Carers UK Forum

I had loads left over as I like to buy in bulk and be ready for anything. I must have spent a small fortune on them but they seemed more of a challenge to get rid of than I anticipated.
I decided not to give them to the care home, District Nurses or the care agency as no one could be bothered to go to Dad's funeral. Plan B , I tried to sell new packets on EBay, the first I charged £7.00 for and after having to chase payment and cover postage costs made a huge 14p. The next packet was even larger so I charged £9.00 but had to pay £14.50 on postage so that wiped out the first profit and cost me some more.
Then I spent a freezing morning lugging them off to a car boot sale at 6.30 in the morning- they all came home again.
Then I tried listing them on gum tree for less than half price of shops- zero response.
This morning I went into town and drove round the back of Oxfam ( I felt a bit sorry for them with all the bad publicity they have had) rang the bell twice and could hear people banging and crashing on the other side of the door but no one could be bothered to answer so I drove off into the next part of town, parked and went to the second Oxfam shop to find they were closed for renovation today. I walked all the the way up the High street to find the next couple of charity shops had closed down, crossed the road and all the way back down with my arms dropping off by now , went to Age UK who would only take the complete unopened packets and not the ones that had one or two removed (out of 40 ) so I lugged them on to the next charity shop. Finally they are gone

10/10 for persistence, Henrietta. I had trouble getting rid of S's incontinece pads as a child when he moved to pull-ups. same problem when he didn't need the pull-ups any more either. Like you with a lot of effort I managed to give a few bags away. I think there are still some in the loft ...

Melly1

The local food bank took our leftover supplies. I emailed to find out (almost expecting the answer 'no') and they said they had found takers for these products in the past, so 'yes please'.

Rats - found some more of them in the shed. (inco pads not rats!)

Henrietta wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 25, 2018 5:03 pm

Rats - found some more of them in the shed. (inco pads not rats!)

Whatever you decide to do Henrietta, please do not lose your wonderful sense of humour

The charity shop I volunteer in (connected to a local Hospice) will always take them providing the packs haven't been opened - we've always got customers wanting them. Plus one or two of our local (privately run) care homes will take them too.

I used to buy them from the shop regularly when I was caring for Mum - even at £4 or so a pack they were a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them anywhere else !.

The hospice that mum was in had said they'd take unopened packs and also mum's spare catheter supplies.

My mother recently passed away and I emailed the local hospice to find out if they wanted several packets of unopened incontinence pads. I received a reply saying they would be very useful for their inpatient unit. I am physically disabled and I took several unopened packets to the hospice only to be met by a very rude receptionist who said they didn’t accept incontinence pads. I showed her the email from the hospice and she said it was not their policy to take them. She then asked another member of staff who grudgingly took them. I went to a lot of trouble taking them to the hospice because of my disability and being recently bereaved meant that it only upset me. I wish I hadn’t bothered and I won’t be supporting any of the shops associated with them either. I have previously donated lots of items to their shops and most of the time the staff don’t even say thank you.

Most of the charity shops around here are pleased to accept unopened packs. They sell very quickly apparently.

HI Rosetta,
How rude. I'm sure they will come in handy, if someone needs more changes than usual.

There is a charity shop near me that I no longer donate to for a similar reason - very rude staff/volunteers who let you struggle to open the door whilst carrying a heavy box, go through the stuff infront of customers and hand back things they think they can't sell in a very disdaining manner ... thankfully not all charity staff/volunteers in other shops are the same!

Melly1