in too.

[{sarah}]

Whenever I do a clearout of wardrobes & toys, so maybe 1-2 times a year.

[Rach75]

we had a huge declutter session here in sept we had sp much stuff local vinnies came round with a trailer to pick it up

[briggsy's girl]

haven't done much recently as we had a bit of a decluttering binge while i was pregnant and donated everything that wasn't tied down to the black saturday/salvo's collection. in the two months before that we'd donated 3 trailerloads of things. about 12 months before that we donated pretty much a house full of furniture (single/double/queen bed, kitchen setting, heaters, fans, fridge, lounge suite) to the salvos (not to the normal op shop - that went straight to the crisis centre for helping people escape abusive relationships).

before christmas 2008 there wasn't a week for about 2 months that we weren't dropping something at the salvos for their op shop. and everytime sil came out, we'd send something to st vinnies....

need to do another declutter soon - but i'm struggling to find time with an active little poppet!

ooh yeah, we sent cuttlery and crockery as well - and when our kitchen gets updated, there will be a set of pots and pans as we'll replace them with the ones that are packed away at the moment

[*Infinity*]

Probably 2-3 times a year, mainly clothes and some household stuff in good nick. We also make good use out of our second hand book store which is great. Take books in we don't want, get new ones!!! GOLD.

[Ellee05]

I always give "stuff" to the op shops. I prefer to take my stuff to another town if I have the choice. I hate seeing ungrateful "low lifes" (for want of a better word) wearing my good clothes. I do however love to see those who truely are unfortunate wearing my stuff. I used to be too embarressd to give things like bras but now if they're in good condition I give these too. I figure to somebody else they'll be nice too.

[widdly]

I constantly am giving to St Vinnies. Probably once a month I do a clean out, some times i end up with a boot load, sometimes just a small bag. The last time I did a Vinnie run was 2 weeks ago and I had more than a boot full. My skinny clothes, Archies clothes, toys, books, videos, picture frames and a bag of pantry food cause we are on a health kick.

I have a little bag of stuff ready to take down there next week too. We are moving towns in February so I think there will be several car loads going to Vinnies, DH is a hoarder and I cant stand having things laying around that dont get used

[mzcatieboo]

The community centre here in town run an OP shop. so we donated bulk clothes, toys and bedding. the bedding usually goes out to the aboriginal camps but thats why i donated so many...

Once DD room is set up we are gunna go through the rest of DS clothes i put aside for if DD was a boy. and take the rest down again.

my mum always does it, so does my aunty. they also go OP shopping alot aswell. my lil sister gets LOTS of awesome finds.

[tk1999]

We are in the process of doing one now... we are trying to fit our stuff into our 2br townhouse but we need more room so we are planning to move in the new year - so to save our moving costs we are decluttering now

We usually do a a goodwill giveaway twice or so a year.

[Anila]

I also donate food that I get in my Chrisco hampers

Me too, there is always a few items that we just dont eat in our hampers, so we pop them in the food drive bin as well!

[CrystalBoo]

I'm all for donating so people can buy things cheaper, but I watched a story once about op shop workers who go through and take most of the decent things out to sell for themselves on ebay, so now I'm a bit cynical..

Ok, so these people did pay for the items - absolute bargain prices, but then made heaps of profit. It irks me that people who need good quality things never got the chance to buy them at a discount price. That's the main reason I like to donate, after all.

It doesn't happen everywhere of course, but how can you tell?

[Oorki Galoorki]

a few months ago... but when we moved last year we donated 3 trailor loads of stuff(clothes furniture brick a brac)

most charities wont except electrical items any more though

[Nicambhar]

actually, I donated just yesterday. Put some old tupperware and a heap of Bella's clothes in the donation bin.
LOL, as I was putting the stuff in the bin a young girl come up and asked for a cigarette - what a cheek...

[MrsFabuloso]

I donate everything I don't want/need. No matter what it is, if someone else could get use out of it, I give it to charity. Unless I know a freind or family member would have use of it then I will give it to them, but otherwise it goes into a donations bin or to a charity.

[Lolli]

I donate whenever i do a declutter, so a few times a year. My local op shop is a Life line, and they used to be fantastic- I furnished most of my flat from there when i was a uni student and it cost me next to nothing (like, $4 for my coffee table, which lasted 7 years).

But these days, it is bleeping expensive. And they will only take goods that are of an 'almost new condition'. When I was moving, i tired to give them two lounges- both in great condition, but a few years old, and they didn't want them becuase they weren't new enough. Apparentley they run their shop as a business now, to fund their other projects, as not as a charity itself... Anyway, i sold the lounges for $100 each, so it was their loss

[Caramello]

When we moved 2 years ago, we did a huge number of runs to Salvos, Vinnies and the Smith family bins - so many I've blocked it out LOL.

Last Christmas I went through the Manchester cupboard and got rid of a huge number of sheets and towels that we'd had since our wedding and had not been used.

We regularly cull clothes from our wardrobe - actually the time is coming shortly to do another cull...

CrystalBoo - we were told the same thing too by our neighbour but DH and I decided that we were gaining good karma by giving things away and if someone wanted to steal/take something for less than its value, that was that person's lookout.

ETA actually this thread is very timely as they had a report on the news tonight about people dumping rubbish outside charity shops, as well as people going through anything thats left overnight and stealing it. We see it all the time outside our local Vinnies - usually clothes strewn from one side of the footpath to the other. Feel sorry for the workers having to continually sort through it. The charity shop suggested people donate during office hours to stop both of these problems.

[~Hestia~]

I hate waste so would much rather give it away than chuck it out. I'm always running off to our local op shop - they've gotten some pretty good stuff from us over the years!! It's just a church run one here.

they will only take goods that are of an 'almost new condition'. When I was moving, i tired to give them two lounges- both in great condition, but a few years old, and they didn't want them becuase they weren't new enough. Apparentley they run their shop as a business now, to fund their other projects, as not as a charity itself... Anyway, i sold the lounges for $100 each, so it was their loss

This reminds me of a friend of ours who rang a well known op shop with a bed. Mattress was in very good condition. But according to him they wouldn't accept the bed as the mattress wasn't brand new. Now obviously I wasn't there so have only got his side of the story. But who would donate a new bed?

[chody47]

I tend to donate whenever we move, which has been a lot in the past few years (5 times in the past 3 1/2 years) as I hate moving stuff we don't ever use

Once we finally settle down somewhere I'll have to organise cleanouts 1-2 times a year (although, with the rate I'm removing stuff we will probably have nothing left by then anyway lol)