Thrift Store Employees Explain What They Wish People Would Stop Donating
Another's man's trash is not always another man's treasure.
Instead of just throwing things away, donating the stuff that you don't want anymore sounds like a generous and sustainable option. You might figure, if you had use for it then someone else must, too.
But some people's donations do more harm than good. If you're trying to get rid of something because it's now in poor quality, then it won't be good enough for someone new to use either.
Redditer u/Indianfattie asked Goodwill employees the things that they wished people wouldn't donate to the store, and thrift store workers informed everyone what items are useless and what will probably go straight into the garbage.
20. Books that lost their hype factor
"Not Goodwill, but in, Wales, a charity bookstore asked people to stop donating the Da Vinci Code because they were getting so many copies."
18. Just throw it out yourself
"Hey, Salvation Army here. Socks that aren't new in a package go straight into the garbage. Also, don't put knives or stemware into bags of clothing. Stemware usually breaks and turns into knives. Happy meal toys are trash. Parents of young children, please throw all those cheapie toys away rather than stuffing them randomly into a bag of clothing."
17. Exotic dancer clothing is not welcome
"I volunteered as a teen. I had to sort the clothes and learned a LOT about what strippers and dancers wear. We couldn't sell any of it, and my virgin eyes were shocked every time I pulled a g-string out of a bag."
16. They can't even consider selling them
"Something I haven't seen mentioned is bean/plastic pellet filled toys. If it's not stuffing, it's a choking hazard and a safety risk for young children so most op-shops/charity stores/Goodwills are required to dispose of them."
15. Sketchy...
"One time a guy donated 6 kidneys in the time of one month under the same name(dumbass) got arrested 3 weeks later"
14. A good way to judge what you're donating
"Not a worker but I've always heard that you should only donate stuff you would feel OK giving to a friend. Nothing damaged or non functional, no clothes with holes or tears, etc."
13. It should be obvious to not donate infested stuff
"former goodwill employee here and where do i begin?
bug-infested furniture... if you need to get rid of it then take it to a landfill and dispose of it properly! goodwill has no use for your roaches and bed bugs...
dirty clothing, when donating clothes to goodwill make sure they're clean first, goodwill doesn't wash the clothes that are donated to them.
garbage, items that are clearly broken... they're not a dump, just... throw it away
i kid you not someone once donated homework, it was graded and everything... why?"
12. I guess it can be dangerous for people with allergies
"My local Goodwill turned down our working, electric lounger because we have a dog and the hair was stuck to the bottom of the legs. So no furniture with ANY pet fur!"
11. 11. Don't ever dump animals anywhere but an open animal shelter
Giphy"Kittens
It's heartbreaking every time"
10. Watch how you store things!
"I almost had a serious injury when one donor wrapped up blades from a blender in a towel and dumped them in a bag full of clothes. Please don't do that."
"One of the girls at the thrift store I work at had to get stitches because some jerk threw steak knives in the bottom of a trash bag of clothing."
9. I hate to see vintage furniture go to waste
"Cleaning out my senior parents' place we tried to donate a very expensive built in tv stand made of oak. Turns out flat screens don't fit in them and they never get sold."
8. Trash literature is trash
"I remember a while ago I saw a side news story covering how a bunch of charity places were asking people to stop donating book copies of Fifty Shades of Grey. I seem to recall one store had enough copies they made a book fort out of them."
7. This isn't a dumpster
"I haven't worked there in over a decade, but: garbage. People would dump bags and bags of garbage in front of the store overnight, and I mean stuff that no reasonable person would ever consider to be anything but garbage.
Busted up concrete. Rusty metal. Basically stuff they didn't want to pay to have hauled away, and couldn't be bothered to take all the way to the dump."
6. Who lied to me and told me they wash the stuff!?
Giphy"Don't donate unwashed clothes. You know the stank that most Goodwill stores have? They don't wash donations before putting them out. They just go straight on the racks.
Don't donate any clothing that's stained or has holes in it. These items don't sell and will likely be thrown out. Don't donate used socks or underwear. Don't donate worn out shoes, smelly shoes, or solo shoes."
5. Maybe a collector on eBay would want that
"Decades old encyclopedias missing a volume or two..."
4. Check the dates!
Giphy"I volunteer with a local food pantry. Please don't donate literal garbage. Nobody wants your decade-expired dry cake mix."
3. Check your pockets
"We call them charity shops in the UK, I'm guessing it's the same deal. If you're donating anything with pockets PLEASE take a second to remove your used tissues, it grosses us out. We don't want anything that's broken or doesn't work. We don't want Christmas decorations before Novemberish, we don't have a lot of storage space to keep them for 8 months. We don't want your underpants or socks"
2. Pay attention to what you're donating
Folks, go through your stuff before you donate - I once found a memorial album someone had made for a woman who had died, and another time I found an old friendship book full of names and addresses. Really made me wonder what the people who worked in the charity shop were thinking.
1. Seriously, pay attention!
"Someone accidentally donated an urn, complete with cremated ashes."
Thrift Store Employees Share The Saddest Things People Have Ever Donated
Thrift stores abound with killer clothes that only exist in that one place, a strange amount of used electronics, and extremely cheap ways to outfit your entire kitchen with silverware, mugs, pots, and pans.
But the whole time you're there you feel a keen sense that most of the items around you have been neglected in an attic for the last two decades and dusted off very recently.
Usually, that's no big deal. But sometimes things that old and given away are given away for a reason.
u/NormalBlogTM asked, "Charity shop volunteers of Reddit, what's the worst/saddest thing your shop has been donated?"
Discount Haunting
A local woman with young kids died of cancer, so her husband donated all her clothes to the shop. The shop then did the worst thing it could, and dressed all the mannequins in the window in her clothes. Her kids had to walk past the shop displaying their dead Mum's clothes to get to school every day.
Not the Intended Recipient
A teddy bear with a pre-recorded message telling someone that they love them and hope they get better.
GiphyWhen an Object is a Portal
An elderly man came in one day and donated his and his wife's wedding rings. He told me he had worn her ring on a chain around his neck since she died nearly 20 years earlier. They had no children and he didn't date again. He had finally decided to donate their rings because he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a few days before. Safe to say, I had to take my lunch break early and have a cry in the staff kitchen.
Not a Ton of Resale Value
The thing that stuck out the most to me was a set of Crocheted woman's underwear
GiphyNot Joking, An Absolute Tragedy
the shop I used to volunteer in got a dead cat in one of the bags once. They figured it must have climbed into one of the big donation bins for clothes and not been able to get out
Someone is Out Here Lying About Medals They Never Earned
I found a set of military medals from the second world war in one of our local charity shops before.
Bought them and spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the owner or their relatives to return them but so far no luck.
Haste Makes Waste
At one point, my mom asked my dad to drop a garage bag of old clothes off at Goodwill. So he grabbed a bag and off he went. When he got there, he realized that he had actually brought a dead raccoon that she had put in a separate bag for some reason.
A True Antique
One day while sorting through donations, she came across a slim leather case, which she described as "very handsome." She thought perhaps it contained valuable jewelry or maybe a collector's knife. Opening it revealed an odd contraption made of rubber tubing and metal valves. Perplexed, she took it to her supervisor, who happened to be a Catholic nun.
Turns out it was a 1930s penis inflation device designed for "marital difficulties and impotency." My friend said they got a hefty price for it on eBay.
GiphyNo Respect
I donated all my fat clothes including a shirt I loved and had for many years. My clothes went like hot cakes which was bittersweet except for my favorite shirt which nobody appeared to want. Finally a guy took it and was using it as his rag to wipe his hands and nose while he ate. That pulled a few heart strings.
Gay Man Has Spent The Last Three Years Dressing As Mike Pence To Collect Donations For Progressive Organizations
Mike Pence isn't seen as an incredibly tolerant figure in the world of politics...unless you visit the version of him that often strolls through Times Square, collecting money for various charities like Planned Parenthood.
If you've encountered the Times Square Pence, you likely won't forget it.
Not only is he more open and loving than his White House counterpart, he also happens to wear short shorts.
This is Mike Hot-Pence.
Mike Hot-Pence, embodied by 51-year-old graphic designer Glen Pannell, burst into public view after being photographed and profiled by Howard Sherman in 2016.
Sherman is a blogger who takes photos of Times Square performers and shares their stories online.
Pannell spoke with Buzzfeed about how, following the 2016 election, he felt he needed to do something. That's when he decided to take advantage of something many friends had surely commented on: his resemblance to the new Vice President.
He commented:
"The depression kept feeding on itself so I finally decided I had to do something, and it had to be bold and immediate, something I could point to at the end of the day and say, 'Here's what I did to make change.'"
Hot-Pence has already collected tens of thousands of dollars for "Planned Parenthood, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Trevor Project."
Pannell's alter-ego is also active on Twitter, where you can follow the account @MikeHotPence for updates on how our spiritual VP is doing.
Pannell noted a spike in his popularity again in December 2019.
Pannell made it clear this activity was more than just a hobby.
"These are all groups and causes that suffered when Pence was in office, so I worry about them in the next few years under a Trump-Pence administration."
Since Pannell has a full time job, Hot-Pence can only be found during the weekends, and will hope to find an indoor place to operate as the weather gets colder in NYC.
Pannell is confident, however, that his silly work is making a real difference.
"People want to give and they want to talk. I'm 51. I never expect anything I do to go viral online. I do understand why people respond to it. It's funny, and it's hopeful, and people need that right now."
There's only one thing left to say: Mike Hot-Pence 2020.
Thrift stores are kind of a catch-all for all the unwanted stuff that people don't know what to do with.
This can lead to some very interesting finds for the person processing those donations.
Reddit user u/throwaway_ghast asked:
"Goodwill/thrift shop workers, what are some of the strangest things you've found in the donations?"