Mind your clothes

Tallboy

I have a large bag of old clothes that I’m planning to drop off at the Mind shop at the top of SGR. I’ll probably have to wait until Saturday to catch the shop when it’s open. I shall not be dropping the bag outside of the closed shop because I can’t stand to see it being ripped open and rifled through by the “Mind thieves” who seem to stalk late at night over the weekend. If you leave clothes outside the Mind shop it is not likely to be there the next morning, but will be stolen by wretched parasites who don’t need the clothes, and probably sell them at one of their sad little car boot sales. So if you do want to give stuff to the Mind shop, please don’t just leave it outside of the closed shop.

JungleFaceJake

The 'Mind Theives' sounds very Orwellian..

But these people are scumbags..

I work for a large children's charity and we suffer when bags are left outside houses for pick up. The Naughty people often come and nick the bags before we have a chance to take them for sale.

The Baaaastaaards...

If you call Mind they may well have a pick up happening nearby and could arrange for your bag to be picked up too.

andy

It's also worth dropping them because Mind (among other charity shops) can now reclaim Gift Aid on your donations if you leave them your name and address.

lizbet

Most charity shops have signs outside asking you not to drop bags outside

ShaunG

Never leave bags outside - it always leads to this problem. Worth bearing in mind that there's a clothes drop-off bin (24 hours) at the Tollington crossroads opposite Nando's.

dorothy

A friend of mine runs a social research company. A while ago he did a piece of work for a national charity which has lots of charity shops. The survey was too assess the satisfaction of staff running the shops. The feedback was all good, but the really big thing the staff couldn't stand was the amount of stuff which had to be thrown away because they couldn't store it.

I've given masses to the Mind shop, probably several flat's worth over the years. They're always grateful, but if you look in that back room it's rammed. I'm not saying they chuck stuff, but you can buy clothes so cheaply now and a lot of people have a wardrobe with a really high turnover, no wonder it's a problem.

It's made me think of other ways of getting rid of old clothes.

andy

It's not just storage, it's resale quality. People bundle stuff up but don't sort it through. It actually has to be decent quality to make it to the shelves. However, the non-saleable stuff can go to rag merchants who buy it per tonne.

charlieboy

Is your bag of clothes full of decent stuff tallguy?

tosscat

@Dorothy - several flats? You could try buying less stuff.

Jenowl

Years ago you could get really good stuff in charity shops. Proper 'vintage' clothing - 60s dresses for a tenner, etc. Now they are mostly full of Peacocks and Primark stuff, often still with the tags on.

ADGS

And sometimes for more than Primark charge. I've also heard several very disturbing suggestions about Oxfam bookshops in particular, whether it be deliberately moving in on independent bookshops or deliberately junking whichever books don't fit the narrow selection of stuff they wish to sell (I've seen a sign in the basement of the Highgate Village one which went some way to confirming this).

Even in other charity shops, I do notice that the selection of books isn't what it was, increasingly favouring very modern books over anything unattractively old (ie potentially not the same stuff I could buy from a bookshop anyway). But then I suppose that could just be because anything out of print is probably worth putting on eBay or Marketplace.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

dorothy

Several flat's worth is a lot I know, tosscat, but after you've had a few relatives keel over one after another, it takes getting rid of stuff to a whole new level.

Philistine'sMonster

Tosscat -- less stuff? That should be fewer stuff. Few-er.

Coh.

Oh, hang on...

Marquis

It's obviously fewer stuffs, Philistine.

My rule of thumb is that the posher the area the better the charity shops. Have found great stuff/s in Hampstead and Highgate (both Oxfams I think), etc. But depends on what you're looking for, of course.

tosscat

The only way to make 'stuff' countable is 'stuffings', and I not going to tell Dorothy she needs fewer stuffings - that's too personal.

dorothy

Ooh la la!