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The mother in law died recently. We knew she had hoarded a lot of stuff and were used to not being able to sit down because of bin liners full of stuff but when we came to clear everything we were ultimately shocked. This was the stuff of TV programmes. Having taken the furniture, white goods etc we have got 2 VW Crafter van loads of clothes to get rid of. Most are new/unworn and not just old lady's fashion. There are three sisters and they are spread out in Holland London and Milton Keynes. The clothes are in a store in Nottingham. This is a quantity and logistical nightmare.
There was no money in her estate after the funeral costs and nobody is looking to make anything substantial from this but even at 50p a piece I think theres a couple of grand here. Would be enough to give each of the grand children a little boost for their savings accounts or something like that.
Its far too much for traipsing around every charity shop and I think they would say no at some point. We have wondered about car boots, getting a market stall, getting one of the grandchildren to set up an eBay shop. We tried one of the buy by weight places but they were so painful it wasn't ever going to work.
Any creative suggestions?
Been there (albeit with a more diverse range on hoarded abtiques and curiousities) with 2 estates now. For your sanity, and given the effort it takes for relatively little return ask a charity to come and get it all.
Serious proposal: If you want to monetise some of it, what about turning it into a part-time business for a family member? By photographing and cataloguing things, someone could set up an ebay shop, and end up making a bit of money.
Otherwise, I can't imagine there is any other way of getting rid of everything shy of just having a charity take it all away.
Oh, and whatever happens, make sure you check the pockets of everything!
If you do want to look at recovering funds for G’kids then eBay or one of the many specific Facebook marketplace groups.
There are loads dealing in clothes.
Especially women’s clothes!
Free to advertise- can even just make up a profile on there just to sell and delete it after so it’s not linked to a personal one.
A big car boot sale would shift stuff fast - based on my (limited) experience, if you turn up early then the ‘proper’ traders will be round and going through your stuff before you’ve fully opened the doors!
If you had the clothes bundled into a bunch of big lots (by style, or item, or random, for example) you could shift it as fast as you wanted. Obvs you’ll get less money the quicker you want it gone, but it will go!
If someone had two days free to spend at a car boot sale (shudder!) you could try to sell stuff yourself on the first day then to traders the second?
My missus loves clothes.
If it’s designer. You may make some money via eBay or a vintage retailer.
If it’s cheap toot, there are recycling places that pay by weight....don’t get your hopes up.
There are places on the high street that buy clothes by weight. Sort stuff a bit - they pay more for unworn / tagged stuff.
theyre clear about how they price stuff and don’t take the piss. You could obvious take the to list and sell individual garments but that’s going to swallow a lot of time and it’s not your turn to start a thread expressing annoyance at eBay / eBay buyer.
not many charity shops could cope with that kind of volume - they’d end up selling it out the back door, by weight/volume to the same kind of business.
what about turning it into a part-time business
Become a drag artist
My sister and I bagged up my mother's and passed it in equal measures to my mum's favourite charity shops. She loved clothes, loved fashion and spent lots of time in those shops. Seemed like the right thing to do.
For the returns, sort out unworn from worn, then send worn to charity shops, and sell unworn on Ebay if designer or a shop. Donate proceeds to her favourite charity. It really won't be much.
Bulk textile recyclers will pay about 40-50p per kg and then sell on for a huge profit, your best bet of recouping the maximum is individually listing and selling on eBay as already stated.
You could save time by selling them as a lucky dip bag but you will probably make less in the long run.
If you want an idea of what a charity shop would price the items at then drop me a PM. I price about 500 items of new and used clothes a day.
Its far too much for traipsing around every charity shop and I think they would say no at some point.
No charity shop would refuse donations, even when my backshop is to the ceiling, I find room. You should see my office some days 😉.
No charity shop would refuse donations
One of our local shops (possibly McMillans) had a sign outside the other day saying they weren't taking any more donations that day.
My wife has just made about £200 (after costs and postage), from selling around 25 items of clothing on ebay. It took her a fair amount of work to do it, but there's certainly a bit of profit to be had. I reckon what others have said is a great idea. Get a kid to catalogue and sell the stuff on an ebay shop.
Oh, and absolutely check everything, when my Aunty Anne passed away, we found £2000 stuffed into socks.
C.
If there was 50p in each bit of clothing here we would all retire! She never saved a penny - it all went from the pension to Primark (by standing order wouldn't surprise me!
Boot sale, Facebook, eBay in that order.