Hi Doug.  A couple of my regular Op-shops occasionally put out "Not accepting goods" signs when they have no more storage room. 

Usually take them down within a couple of days.  Maybe that's the case here.

Cheers,

Sheba.

Dougwe wrote:

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BB, don't have a garage and live in a village. I will put out front and see what happens.

Sheba, They said they don't want anything as they are well off, read into that what you will I spose.

I feel like writing to the paper or similar.

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 Take it back to town and find an empty shop and put it all on the ground outside it and if anyone says anything about leaving it there while you are doing just say "I'm moving into the shop later and just need to go and get the key..lol.."

Hi Doug,the Star (Leongatha)newspaper has a free advertising section for items under $50.I have found a few items of interest in there.....cheers Peter

Thanks Peter will check it out, don't normally get the local papers.

It's not 'Strange Stuff' Marj, all good quality items and I tell you that for free.

I am heading up to Dandenong today so will take up there and see what happens. I would have preferred some local family could get use out of them though.

Oh well as I said, My days of giving money to charities are over as they obviously don't need it.

Are you able to have a garage sale Doug, or maybe try a market stall (or offer the goods to a market stall seller at a very cheap price).

When I have a single item I want to get rid of I put it on the verge outside (not officially) and it goes very quickly.

Does the village have a community centre, could you put it on their notice board or something?

 

All sorted.

I dropped them off in Dandenong as I was there today and they will be DONATED to fire victims of the recent fires.

Better result anyway.

Good onya Doug, some folks would have just dumped it in a park somewhere.

I think down your way the Salvos are church based and don't have the means to deal with too much stuff. In the burbs the Salvos have huge warehousing
and sorting staff as well as 23 trucks in Melbourne metro as well as 30 stores so they can handle donations easier.


Regards

Yes, we found that two local opp shops were not interested in a perfectly good lounge and abit of other stuff that we had to give away.  After other alternatives failed it ended up unfortunately going to the tip.  I've stopped making cash donations to some charities, very vague about where the money is actually going.  cheers   Capricorn

When we were trying to give away my late mothers furniture and house hold items we rung the Salvos,they wanted me to get boxes,pack all the items ,measure the volume of the boxes and furniture to the nearest cubic metre and get back to them.Not an easy thing to do at that time.   I guess they have to send out a truck large enough for the items ,but compassion ,understanding and courtesy wouldn't go astray. As we live on a major highway,I now put anything  we don't require on our nature strip with a sign free to good home and is gone in a few minutes. Cheers Peter

Perhaps you could try au.ziilch.com/Melbourne

I use the app on ipad. I live in woop woop, but for free, people will come. Gumtree is good too.

I've got rid of heaps of stuff on zilch, including rusty rotten metals!!!

Cheers,

MJ

pS..... Just read that you found a home for it anyway! 

-- Edited by MaryJane on Friday 14th of February 2014 07:09:02 PM

Here's an interesting one for Ya Dougwe,
Some years ago I ran my own Washing Machine repair business,
As things were pretty quiet I reconditioned washing machines and Driers but found that I couldn't get enough of them.

Just down the road, there was a huge Warehouse used by a Charity as a sorting area,
At the rear they had a very big yard full of (100's ) of Donated Washers and Driers

I made an appointment with the Manager and at this meeting I made this offer....
If they gave me the rights to these machines for reconditioning,
I in turn would supply their shops with guaranteed machines, "AT NO CHARGE TO THEM"

They were...... NOT INTERESTED,

Being left out in the rain, these machines were finally sent to land fill. !!
................................................................................................

A friend of mine had a beautiful cupboard he offered to a charity,
they came out and said they didn't want it as it was not modern enough !!!

He then placed it on the front lawn with a note on it saying "FREE",
it sat there for weeks and no one took it,
I suggested he place another sign on it saying.... FOR SALE $20,00
IT WAS STOLEN THAT NIGHT. 

I don't give to any Charity any longer either, they are only a money grabbing Business,

And I would also like to see their books.

kiwijims

Tomzys wrote:

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Never give to charity any more either. My wifes mother had to get rid of a few things when she was no longer able to stay in her home, so we rang the second hand joint in town to donate them, they came out to look and decided to take them, a dining set and bed, all looked like new condition, we went past that shop in the main street evry day and never seen it for sale, so we asked friends to go into shop to check it out , they did for 2 weeks and never saw them in there either so the friends went in asking if they had a dinning set available also queen bed, they said they hadn't had any for quite some time and if they left their number they would phone when any came in. From that day we wont give to Charity. I only have one guess where that went to, and the needy went without

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 I often wondered about that myself. We have bought some stuff at opp shops, during our travells, at bargain prices though. Things like jeans and jackets etc in good nick for $2 to $3. And while visiting my bro-in-law, who had a bad back and was sleeping in a recliner chair because he couldn't lay flat in a bed, we found a perfectly good electric adjustable bed for $50. The cheapest one we saw for sale anywhere was many hundreds of dollars, and not even in the same state.

In defence of op shops and the people who work in them....if you had to sort and sort until your feet were killing you, you would probably be hoping nothing ever got donated again.
BUT when I was an op shop sorter, we 'gratefully' accepted everything we were given with the people unaware that often we had to make big decisions as to whether we kept it. Storage space and selling space are the big factors. Also OP shops are not allowed to sell electrical stuff usually.

And unfortunately sometimes people donated what they couldn't be bothered to wash. We often found dirty nappies and dirty clothes. Red back spiders too. And one time, sedated kittens were miaowing when we went in after the weekend - and they had wet and that was all through the donated goods.

OP shops do need to be careful how they respond to donations. The one I worked in was run by volunteers and all monies went back into the community. Please don't tar all OP Shops with the same brush. And if you don't donate to the Salvos don't expect them to help you out in a disaster. (And no, I didn't work in a Salvos op shop but a small town one.)

Sorry you had a bad experience Dougwe.