Quote :

False teeth, a scorpion in formaldehyde and a lamb castrating tool were among the strangest items dropped in a charity's donation boxes this year.

Barnardo's revealed a list of bizarre items left by donors at some of its 620 UK stores in an appeal for people to bestow their unwanted Christmas gifts.

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Jaws dropped when staff in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were given a pot containing nine human molars and a bag of infant clothes containing a baby's dried umbilical cord and belly clip. While volunteers in Catterick, North Yorkshire, were surprised by the discovery of a slice of pizza inside a man's coat.

A set of false teeth was also found inside a handbag donated to the charity's Glasgow store.

The bottled scorpion has since been given to a local university in Scotland after shop workers in St Andrews were given the preserved arachnid.

Bizarre donations
Baby's dried umbilical cord and belly clip - Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Bag of moss - Worksop, Nottinghamshire
"Bottom-wiping tool" - Gravesend, Kent
False teeth - Glasgow
Farmer's lamb castrating tool - Kendal, Cumbria
Human molars - Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Scorpion preserved in a jar of formaldehyde - St Andrews, Scotland
Several ends of carrots - Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Slice of pizza - Catterick, North Yorkshire
Urine bottle - Lincoln
Used toilet brush - Conwy, Wales
Viagra tablets - Rotherham, South Yorkshire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59744254

I've got a handful of LPs I was going to send to the great charity shop in the sky, including Tracy Chapman's debut album as I have it on CD and didn't really need it on vinyl, so it has been in a cardboard box of charity stuff in the garage for a while.

I've just discovered that it regularly sells for £25-£75 on eBay.

It's now back in my bedroom.

Records are one of the few things I haven't decluttered, because I only have one tall archive box full of them anyway.

Ooh, I see that if my copy of the Cult's Electric would be sellable for £40 if it was in good condition, which it isn't.

BREAKING LEARNING: There are Chernobyl charity shops thinly dotted around the country, such as this one in Clowne, Derbyshire!

Soon to be renamed 'Чернобыль', from Чорнобиль.

Funnily enough, it was my reminding myself of the exact location of Chernobyl that led me to search for said name but instead of Google Maps taking me to Ukraine it took me to the range of charity shops in the UK instead.

I saw this Maria McKee CD in a charity shop yesterday for 99p:




If it had been cheaper or part of a deal with other CDs I might have bought it.

Come to think of it, we've never done a running commentary on it.

I saw the Derek and Clive album on CD in a charity shop today for £1.



Despite its legendary status and my being surprised to find it on CD in a charity shop, I just couldn't. I did however pick it up and look at it.

Album listening party?

Something something more like a BUM listening party!

There was rather randomly a rasher of bacon on the floor of a charity shop I was in today.

Is that subcultural slang or something?

There was a woman worker in a charity shop I went in today complaining about all the "cr@p" they get sent in.

She wants to stop moaning and start shifting that bacon, instead of letting it lie on the floor.

Butterfield wrote:

There was a woman worker in a charity shop I went in today complaining about all the "cr@p" they get sent in.

Quite right too.

I happened to get roped into helping out with a charity I was representing, in one of their regional offices which was being used as a depot for sorting the goods for a large sale they were planning.

I couldn’t wait to get home and scrub myself in the shower. They were surprised but grateful when I suggested that in addition to the various piles they’d created - for the windows, for the sale, to be sent to the branches, to be laundered first - I suggested a ‘burn’ pile, which could be used for the upcoming bonfire night they’d told me about.

I had to go and buy marigolds and a bin bag I could wear, in order to continue.

Among the highlights I came across were unwashed stained tea towels, unwashed stained underwear, and unwashed stained clothing. I felt so sorry for them having to sort through mountains of this stuff, I went to my storage facility that weekend, and sent them a few items of my own clothing, a couple of pairs of shoes, and some of my grandmothers vacuum packed cashmere sweaters and cardigans.

So I’m afraid a lot of ‘people’ do send in their skid marked smalls, festering sweat stained old T-shirts, tea towels used to mop up assorted kitchen (I hope) spillages, and in one case I came across, a broken bedside cabinet with the charred remains of several fish fingers in the drawer. And the rest.

Those tasked with sorting through these insults have every right to complain. What are they meant to do? Sing a song of gratitude? About once again being used as a free dumping ground for basically everything except used needles, and quite probably some of those too in many cases. Dirty tight gits.

cosmictanya wrote:

I had to go and buy marigolds and a bin bag I could wear, in order to continue.

Now, there's a vision.

Tanya wearing marigolds and bin bag:

Butterfield wrote:

cosmictanya wrote:

I had to go and buy marigolds and a bin bag I could wear, in order to continue.

Now, there's a vision.

Needs must. I even stopped by a GP surgery and got some face masks, which meant that when Covid began, I already had a handful left at the bottom of my bag. In the first weeks I was able to wear them while others were making DIY versions out of socks.