Charity shop/good cause that wants building materials?

I'm just about finished on a self-build, and have some left-over building materials.

Previously I've used Freecycle, but that's become rather inundated with - shall we say - the "rather grasping".

So I'm looking either for a good-cause that has a direct use, or a charity-store that will either sell stuff, or re-gift stuff to some deserving cause.

Suggestions?

Reply to
dom
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If it's not too heavy, local car boot sale? Better to wait for fine weather.

Reply to
harryagain

In message , " snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com" writes

Good causes are unlikely to travel vast distances to collect something for free as it could end up cheaper buying locally. It might help if you gave a rough idea as to where you are, and the sort of stuff you've got (wood, plaster, sand ...).

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

You can still use Freecycle, but make it clear that:

  1. You will wait for a few days before deciding who to give it to, rather than giving it to the first applicant
  2. You will give priority to anyone needing it for charitable purposes

If you don't get any suitable applicants, you can declare it "taken" and actually dispose of it by some other means.

Reply to
Roger Mills

Also there might be some local self build groups who do this sort of thing already. I heard some mentioned on the radio, but was not really paying attention at the time.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Do you have a local Emmaus? It's a homeless community - the one around here is a farmstead where the ex-homeless folks live, refurbish and sell old household goods. Being a farm they have a lot more space than the average charity shop, and some of the buildings have a self-built look about them.

Might be worth getting in touch and seeing if the material's any use to them or they know anyone who could use them.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

Which, FWIW, is an organisation I thoroughly approve of; giving the homeless a bed, and a reason to get out of it. The local one is very good, and we give it all our resaleable "stuff". They also have a really good coffee-shop.

I just wish I could stop coming home with more stuff than we took up there.

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Reply to
Huge

Build a brick barbecue.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Some towns have a wood recycling facility that might take some of this, and maybe advise on the disposal of the rest... eg:

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Though when I disposed of a load of wood from my late Father's garage some years ago, I still had to pay them for the removal ;-(.

I third the support of Emmaus, an excellent organisation.

Cheers Jon N

Reply to
jkn

Various clarifications: I have a van and can transport moderate distances. There's an Emmaus near-ish me (Cambridge) - I'll phone an ask - although building materials are not on their list of accepted stuff. Boot sale doesn't appeal - I'm time-poor, and would prefer to give to a good cause rather than sell. Stuff includes quite a bit of celotex, joinery timber, new-ish ikea kitchen units, and some large gothic-arched sealed glazing units.

Reply to
dom

Personally, I would do that without bothering to "make it clear" beforehand. Doing so will just end up with the "grabbers" making up the appropriate sob story

tim

Reply to
tim......

I set up, and used to run, the local Freecycle group.

I wouldn't rule out freecycle for items that I know will attract only mostl y genuine people.

But certain items attract dozens of nuisance emails, and unreliable people, that if they turn up at all - they then turn up late with unsuitable vehic les, begging for anything and everything, string, rope, tape, bags, other b uilding materials that are nothing to do with them, borrow tools, fix-my-cr appy-roofrack etc.

And/or followed by endless "waah - why didn't I get XYZ?".

What I'm looking to do here is to make a donation of useful/valuable stuff to a worthy cause - with the least hassle.

Reply to
dom

That's not my experience. When I've done that, the grabbers still reply along the lines of "I'll have that" without bothering to read the conditions.

Reply to
Roger Mills

I got kicked off my local freegle group after getting fed up of the people with auto responders that sent a 'that's just what i need, please can i have it' reply to almost all posts the second they went live, of course most of the people who do that just want free stuff to sell on eBay or at car boots. so don't even bother to set up a mail rule to respond to certain words in the ads.

I offered a few things like 'shit on a stick' 'contents of a septic tank' and 'second hand jam rags' and sure enough i got about 12 replies asking for them (and a few from real people pointing out how disgusting i was, and it was those that got me kicked off)

most replies were of the 'i'll have that, when can i collect' type, but one was a real sob story line of 'i've been wanting to buy one of those for years, but could never save up the money due to all my money going on my disabled son, please please please can i have the one you are offering, it would make me so happy if i could finally own one after all these years of waiting' she'd been waiting years for all of the items i posted of course.

Then i posted an 'ad' with a list of the people who had sent mails claiming they wanted the items, warning others on the list what those people were doing, a few people replied saying they had only figured out people did this kind of thing after the same person had been to their house to get items about 5 times! most didn't even know you could set up email auto responders,

Reply to
Gazz

Luckily, we don't seem to have this sort of person on our local group, but we do have some "I need" people. Someone once posted "wanted a 3 bedroom house" and got kicked off, but so many people complained, he was re-instated.

Reply to
charles

tly genuine people.

e, that if they turn up at all - they then turn up late with unsuitable veh icles, begging for anything and everything, string, rope, tape, bags, other building materials that are nothing to do with them, borrow tools, fix-my- crappy-roofrack etc.

f to a worthy cause - with the least hassle.

An easy solution to that IME is to include a condition in the offer that th ey need to respond to in their reply. One simple option is to say responses without a desired collection day & time will go to the back of the queue.

Anyone with a time wasting reply gets spambinned - but not genuine question s.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Oooo...

Ahhhh, but they wouldn't be the right curve for our opening anyway.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

An easy solution to that IME is to include a condition in the offer that they need to respond to in their reply. One simple option is to say responses without a desired collection day & time will go to the back of the queue.

Anyone with a time wasting reply gets spambinned - but not genuine questions.

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I just make it clear that they collect at my convenience, and beyond helping to put it in their car they get no assistance from me at all

tim

Reply to
tim......

Think ours went downhill when they started allowing wanted posts,

most of them were along the lines of wanted: TV, don't care what make..... as long as it's HD ready, flat screen, over 42 inches, has dolby pro logic, built in dvd player, freeview, and is silver, must be in perfect condition with it's original box, instructions and remote. oh, and i don't drive, and am too lazy to get a bus, taxi or friend to drive me, so you must be able to deliver it to my house... for free of course, and if you can mount it on my wall and tune it in for me i'd be forever gratefull.

Reply to
Gazz

That sums it up pretty well.

Reply to
charles

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