What will a charity shop actually accept?

Charity shops pay to dispose of what they cannot sell, out of money that was meant for the charity. That is why the rules exist and why staff can seem particular. Knowing the real constraints, most of which are legal rather than fussy, means your donation raises money rather than costing it.

Step by step

1. Check upholstered items for the permanent fire label.Sofas, armchairs, mattresses, cushions, headboards and children's nursery furniture must carry the permanent fire-resistance label to be resold in the UK. No label means no sale, whatever the condition. Look under the seat cushions and along the base seams before you load the car.
2. Ask before taking any electrical item.Electricals must be tested before resale and only some branches have the equipment and the trained volunteer. Take the lead, the plug and any accessories, and ring first for anything larger than a kettle.
3. Do not take the categories that cannot be resold at all.Child car seats, cycle helmets, cot mattresses, medicines, opened cosmetics, pillows and duvets in many shops, gas appliances, and anything subject to a product recall. The reason is safety history that cannot be verified rather than snobbery.
4. Wash and check clothing first.Clean, dry, no stains, no missing buttons, no broken zips, no lingering smoke or damp smell. Shops cannot launder, and unsellable clothing goes into a rag bale worth a fraction of the shop price.
5. Check that games, sets and books are complete.A jigsaw with a missing piece, a board game without the dice, a book with pages out. Complete is the whole difference between a sale and a disposal cost.
6. Ring ahead for furniture and large items.Space is the binding constraint in most branches, and many do not take furniture at all. Some run a free collection service for larger donations, usually with a wait of a week or two.
7. Sign up for Gift Aid if you pay UK tax.The shop reclaims tax on the sale value of your donated goods, worth roughly a quarter on top, at no cost to you. It takes a couple of minutes once and then applies to everything you give that shop.
8. Never leave bags outside a closed shop.It is legally fly-tipping, the shop can be prosecuted or charged for clearing it, and rain destroys the goods overnight. Donation banks exist for out-of-hours giving; use those instead.
9. Consider specialist charities for specialist things.Tools, spectacles, bicycles, musical instruments, hearing aids, business clothing for interviews, school uniform and IT equipment all have charities that specifically want them and will get far more value from them than a general shop.

Tips

• Take furniture and household goods to a furniture reuse project rather than a high street shop. They are set up for it and often collect free.
• Ask which branch is short of what. Shops in the same charity move stock, but a branch that has just received forty coats genuinely cannot use yours this week.
• Sort into bags by category and label them. It saves volunteer time, which is the scarcest resource in the shop.
• Damaged textiles still have a home in a textile bank. Do not put them in the general bin because a charity shop said no.
• If an item might be worth real money — a designer bag, an antique, a collectable — say so at the counter. Most charities have a route for valuing and selling those properly.

Common mistakes

• Donating upholstered furniture with the label cut off — It cannot legally be resold, so the shop pays to dispose of a sofa. The label is what makes the difference between a donation and a bill.
• Using a charity shop as a disposal route for broken things — Every unsellable item costs the charity money out of funds meant for its actual purpose.
• Turning up with a car full of furniture unannounced — Most branches have no space and no lifting cover, and the answer will be no after you have done the loading.
• Skipping Gift Aid — It is free money for the charity and takes one form. Not signing up is the most common way donors leave value on the table.

Questions people ask