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

[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?

[Mother Goose]

Actually, I have 3 bags of clothes downstairs waiting to go at the moment. And I am working on a bag of toys (I'm slowly sifting through DD's toys). Plus all the kitchen stuff... I do donate on a regular basis

[Astrid]

Bag of clothes waiting in the boot here. Did a huge cull just before we left Melbourne. When it was still open we gave anything usable to the local Reuse Shop at the tip.

[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)