13 January 2011

Getting rid of stuff and things?

| rebcart
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So, we’re moving out of Canberra before the end of January (I swear I’ll come back as soon as I can, I love it here.) The thing is, neither of us have a drivers’ licence, let alone a car. So how will we get rid of our furniture, and various other things (clothes, appliances, anything else we don’t want to keep)?

Do garage sales work here in the inner north (and if so, what length of time would you guys suggest ads be up for? I’ve never done a garage sale before). Are there charities or aid organisations that can pick things up? Have people had success with things like allclassifieds or freecycle? I know in Sydney there’s the council cleanup thing, with one or two free pickups for each household per year, does that exist in Canberra?

Any and all help appreciated!

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Genie said :

Just be prepared for people knocking on your doors at 6am in the morning.. even when you say “X”am start time, not early starters please.

I’ve never understood why Canberra doesn’t operate the system every other capital does: advertise the day, time and the street only – and put out signs in the street when you’re ready. Does away with sneaky early callers. Mention in the ad that signs will go out at x am.

rebcart said :

Thank you for all the suggestions, this is really useful!

emd, I have a serious dislike of organisations like the Salvos – are there any secular charities around that do the same thing?

Hmm, while we might like to be critical of organisations trying to push a religious agenda, it is religious groups which provide a large proportion of non government welfare services.

To reject the Salvation Army on that basis seems a bit precious to me.

WonderfulWorld9:20 pm 14 Jan 11

No car, nor license, inner north, moving out, cheap “free” removal of our stuff, as long as we get paid to do it.

Give it up now, give it to charity so they can send it to the flood victims and move on.

Otherwise, you’ll have to accept the charity’s available or set up your own, but hey would the items get passed on….

Try the ADRA (Adventist Development & Relief Agency) shop in Lonsdale St, Braddon 6257 3890. They appear not to do much god-bothering but a lot of helping out of welfare recipients. I think they have a ute with which to pick up things.

We recently tried to donate 2 trailor loads of furniture to the Salvos, to be turned away with half of it because they “already had too many of them”. Ended up taking the stuff to the tip because we didn’t know what else to do with it???

rebcart said :

emd, I have a serious dislike of organisations like the Salvos – are there any secular charities around that do the same thing?

+1

Revolve is a great option, though they won’t necessarily take everything. But they’ll take everything that the god-botherers will, and without the magical sky fairy propaganda.

JustThinking5:42 pm 13 Jan 11

rebcart said :

Thank you for all the suggestions, this is really useful!

emd, I have a serious dislike of organisations like the Salvos – are there any secular charities around that do the same thing?

Look in the phone book.
I too dislike Salvo’s etc….many churches will pick up stuff and donate to ppl in need before they try and sell it for $200.

There are secular charity shops in Canberra, but I don’t know if they will pick up goods – you could call and ask I guess. The Brain Injury op shop in the Griffin Centre in Civic is the only one I can think of.

Thank you for all the suggestions, this is really useful!

emd, I have a serious dislike of organisations like the Salvos – are there any secular charities around that do the same thing?

If it’s worth something and you want the cash, put it on eBay with a note that it must be picked up by x date or it will go to charity. Then book the Salvos truck to come pick up anything that isn’t claimed – they will ask you what sort of stuff it is, and will let you know if any of it cannot be accepted by charity (eg used mattresses). For anything useful that cannot be picked up by charity, hold a freecycle garage sale – list a notice on freecycle, allclassifieds, and put the word out via Facebook etc that you are having a giveaway garage sale, and you should clear out almost all of what’s left in a single day. Very efficient.

neanderthalsis11:36 am 13 Jan 11

I’ve done the place outside on the street thing before and it usually only takes a few hours for it to disappear. Some people will actually come and ask if it’s ok to take. So if you can’t sell it and charities don’t want it, that’s the way to go.

We used to have half yearly roadside rubbish collections up in QLD and most of the stuff put out would go before the council got around to collecting it, even things considered totally useless or buggered beyond use. One mans trash and all that…

All Classifieds works well, for both priced items and freebies. For priced things, try to put as detailed a description as possible, and you’ll get a good response. Freecycle is all very well but you have to put up with the weird, control-freak-riddled interface.

BlackIce said :

To stop the early birds with a garage sale, we put the signs up on the major streets the night before directing them to our street, but not our street number. When we were ready to start, we put the sign up out the front.

Now that’s a good idea!

To stop the early birds with a garage sale, we put the signs up on the major streets the night before directing them to our street, but not our street number. When we were ready to start, we put the sign up out the front.

I have found that unwanted furniture is best placed at the end of my street (Major road) in a spot I have come to call “The Vortex”. Put stuff there and it is gone within an hour.

Garage sales can work… but make sure you advertise in the Canberra Times… ! We hold regular garage sales and found the one time we forgot to advertise, we barely saw anyone all day.
You can also advertise for free on allclassifieds, and signage up around your area.

Just be prepared for people knocking on your doors at 6am in the morning.. even when you say “X”am start time, not early starters please.

Some charities will pick up, but they only take what they want/need – usually clothes/blankets etc. Garage sales work, the best plan I reckon is just to put up loads of signs on the surrounding intersections the night before (ie; friday). If you can direct people from the major roads easily enough then do it. Freecycle is very active, but obviously you’re giving stuff away. Allclassifieds is fairly active too, but it will depend what you’re trying to sell. Cross-promote – put an add on Allclassifieds for you garage sale!

There are NO “council” pick up services in Canberra. Thanks Mr. Stanhope.

I was going to suggest a garage sale followed up by freecycle. Sell what you can, give the rest away. Obviously you’d like to make a bit of money for your move, so well what you think is worth sellling.
I have found that Gumtree can be a bit slow, possibly because not many people here know about it yet. Garage sales are good, easy, low fuss. Just don’t expect to make a motza. Freecycle also moves stuff fast, because you’re giving it away.
How about you list what you have here and let people make you an offer?

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