From Clothes to Electronics: Where to Donate Your Unwanted Items

Introduction – From Clothes to Electronics: Where to Donate Your Unwanted Items

You have decluttered your house and done a spring clear. You are now left with bin bags and boxes of unwanted clutter in your home that is too good for you to recycle or throw away. Don’t just leave it in your hallway to gather dust. Instead, sell or donate it to give it a new lease on Life.

Below I will give you ten places that take your unwanted items. Many of my tips are UK-centric as this is where Life Organised is based, but similar services exist elsewhere in the world.

Charity Shops

There are 11,000 charity shops in the UK dotted throughout the high streets of local towns and cities. Most of these shops are great for picking up bargains and donating unwanted items to a good cause. These charities support different causes, such as research into cancer or Mental health.

Most charity shops will take clothing, books, cutlery and toys, but not all shops take all items. If you wish to donate furniture, check out the British Heart Foundation, and if you have old electronics in good working order, Sue Ryder is your place.

Most people won’t even have to look far to find their local charity shop, but if you are looking for something specific or are new to the area, check out the link below to find your nearest charity shop.

Gumtree

My next tip for removing unwanted items after a clearout is Gumtree. Gumtree is the UK’s first online platform, founded in 2000 by two friends. They aimed to have an online website where people settling into a new house or city could find anything they might need at an affordable price and from a local seller.

According to their Facebook page, their motto is as follows:

At Gumtree, we help make ‘Good Finds’ happen as we believe everything can find new purpose. From great deals that save you a few extra pounds, to finding a buyer who will enjoy something as much as you did. Good for your pocket & the planet

According to their website, Gumtree has 9.2m unique visitors per month and reaches 18% of the online adult population. With 770m page views monthly, Gumtree is a great way to sell or give away unwanted items.

The Freecycle Network

The Freecycle Network, Freecycle for short, is a private, non-profit organisation founded in 2003 and registered in Arizona.

Freecycle coordinates a worldwide network of groups to divert reusable goods from landfills and give them a new lease on Life. It provides an online register for local groups where people can advertise their unwanted goods for someone locally to reuse them.

Joining the Freecycle Network is entirely free, and one of the stipulations is that everything advertised on their website is entirely free.

Facebook Market Place

I am sure most of you will be on Facebook, the online social media platform owned by the American company Meta Platforms. In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg and friends from Harvard founded Facebook to connect people online.

Some of you might be unable to give away stuff for free and want to make some money. Facebook Market Place is an excellent place to advertise unwanted items, especially as Facebook has 2.94 billion monthly active users as of March 2022.

eBay

eBay is another excellent way of discarding unwanted items and making cash from them.

It is an American e-commerce company founded in 1995 in San Jose, California. eBay facilitates sales through its website, both consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer.

The website is free for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for listing items and an additional fee when items are sold.

In addition to eBay’s original auction-style sales, you can now buy stuff instantly without an auction.

Friends

Friends, relatives and colleagues are another great way of discarding unwanted items. Books you have read and enjoyed but might not want to read again are great for passing on. So are children’s toys and clothes that your offspring might have outgrown.

Little Free Library

Little Free Libraries exist in many towns and cities worldwide and are an excellent way to give your books a new lease of Life by letting someone else read them.

There are over 150,000+ libraries in 110+ countries. According to the Little Free Library website, their mission is to be a catalyst for inspiring readers:

Our mission is to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Libraries.

Our vision is a Little Free Library in every community and a book for every reader. We believe all people are empowered when the opportunity to discover a personally relevant book to read is not limited by time, space, or privilege.

They aim to provide 24/7 book access, especially in high-need areas. They further aim to champion diverse books and foster the creation of new libraries.

Clothing Banks

Clothing banks or clothing bins are containers dotted around many cities worldwide where people can place old clothing that they wish to donate to a charity.

Traid and the Salvation Army are popular providers of clothing banks within the UK.

Ziffit

Ziffit is a website where you can make money by selling books. It aims to be part of the circular economy, and they sell or recycles all items. They believe that books should be read multiple times:

We believe that no book should only be read once or have a single owner; this forms the basis of everything we do.

All you need to do to use the service is to scan a barcode through an app, Ziffit will give you a price, and you send off the items.

Car boot Sale

The final option to eliminate unwanted items is participating in a car boot sale. Car boot sales are a type of market where people sell unwanted items from the back of their cars. They are very popular in the UK. For a list of car boot sales in London, click here.

Conclusion – From Clothes to Electronics: Where to Donate Your Unwanted Items

I hope the above has given you some idea of what to do with your decluttered items. If you need further help, please get in touch.