Unwanted gifts welcome at op shop

IT could be safe to say most of us have that one corner of the cupboard filled with scented candles, soaps on ropes, and novelty picture frames.

A study from Compare the Market has found 19 per cent of Victorians will regift the presents they receive for Christmas, and a further 14 per cent will donate them.

Vi Sutherland and Caitlin Pearce, volunteers at the RSPCA Opshop, both agreed they would donate unwanted presents.

“At the family exchange this year the notice was feel free to go to an op shop or regift, because that’s the sensible thing to do,” she said.

“If you get something because someone doesn’t know you that well, or they just made a mistake in their choices, keeping it means no one gets to use it.”

Other places to take unwanted gifts include local churches, who will often send goods to communities in need.

Ms Pearce said one of their volunteers collects all the donated socks because the op shop can’t sell them.

“She’ll take it to a church, and they’ll knit blankets out of them or make different types of things or if not, give them to the children,” she said.

Charity organisations that provide people in need with goods, such as Sunshine, who take new and used baby products, would also be good places to take gifts.

“I know one op shop is benefitting the homeless in the area, that’s MadCow, and they’re actually designing their old store into a homeless shelter, and they will need donations,” Ms Pearce said.

While the RSPCA op shop is accepting donations throughout the holiday period, Ms Sutherland said it’s better not to leave items outside the store when no one is there.

“We ask that they don’t do that because other people go through them and scatter them on the ground and then they’re damaged or wet or they’re dirty or what not and we have to discard them,” she said.

Op shops are great places to find gifts too, said Ms Pearce and Ms Sutherland, who have both found treasures in their store.

“I think especially with the struggle that people are having,” Ms Sutherland said. “Opshops are a fine place to look for a gift and sometimes the things that are donated have never been used and they make wonderful gifts.”

On the list of gifts the volunteers said they were personally looking forward to this year were book vouchers, art supplies, and seeing smiles on their families faces.