GIANINA SCHWANECKE
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The weeks following Christmas, before the school holidays come to an end, are a busy time for Wairarapa charity shops as people declutter their homes.
Donations of interest included a wooden puppet, two wedding dresses, and a collection of dolls.
Salvation Army Wairarapa area manager Randall Day said they had been totally overwhelmed in recent weeks.
“It’s typical for this time of year.
“People are home over the summer and having a bit of a clean out this time of year.”
Most of the donations included clothing and linen items.
“We always encourage people to bring in their items during business hours because otherwise stuff gets stolen.
“We appreciate the donations. We survive on [them].”
Acting manager Shona Bohm said this was also a busy time of year for the Wairarapa Hospice Shop.
“People clean out their house this time of year. It’s wonderful because it goes back around.”
She said she greatly appreciated the community support and the hospice depended on donations for their work.
Aided by trends such as the KonMari method – a Japanese tidying philosophy created by Marie Kondo and popularised through her Netflix series – charity shops across the country have reported an especially high number of donations.
But not all donations are so welcome at charity shops when they’re in poor condition.
Donors are asked to think about the quality of items after an increase of dumping reported at charity shops.
A spokesperson for the Wairarapa SPCA opshop said a lot of the goods received hadn’t been in a saleable condition.
“We are encouraging people to consider when they are decluttering their home: would you give these items to your friends?
“If they aren’t in a good condition to gift to your friends, you shouldn’t be gifting them to us.”
Wairarapa Resource Centre manager Trudy Jones said they had noticed a slight decrease in the number of donations.
“It has a lot to do with parking. A lot of people give up and end up driving on.”
Many of its drivers reported difficulties with pick-up jobs where they found that the items were unusable or unsaleable.
She said this was reflective of the cost and difficulty of getting items to the tip.
