Generally, the nationwide opportunities for sale (Amazon, ebay) are well known, but equally useful are the local possibilities. Postage of items can be a pain, so if you can get things sorted in your area it can make life so much easier.
Getting some money for it: national
Getting some money for it: local to Norfolk
- Gumtree Norwich
- Facebook groups: just search Facebook for 'for sale Norwich' or similar to find appropriate groups. Here's one to start with.
Finding it a good home for free
- Norfolk Freegle - like ebay, but without the money
- Bicyclelinks - a superb project incorporating education, training and environmental awareness - a great place to take your unwanted bicycle
- Reuse Shops - located at local dumps but for donating items that are still usable
Charity shops
These are, of course, the first places that come to mind when you're trying to get rid of stuff that still has a decent shelf-life. However, some places are more welcoming of your stuff than others; some have much more space to store things; some can take electricals, some not; and so on.
Here are a few that I use locally and can vouch for. Where possible, do help the charities out by allowing them to claim tax back on the items they sell that you've donated - many of them run such a scheme, and you simply keep a small card that you can produce each time you donate.
- Oxfam, Magdalene Street: very large shop, well used, has large turnover. Takes furniture as well as books and bric-a-brac. You can park outside the shop on single yellow lines with hazards going to make a quick dropoff!
- Oxfam Norwich Books & Music: If you have specialist items like old sheet music, it will find a much better home here than in some other shops.
- Barnado's, St Augustine: mainly furniture, takes electricals, will also take things like old VHS.
- Norwich Christian Resource Centre has a section for second-hand books, and as my husband is a clergyman, this is where we've taken unwanted theological books in the past - this being a rather specialist market.
Update: I've just discovered this new service that looks well worth investigating for disposing of unwanted, usable clothes.
And here's an excellent way to get rid of unwanted jewellery - especially broken chains that you know you'll never get round to fixing:
- Norfolk has a number of good household recycling centres. Check out this link for more information.
- For bulkier items, local councils can often help by collecting for a small charge.
Any more?
Do you know of other resources - either in the Norfolk area, or easy-use nationally? Please contact me and I'll add it to this page.
