Rallying call to save Royal British Legion clubs
- Today's leader
Letter: People in need are far too fussy over furniture
Tuesday 12th October 2010, 8:42AM BST.
The kitchen is well-designed and spacious with granite work tops, hand-made wooden furniture and an electric three oven Aga. And, no, we haven't got it in black. Do you want jam on it as well?
Letter: No wonder people are in debt or are they just fussy? My mother recently passed away and left a three-bedroom house in Telford full of decent furniture. No, it wasn’t antique, and no it wasn’t smack up-to-date modern either, but it was good quality and well looked after.
Having no need for this ourselves we decided to give it to charity – well, what a job that was. My brothers rang several places and three people came, took one look at it and asked for £200 to take it away, saying no-one wanted “that kind of stuff”. That kind of stuff being a dining room set, beds and bedroom furniture, coffee tables etc.
Simply, it was quoted that “it is so easy for people to get up-to-date modern stuff on credit that there is no call for second hand furniture”.
Pieces of useful equipment like a stair lift and a good quality electric bed, 12 months old, no-one wanted. Surely some poor soul would have been glad of it, but no go.
Consequently, all items were removed and deposited at the local dump.
What a sad state of affairs when one would rather go into debt than accept good quality second hand furniture only being disposed of because it was no longer needed.
Are charities getting choosey as well? Pride comes before a fall.
Claire Hughes
Canada
Sponsored Links
Most Commented
- Shropshire Council will face £8m redundancy bill
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Gosh
That doesn’t happen here in South Shropshire where the South Shropshire Furniture Scheme runs a wonderful collection and distribution service. http://www.furniturescheme.co.uk/
Is there no Telford equivalent?
Report abuse
Telford has Chairs and Spares who collect for free. Bridgnorth has BDFS CIC who collect from Telford for £15 per van load … check our website http://www.bdfs.org.uk we would have happily helped
Report abuse
Did the lady ask a house clearance business or a charity? and charity’s do not take everything . It sounds to me like they approached a house clearance business and it is true people will not pay for 2nd hand modern rubbish because in most cases that is what it is. antiques/collectables or modern well made ie “solid” not mdf or flat pack they would have been given or offered a fair price. However from experience many people phone up house clearance firms and expect them to pay for rubbish , or take away their rubbish for free WHY???.
Report abuse
Andrew – I think you’ve missed the point of this letter! It says “charity” not “clearance” quite clearly in the letter.
“from experience many people phone up house clearance firms and expect them to pay for rubbish”… do you run a clearance firm then?
Report abuse
Yes to your one question I would also add I was unaware charities took away rubbish and charged £200 after a quick look not many charities promote that fact and where are their licence details.
Report abuse
Andrew – Thanks for answering my question but what else are you rambling on about – did you even read the letter above – who said anything about rubbish?
Report abuse
If it is not wanted by the charity shops and nobody would pay for it, and the driver for the charity shop said they would take it away for a cost of £200 because it is not worth anything then they are removing rubbish, if not what are they doing with it?? either the driver was telling porkies and was either going to sell it plus gain £200 in the process or he was going to dump it at a refuse plant hence he would need a licence if he is offering that service to the public.
Report abuse
Re Andybodders query … yes there is (or at least was) a similar scheme in Telford. I presume it is still there – Chairs and Spares – behind the council depot by Asda Donnington.
Not sure if it is Council run or a separate charity but they take in and re-distribute furniture to people in need.
Although I have to say re the original letter, I’ve had similar difficulties recently trying to donate good quality, good condition items to charity shops.
A certain very well known un-named charity from ‘Oxfordshire’ insisted I would have to come back when the manager was there so they could inspect what i had and choose what they wanted !!!!
All I can say is that everything I donate now goes to Severn Hospice or Katherine House shops who are always very grateful.
Report abuse
In my experience a lot of charities won’t accept soft furnishings unless they have the appropriate fire stickers. I recently had to give away through Freecycle a perfectly good suite because some newer suites now have ‘tags’ attached and no permanant fire precautions. I also had some perfectly good solid pine wardrobes, but because of ‘Health and Safety’ and the wardrobes weight, they would not take them.
Report abuse
Was Freecycle considered?
But I do agree that people claiming to be without money seem to get along more than OK!
Report abuse
I was thinki9ng as reading this was Freegle or Re use it not considered myself to.
There is loads of people out there looking for furniture of all descriptions and if its free they are more than welcome to take it as they are desperate needs for it.
Report abuse
Why don’t you try putting it on Freecycle there are plenty of them within our area and people would come and collect it and save it from going in our landfill. come on Shropshire Freecycle your unwanted items.
Report abuse
I don’t see why it should be expected that charity shops will take ANYTHING. They have a problem with space, and they also have to pay just as much as any other business to have their rubbish disposed of. So, if they believe that their customers wouldn’t want to buy it, they will be severely out of pocket to transport it and then get rid of it.
Report abuse
You obviously didn’t try very hard to pass it on (or it was not very desirable). I recently sold my house was in a similar position to yourself, I had no problem what so ever finding a new home, passing some on to friends and family with the rest going on Freecycle. I must have had at least 5 requests for each item on freecycle – a great place.
Report abuse
The problem is the good old Elfin Safety people.
Second hand electrical good (like electgric beds) are often not wanted due to people thinking the law says they are to be considered as dangerous unless they come with a costly certificate.
And several people I know who sell second hand furniture always have a call for good second hand furniture. Sometimes an item of stock comes in and goes out within the hour.
Clearly someone did not ask the right people or did not ask hard enough.
Report abuse
I gave up on freecycle – I got fed up of people coming on asking for stuff free, but being extremely picky about what they would take. I also don’t fancy the idea of a lot of strangers coming to my house.
Anybody wanting to give items to charity should try the Oxfam shops – they have told me they waste absolutely nothing, even worthless clothes are reclaimed as ‘rags’.
Report abuse
Worthless clothes?
Oxfam etc. make a fortune out of rags. Check this website.
http://www.letsrecycle.com/prices/textiles/
Report abuse
Very gullible Kath all the major charities make money for staff and bosses first then expect others to volunteer and give time items for free and they are picky ,yep gullible general public.
Report abuse
I think the problem is finding the people that want the furniture rather than the furniture not being of any use… i.e. there are various reuse websites / initiatives like EcoBees.com that specialise in finding new homes for furniture and other things that are no longer wanted. If any other readers find themselves in a similar situation then I would suggest they post their items on http://www.EcoBees.com rather than dump it!
Report abuse
BDFS CIC in Bridgnorth collect from Telford area for £15 for a van load … Google us. In Telford there is Chairs and Spares who collect for free. The FRN website puts you in touch with local furniture schemes who are happy to collect furniture. BDFS would have been happy to help.
Report abuse
I fully agree with all this, i was at the tip the other day and people chuck all sorts into the skips, at least its in the wood skip for recycling but you can see some of the cupbaords, shelves and things going in there were perfectly reusable, the council should get more value from it my recovering the better items some how and maybe even pulling stuff out of the general rubbish skips if its got some scrap value
Report abuse
oh and i saw some one put a BIKE in the scrap metal, honest a whole fully working bike, can you beleive it? people have more money than sense
to be fair to worcestershire CC (who i always slag off) their tip is good though, better than the Shrewsbury tip which is always queing traffic
Report abuse
“Consequently, all items were removed and deposited at the local dump.”
What an idiot. A bit of research could have avoided this (see above answers…no need to repeat.)
Report abuse
I think that with a little hunting on the internet you could have got a charity to have taken it. Sounds like one company came round and that option was suddenly taken. There are places which take unwanted furniture all over the country. We have a fantastic on in aberdeen which I have used to buy and also donate furniture to.
Report abuse