A friendly plea to summer declutterers: give generously but think first, and don’t confuse an op shop for a landfill.
We call them op shops rather than charity shops in this part of the world, but – and this is important – it is so named for an opportunity being presented primarily to the purchaser. It’s also an opportunity for you to clear out some stuff, sure, and in doing so to contribute to a worthy cause. What it is not, or should not, be is an opportunity to dump all the shit you don’t want on someone else.
Sometimes that’s a literal worry. There are stories of op shop volunteers opening donated bags to discover bits of clothing with shit on them. But that’s at the extreme end. More often it’s figurative shit – the shit you don’t want and probably nobody does. None of which is to say that donations are to be discouraged. On the contrary – operators couldn’t be keener to praise the generosity of donors. Just remember that an op shop is not the same thing as a landfill. That misapprehension is illustrated nowhere better than the installation of cameras outside a small but growing number of shops expressly to discourage after-hours dumping.
It’s peak season for the SPCA network of op shops. “January is especially busy but any public or school holiday period sees a pickup in donations,” says Cathy Crichton, general manager of retail at the animal welfare charity. Her top-level message to donors: “The primary consideration is whether it’s of resellable quality.”
Over the years op shops have reported receiving unwelcome deposits ranging from stained undies to used sex toys but the more usual burden is grubby or worn-out clothing, and items like busted appliances or borer-gobbled furniture.
Most op shops will be delighted to welcome an in-person call and look at what you have to offer. What they tend to recoil at is stuff left outside the door out of hours. Sometimes that’s well intentioned; sometimes it’s really just flytipping. Either way, it’s a drag. “If it’s left outside it often just becomes landfill,” says Crichton. “It’s really not safe for volunteers to handle it.”
The op shop idea thrives in a virtuous, karmic cycle: you get rid of something you don’t need, someone else gets something they need, and the charitable intermediary puts the money raised to good purpose. That cycle doesn’t just fail when someone leaves something that can’t be onsold, it backfires fundamentally: the intermediary has to shoulder the price of disposing of the item.
For the SPCA, Crichton calculates that “wastage cost” as around $400,000 annually – dollars which could instead be going towards animal welfare. Before you leave waste outside an op-shop and scarper, whether it’s a bag of mouldy old rags or an “unsellable lounge suite”, engage your “social conscience”, she suggests. Otherwise, you just “shift the responsibility and the cost to the charity, and away from their primary purpose”.
There are some items that have health and safety implications. For example, gym equipment and babycare items such as car seats and push chairs require safety certification that SPCA can’t undertake. They do, however, have the ability to complete safety checks on household electrical devices – but please note that’s check them, not repair them. Crichton encourages donors to consider, too, whether anything might be seen by customers as culturally offensive.
It’s been a good summer in Riverton, says Annette Alexander, manager of the Community Op Shop on Palmerston Street. The population swells in the Riviera of the South at this time of year, and the shop has seen a good flow of donations and custom. “We get a lot of out of towners who have cribs here bringing stuff in after having a bit of a declutter,” she says.
Memorable donations in the last couple of days include a pair of ornamental owls and an antique pencil sharpener – all snapped up quickly. “We love decor type things – as long as it’s clean, and not chipped or broken.”
They, and op shops generally, don’t want your gruts, but the Riverton Community Op Shop will take socks in good, clean condition. You can leave them bras, too – these get channeled through a scheme that sorts and dispatches them to the Pacific.
The Riverton community is on the whole exemplary, she says, but there are times they are offered stuff that is closer to trash than treasure, “particularly when it comes to clothing – sometimes it looks like they’ve swept it up off the floor and chucked it in a bin bag.”
Vinnies op shops – operated by St Vincent de Paul – ask generous would-be donors to leave out of the bundle items including electric blankets, heaters, blinds and gas bottles. They would politely ask you not to bring in your beloved 70s (or other decade) waterbed, or slat bed, or any stained mattresses. It’s a no to car seats and cots that do not meet the NZ Safety Standards or are damaged or incomplete. Computers, printers and scanners aren’t accepted, because they tend not to sell; nor do analogue televisions. They have more advice online.
The Salvation Army’s policy, for its part, is to “gratefully accept all donations”. In an email, Gareth Marshall, national director of their Family Stores, says: “These contributions help fund vital Salvation Army services and provide affordable goods for the community. To make sure donations can be used and don’t get damaged by weather or other factors, we encourage people to drop items inside Family Stores during opening hours or call us to arrange a free collection, we’ll pick up any items, no matter how small.”
But if it’s possible to boil down the guidance across the op shop galaxy it’s this: to ensure that any donations are clean, safe, functional and fit for reuse. The test, as put by Crichton: “Is it of a quality that you could see yourself or a friend using it?” Don’t leave stuff outside a store – take it in during opening hours. And different shops have different needs – if you’re unsure, give them a call.
A final note: it’s not advisable to leave top secret documentation relating to national security at your local charity shop. Instead, kindly send it directly to me.
