Rehoming and recycling your clutter
Keeping your clutter out of landfill
One of the biggest barriers to sustainable decluttering is knowing what to do with the stuff you no longer want but you feel that someone else could still make use of.
Schemes pop up and change all the time, so this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the options open to you for rehoming and recycling your clutter, but it is hopefully a good start for you to move some things on...
Local donations
I would always suggest going local before donating elsewhere, and using apps like Olio, or sites like Freegle or Facebook marketplace means folks will come to you to collect what you’re giving away, making the whole process easier for you! You can also search for local charities or charities who are specifically looking for what you’ve got on DropPoint.
Clothes
Your local charity shop is likely to accept most clothes (as long as they are in good condition!), though if you don’t have any near by you can request a postage back from British Heart Foundation or Oxfam. You can also try platforms like Give Your Best and ShareWear to pass clothes directly on to those who need them.
Homewares
You can now drop off unwanted (but useable) cooking, dining and décor bits at your local branch of Dunelm, and Ikea also have a buy-back scheme for your old Ikea furniture – as long as it hasn’t been upcycled already! And any tins of paint that are still good to use can be donated to Dulux’s Community Repaint scheme.
Electrical and electronic
Due to the market value (and often the toxicity) of the component parts in electrical and electronic items it’s really important to make sure they are properly recycled. You can drop off your items in any local Currys store (whether you bought the item from them or not) or find another collection point with Recycle Your Electricals.
Books
There are several web and app-based buyers for those piles of read (and unread!) books like We Buy Books, Music Magpie (who will also buy any tech you might want to get rid of, like laptops or mobile phones) and Ziffit. And for kids’ books the Children’s Book Project is worth looking into.
Collections
If you’ve got a large collection of coins, jewellery, or even medals you can try selling to Vintage Cash Cow who will buy whole collections in one go, saving you having to go round various auction houses yourself. And for any good quality stamp collections get in touch with Stanley Gibbons for a quote to sell.
Craft
Local school and nursery groups might appreciate any basic crafting supplies (pens, papers, stickers etc.), or you could donate to a scrapstore if you have one nearby. Pens that still work but aren’t needed can go to Pens for Kids, and ones that don’t work can be recycled with Rymans. And if you have pots of glitter that you’re never going to use, send them off to Eco Stardust who will make sure they stay out of the waterways.
Toiletries
If you're got any unwanted toiletries (gift sets as well as unopened regular sized products) that you won't use the Hygiene Bank now has collection points in branches of Boots and and various supermarkets across the country.
And any empty make up containers you've still got lying around, they can be recycled in store at John Lewis, or branches of Superdrug or Tesco.
Get more tips on sustainable decluttering here...
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