Wednesday 25 August 2010

Fabulous Things About England #20: Charity Bags

In England, many charities have charity shops on the high streets. They are what you might expect of a Salvation Army or Deseret Industries thrift store. Common ones in Bath include Oxfam, Dorothy House Hospice, and Julian House. Dot House and Julian House are both local charities.

Many of the charities will pick up large (both in quantity and size) donations by request, but they also put these bags through people's doors. They're large bin (trash) bags, usually with the charity's name on. You then leave the full bags outside your house on the designated day ready to pick up. It's a system that works really well. You do have to be careful to check that you're giving to a charity as there are a few questionable companies around who give the impression of being charities, take you donations, and then sell your clothing at a premium rate abroad.

4 comments:

  1. Nice! That's a really good system... It seems like no matter what I do I always have several sacks of clothing for good will lurking around... This is something they should definitely implement in the states.

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  2. What a great idea! I think the burden of taking your stuff to a shop in the middle of the day is what stops people from donating more. I would think this solves much of that hesitation. Love it!

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  3. Similar to AmVets here in the states and the Boy Scouts drop bags for food around the holidays!

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  4. I'd completely forgotten about AmVets. The postal service did a food collection when I lived up in Fairbanks. You don't see big food drives here. I suspect that this is to do with a social care system that works much better (but not necessarily well) than the one in the states. I'll have to find out.

    Yes, I tend to have bags ready to go, but I never seem to make it onto the bus with them. This is just laziness as a local charity shop is just round the corner from where my bus stops in town.

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