Some of the more observant of you will have noticed that I didn't do a post for The Gallery this week. It was about time I skipped one. I have to admit, I did feel a bit twitchy.
Another thing that's been making me twitchy these past couple of weeks is the fact that my parents have been away on holiday so I've been unable to volunteer for Save The Children. For those of you who don't know, I volunteer in one of their shops one day a week and I love it!
So, what I can do to address the balance is blog about donating to charity shops and Save The Children.
One thing I've learnt from volunteering is that we do welcome all donations. I know some people won't donate damaged clothes or clothes that are unsuitable for resale but others do.
I would urge you to donate all your clothing items to charity.
Yes, all of them.
Basically we can sell items that aren't suitable for resale straight to a 'rag man' who will pay us by the kilo for the clothing or fabric. The shop can make a few hundred pounds a month just from old rags!
What is helpful to charity shops though, is if you separate these items into a different bag and mark them clearly as rags as it will save volunteers having to sift through them. Just check with your local shop that they do sell to the rag man.
I feel extremely passionate about Save The Children and you can read all about my journey by clicking here.
At the moment there's a crisis in East Africa. Severe drought has struck and millions of children are dying through starvation - the UN are saying that this is the worst drought in 60 years. No child should be born to die.
Read more about the appeal here and please spend a minute to watch the video below.
Please, I urge you to help in any way you can. If you can't afford to donate cash right now then spend an hour or so going through your home this weekend and donating some clothes and bric a brac to your local Save The Children shop.
Don't forget the rags!
21 comments:
Good for you! I'd love to volunteer if I had the time. I used to love going to the cat and dog home when I was younger and my Gran used to make blankets for them and we'd take some food down and old newspaper. I've got a whole load of stuff for the charity shops too but I've found that they have so much stock here they are refusing the stuff!
Thanks :) I try and blog about STC once a month but missed last month due to my holiday and other pressures. Just check with your local charity shop if they do accept rags but I'm sure they will do. It's something I never realised until I started working there x
Great advice about the rags: I tended to throw them in the bin. I won't in future x
Found your post via twitter and thought I'd drop in and say what a great post. I'm always donating old clothes to charity but I didn't know about the rag man - I will definitely keep that in mind when I have future sort outs.
My work here is done :)
Just check with them that they sell to the rag man but I know we do and we make quite a bit from it so it's worth knowing.
Thanks Laura :) Awww that sounds lovely. Cats and dogs homes definitely need blankets and old newspaper. That must have been fab doing that when you were younger.
Heather, good for you, thanks for highlighting this issue - I didn't realize that about clothes/rags, so will be much more proactive about that in the future for sure. Actually, I think most of my clothes are now rags, so perhaps time to take most of my house down to the STC shop...
I'm so proud to be [virtual] friends with you. Your work and awareness for Save The Children is fantastic and I hope they appreciate you for it.
I didn't know that charity shops accept rags. I throw away a silly amount of stained or slightly ripped clothes but will now save them and give them to charity (if the shop I donate to accepts, if not I'll find one that does!)
Well done you xxx
Great post Heather and so lovely to know how passionate you are about it. I would never think to put rags in either (thinking they might be horrified by what I have put in there!) but it's good to know that some money can be made out of it for the good of the shop :-) xx
Have given 7 bags to charity just this last week Heather. It is so worthwhile and easy once you get going.
Mich x
I didn't know about the rag man either! I will most certainly have a rummage around, I'm sure I could easily fill a bag to donate.
It's such a tragedy, what is happening to the poor children affected by drought in East Africa.
I think people who work in charity shops as volunteers often get overlooked because it's not as high profile as other campaigning or fundraising roles, but without the likes of you so generously giving their time each and every week the shops wouldn't be able to run. It is such a wonderful and selfless thing to do. xXx
Funnily enough I always have a charity bag on the go and I put a few out this morning which Sense failed to collect which is pretty annoying.
I do find it so much easier if they collect as in our town there is no parking and with the twins it becomes quite impossible to walk with heavy bags.
Great post - shame there are people stealing the charity bags in this neck of the woods though
Tsk! Stealing the bags....that's just rotten. Mind you, it doesn't surprise me much...did you see this I posted in March?
http://sahmlovingit.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-can-these-people-sleep-at-night.html
"without the likes of you so generously giving their time each and every week the shops wouldn't be able to run" < thank you SO much for this hun xx
That's great Mich. I took 3 huge bags of stuff into work today and every week I'm finding more and more stuff to give x
Thanks Hannah. I am so passionate about it - I can't begin to describe just how much I love it xx
"I'm so proud to be [virtual] friends with you." You made me well up a bit when I read this the other day Lauren. MwaH xxx
Yeah I have lots of rags hanging up in my wardrobes... I think it just naturally happens when you become a mum.
This is great to know (about the rags) because I have often binned things that I deem to be too 'done' for the charity shops and it's a great idea to separate them into different bags to help the volunteers. Glad you are still enjoying your volunteering, I remember you posting when you first started and it's great to see that you have kept it up and are still loving your work for them. x
this is a great post. Also very helpful I sometimes hesitate to put the really old stuff thinking no one would want it but now I will put it in a rag bag for them. Well done you on the volunteering x
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