Are there items that you cannot take?

To help maximise funds for hospice care, we aim to keep costs as low as possible. Items that cannot be sold must be disposed of at the hospice's expense, reducing the money available for patient care. As a result, there are some items we cannot accept for legal or safety reasons. We appreciate your understanding if we are unable to accept a donation.

Items that we do not accept at our shops:

• food or drink
• medication
• used dentures
• prescription spectacles
• toys, nightwear or upholstered furniture items without the relevant safety labels
• electrical items missing their remotes
• uniforms and clothing with company names
• jewellery for pierced body-parts
• used cosmetics and toiletries
• crash helmets, cycle helmets, hard hats or other protective headgear
• buoyancy aids
• used child car seats
• mains or bottled gas appliances
• solvents
• microwaves
• electric fires
• petrol, oil or diesel-fuelled items
• batteries
• computer hard drives
• poisonous, toxic or hazardous substances
• tobacco
• ivory
• bone or turtle shell products
• counterfeit or homemade films and music
• buoyancy aids
• firearms, ammunition, weapons or realistic toy weapons
• knives, blades or objects that could be used as weapons (this does not include kitchen knife sets)

I have some donations to bring to you. When can I bring them in?

We welcome your donations when we are open, but please can you call the shop you intend to take them to first. The shops, their opening times and telephone numbers can be found on our Find a shop page.

Can I leave my donations outside the door?

Please do not leave donations outside when we are shut. These donations generally either get stolen or damaged to the point where we need to throw them away. Most of our shops trade 6 days a week.

I have a large volume of donations to bring to you - would this be OK?

We welcome your donations all the time we are open, but it would help us greatly if they could be little and often. For this reason, we kindly ask you to phone the shop in advance to check whether the team are able to take your donations before making your journey. Visit our Find a shop page for opening times and telephone numbers.

Do you take electrical items?

We are happy to take electrical items as long as they are in working order and have no damage to the item, the cord or the plug. We PAT test any electrical items we are donated to ensure that the wiring is safe. Any damaged items are automatically disposed of.

What happens to items that you cannot sell?

We try our best to sell everything we are given. If this is not through our shops or Ebay, then we are able to sell certain items to third parties. This includes excess and damaged clothing; electrical items and excess homewares. Unfortunately there are instances where we need to dispose of items. As we have to pay for disposal, we try to keep this to a minimum, so will decline the offer of some donations if we believe we will need to dispose of them straightaway.