Decluttering

What to Do With Things That Are Too Good to Bin

Updated 10 September 2026 · 4 min read

There is a pile somewhere in most houses. By the front door, in the boot of the car, on a chair in the spare room. It is the things that are definitely going, just not yet.

They are too good to bin and nobody has decided where they go. So they sit, which is the worst of both outcomes: you have already given up the space, and you have not got the benefit of the decision.

Why the pile exists

Not laziness. It is that "get rid of it" is not one decision, it is two: deciding to let it go, which you have already done, and deciding where it goes, which you have not.

The second decision is harder because it is genuinely complicated. Charity shops will not take everything, recycling rules differ by council, and selling takes effort. Faced with that, the pile waits.

The fix is to decide the destination in advance, per category, once.

Where things actually go

Charity shops will take

• Clean clothes in wearable condition, shoes in pairs
• Books, though they are flooded with them, so specialist and children's books are more useful
• Working small electricals, complete crockery, unopened toiletries
• Complete toys and games with all the pieces

Charity shops will NOT take, and it costs them money to dispose of

• Anything stained, holed or broken
• Duvets and pillows, in most cases
• Car seats, cots and prams, for safety and liability reasons
• Electrical items that do not work
• Half-used toiletries and opened cosmetics

Donating something a charity shop has to pay to throw away is not a donation. It is passing the disposal cost to a charity, which is worse than binning it yourself.

Textile recycling takes clothes, bedding and towels in any condition, including stained and holed. This is the destination for the entire "not good enough to donate" pile, and most people do not know it exists.

Electrical recycling takes anything with a plug or a battery. Any shop selling electricals must take back an equivalent item, and councils collect small electricals.

Specific homes that want specific things

• Towels and old bedding: animal shelters, almost always
• Craft supplies: schools, nurseries, care homes, scout groups
• Tools: repair cafes, men's sheds, community workshops
• Spectacles: many opticians collect them
• Furniture in good condition: local reuse charities, who often collect for free

Selling: only for three things

Be honest about the rate. Selling is worth it for high value, easy postage, or genuine collectability. For everything else you are working for about two pounds an hour.

Set a price, set a deadline, and when the deadline passes it gets donated. Most stalled piles are full of things somebody intends to sell.

The one-week rule

The rule that actually empties the pile: anything in it has a destination and a date, or it goes to the fastest available option.

1. Bag it by destination, not by room, and label the bags
2. Put a specific date in the calendar, attached to a trip you were making anyway
3. Bags go in the car boot immediately, not by the door
4. Anything without a destination after one week goes to the charity shop or textile recycling, whichever will take it

The car boot detail matters more than it sounds. A bag by the front door gets stepped over. A bag in the boot leaves next time you drive anywhere.

Buy-nothing groups

The best option for the awkward middle: things too good to bin, not worth selling, and not quite right for a charity shop. Half a tin of paint, a spare curtain pole, a bag of jam jars.

Somebody chooses it deliberately, collects it, and it goes today. The main risk is arranging collection with several people, so state "first to reply, porch collection" and stick to it.

Preventing the next pile

The pile is a symptom. It builds because things enter the house faster than a destination gets decided, which is the same underlying pattern behind clutter coming back.

One permanent donation bag, somewhere obvious, emptied on a schedule rather than when full, stops it reforming. This is the difference between an occasional purge and a system.

What helps

• A permanent donation bag or box in one fixed place, not a pile that moves around.
• Sturdy reusable bags, because charity shops are not equipped for split carriers.
• A note in your phone of what your local council actually collects, checked once.
• A recurring calendar entry attached to a trip you already make.

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