No One Wants Your Used Clothes Anymore

I saw a news clip a few months ago that if you donate them to Goodwill, they'll take any clothing (even ripped/torn stuff), and what they can't sell, they ship to Asia to be recycled into insulation, stuffing for pillows/stuffed animals, etc.

I know both our local Sally Ann and the Bibles for Missions do that

I guess I'll just stop donating clothes.

That's where I buy my clothes. "I wear your grandpa's clothes / I look incredible..."

Picked one of these up just the other day at the thrift store.

Having worked in a thrift store you really wouldn�t believe what gets donated. Some of the clothes are so gross and damaged no one would want them for anything. Donation places had to find an alternative to garbage tipping fees would have killed their profit. People donate stuff that can be anything from really garbage to beautiful new clothes and everything in between.

One of the drivers opened one of the roadside bins and found a hamster cage completed with hamster. The hamster was alive he took it home to his kids. But he also said sometimes the would find kitchen garbage in the bins that would ruin everything in the bin

They get Leftovers from garage sales, midnight moves and estates. Some of it heartbreaking when you can tell the family historian has passed and we now have all the info including hydro paperwork for a home built in the early 1930. Cost of 4000. Plus the family recipes. I have some of the recipes some day I will scan them and put them on line for the world. Or the time I opened a suitcase and found someone�s important papers. Birth certificates, divorce decrees, child custody agreements, even SIN cards everything. More than enough to steal an identity. I spent hours trying to find the family. Finally called the school board and asked if they would forward it with the children�s school records as they would know where the children�s records went. I hope that they did. All the stuff was replaceable but the time effort and cost would have been high. I can�t even remember the number of times I stopped at the local cop shop on the way home to turn something in.

But with all that said the clothes they sell in the store is what keeps the store going. A large portion of the sale numbers every day is clothes. Any way i don�t think you should give up on donating. Just maybe be more aware of the organization and which ones are for profit or local projects. There are small usually church run places that give clothes etc directly to people who need them or a local woman�s shelter

Dropped some cardboard pieces that were too big to go in our pick-up bin off at the larger bins outside the grocery store yesterday. There's a Salvation Army donation bin there too. And of course the donation bin was surrounded by all sorts of obvious garbage that some geniuses must have figured "hey, someone can use these!". Typical torn and filthy stuffed animals and toddler toys that could only be described as "fecal". Old socks in an open box that was damp with snow-melt. A pile of old 1980's vintage baseboards, complete with nails still inserted. And, yes, three VCR's.

People are idiots. All that stuff should have gone right into the open dumpster that was all of fifty feet away. I have no idea why the donation outfits still have these drop-off bins when the condition of what they receive is so septic.

About 15 years ago Mrs. Bart had a passing fancy for estate sales until she found it to be incredibly depressing.

We attended one estate sale in the Land Park area in Sacramento and we were among the first people there. The woman running the sale was very hateful of her father who had been a US diplomat of some sort before WW2. I got to see his 'war room' with all of his mementos and pictures from the time and they included autographed pictures from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. He also had a set of Norman Rockwell's lithographs The Four Freedoms which were all four signed by Rockwell. There was a volume of Churchill's "The Second World War" signed by Churchill, a Nazi gorget that was made of gold and platinum, a Nazi Knights Cross with Diamonds, and assorted personal letters including one from President Lyndon Johnson to the woman's father.

She sold me the lot for $250 in cash.

The Hitler photograph sold for over $8,000.

The Mussolini picture sold for $1500.

The Rockwell lithographs we donated to the Norman Rockwell museum.

The Churchill books and the rest I still have.

...

Subsequently we attended a few more estate sales and noticed the recurring trend of ungrateful and spiteful children who hated their parents and saw a lifetime of treasures and memories as just so much trash.

That did it for both of us and we stopped going to these events. It was just too fucking depressing.

Oops. Zip beat me to it.

Keep in mind that a lot of parents have done a hell of a lot of horrible things and have absolutely earned the hatred their children have for them. Disposing of the so-called treasures might be their way of severing themselves entirely from too many horrible incidents in their past. It's part of the degraded nature of the human condition that more often than not kids are far more in peril from the people at home than they ever are from strangers on the street.

It is definitely depressing.

One of our regular customers actually bought a framed family picture of his family. While muttering about the step-monster. Ok he was much more polite than I would have been and just said �I see my stepmother has been cleaning again�. I don�t understand what harm it would have been to give pictures to a family member who wanted them but hard to tell from the outside looking in.

Not being a fan of my own parents I can appreciate what you just wrote. Thank you for your thoughtful perspective, I really appreciate it.

About 15 years ago Mrs. Bart had a passing fancy for estate sales until she found it to be incredibly depressing.

We attended one estate sale in the Land Park area in Sacramento and we were among the first people there. The woman running the sale was very hateful of her father who had been a US diplomat of some sort before WW2. I got to see his 'war room' with all of his mementos and pictures from the time and they included autographed pictures from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. He also had a set of Norman Rockwell's lithographs The Four Freedoms which were all four signed by Rockwell. There was a volume of Churchill's "The Second World War" signed by Churchill, a Nazi gorget that was made of gold and platinum, a Nazi Knights Cross with Diamonds, and assorted personal letters including one from President Lyndon Johnson to the woman's father.

She sold me the lot for $250 in cash.

The Hitler photograph sold for over $8,000.

The Mussolini picture sold for $1500.

The Rockwell lithographs we donated to the Norman Rockwell museum.

The Churchill books and the rest I still have.

...

Subsequently we attended a few more estate sales and noticed the recurring trend of ungrateful and spiteful children who hated their parents and saw a lifetime of treasures and memories as just so much trash.

That did it for both of us and we stopped going to these events. It was just too fucking depressing.

That was quite the treasure trove! Who did you sell the photos to if you don�t mind my asking ?