Dumping rubbish on charities

us apparently a bigger problem over the holiday season - or so the article in this morning's paper would have us believe.

In the course of clearing this house and property we have had to give away a good many things. Some has gone to family and more to friends but a great deal has gone to charity. 

Giving it to charity has not been easy. It has not been simply a matter of throwing it in a car and dropping it off.  I know it could have been but I also know enough about how these places operate to know that this is not the way to do it .

Charities want clean and useable items. They want things which really are good enough to sell.

A good deal of my clothing comes from the local charity shop. I am all too well aware that what there are things on the racks which are new or almost new. Someone will have bought something as a gift but, for some reason, the recipient does not want it. There are also things which someone has bought and then decided they do not like. It might have been worn once. Occasionally items are donated from shops and still have tags on them. Bargains can be found.

Those bargains sit among a great deal of clothing I would not give to anyone. I know most of it will eventually go to "rubbish". The charity will pay to dump it. They will need the space. 

Knowing they did not have the space we put furniture we could not use out on the verge during the day. This is not something the council likes people to do at all. We put a note on each item saying it was free but it would be taken in during the evening if nobody took it. We never had to take anything in but would have done so if necessary. I would have preferred it to go to the local charity shops but it just was not possible. 

Taking items to "the dump" can only be done at certain times and it is expensive to do it. Many people see no reason to do this. They resent paying more on top of the rates. I can quite understand that - especially when stories come out about money being wasted by the council on some very frivolous things. It is little wonder that people then see the local charities as a dumping ground.

 Yesterday I put some unwanted boxes out on the verge intending to flatten them and put them in the recycle bin. I went back to get two more and found someone looking at them. He looked at me as I came out.

"Don't you want these?"

"No, you're welcome to them."

"Great, I'll just go and grab the car. Don't let anyone else nab them will you?"

I thought it was unlikely. He was back about five minutes later and filled his vehicle with boxes.

"I work at ....., " he told me and named one of the local charity shops, "We can use them to pack some of the unwanted stuff people give us."  

Almost anything is useful to someone - but it has to be in the right place and at the right time.