SSAFA do not have the ability to receive recycled goods or electrical appliances, due to the complexities of quality assurance, safety regulations and storage.
Please see below for other national charities who will accept donated goods.
- Thrift+ - Donating your best second-hand clothing or designer clothes, will hep SSAFA raise funds. Thrift+ take your donations and for every item sold through their online boutique they donate 33% of the selling price to the charity of your choice - please choose SSAFA as your charity of choice. They have free local drop-off’s at over 7,000 Collect+ stores nationwide, or you can arrange a next-day collection from your door.
- Your local charity shops will generally also accept clothing, books, bric-a-brac and small electrical items.
British Heart Foundation - can pick up furniture and electrical items from your home for free. The items you donate are then sold in their furniture stores to help fund lifesaving research.
You can request a free furniture collection using our online form at the bottom of the page.
You will need to tell us:
what items you would like to donate
your preferred collection date
where we will be collecting from
your contact details.
Your local BHF store will then contact you within 5 working days to agree a date.
This service is currently for collecting furniture and electrical items. We can accept bags and boxes of other small items, but only if you are also donating household items.
To donate bags or boxes of clothes, books, toys and smaller items, you can:
By donating quality furniture items, you’ll be helping to raise much needed funds for life-saving work.
You'll also be helping to keep products and materials in use for longer, making more use of the energy and resources used to make them.
Their superstores accept furniture - Find a superstore.
Arrange a furniture collection
To arrange a furniture collection, you can call or visit your local superstore who can take a booking over the phone or in person, or you can complete our online form.
We work alongside Boxmove to carry out their online furniture collections & deliveries in Swindon - their drivers will be in uniform, with ID cards and branded vehicles.
If your booking is accepted, this is not a guarantee that the items will be collected, as our drivers will need to evaluate them on arrival to ensure they are suitable for sale.
Pre-collection checklist
Here are a few things to consider when donating to us.
- Items are not stained, torn, marked or damaged (very minor damage may be accepted by our drivers if the item is still saleable, especially if items are of very high quality).
- Soft furnishings (sofas, beds, new mattresses, chairs and anything with material on it) have a permanently attached fire label (unless it is pre-1950’s).
- Items can be removed from the property safely and without causing damage to either the item or property (our drivers cannot remove doors or windows for access).
- Large items, such as bed frames, are dismantled and ready prior to the agreed collection date (our drivers do not offer a disassembly service).
You can donate second-hand furniture to one of our specialist shops near you.
Some of our local Red Cross charity shops also take furniture, but please call first to check if they can accept your donation
Donate your unwanted furniture, homewares and electrical items using our free furniture collection service.
Emmaus communities depend on donations of furniture and other goods to keep their business going. We also save thousands of tonnes of items from going to landfill every year.
Search by location here.
Items we can collect
Donate your unwanted furniture using our free furniture collection service. From sofas to tables and small electrical items, we will collect and then sell your items in our charity shops as long as they are in a saleable condition.
To keep our staff and customers safe, there are some items that we can’t accept. These include white goods, such as fridges or washing machines, as well as any furniture or homeware item without a fire safety label or instructions.
If you want to check whether we can accept your donation, please read our full list of items we can’t accept.
Our clothing banks accept clothes, shoes and handbags.
Our shops accept:
Clothes, Shoes & Handbags
Toys & Games
Books, CDs & DVDs
Accessories, Bric-a-Brac & More
Our donation centres accept larger furniture items. You can find out more by visiting your local donation centre or shop. Or visit the website here.
We offer both a full house clearance service (chargeable) and a partial house clearance, which is free. Please see their website here.
All proceeds from the sale of your kindly donated furniture will go towards fighting the housing emergency.
We collect good quality second-hand items, including:
- furniture and electrical items in good condition (upholstered furniture must have a fire safety label by law)
- clothes
- books
Vodafone, The Great British Tech Appeal
Donate your tech and change a life
With the help of our charity partner, Barnardo's, we'll clean up, rebox and give your donated tech to someone in need, along with six months of free data, calls, and texts.
These devices are a vital lifeline, making sure people can keep in touch with family, friends and support workers, and access healthcare and education.
So far, we've collected 45,000 devices and donated more than 15,000 to people who need it most.
Other ways to recycle
Facebook Marketplace - Facebook marketplace is a popular way to buy and sell things locally, and it also has a category for Free Stuff. There you can list your furniture for free. There can be a few false listings on Facebook marketplace, so providing a description and having a good profile help to make your listing more legitimate. Communicate via Facebook messenger with anyone interested in your item.
Freecycle is for online reuse and groups are organised by town. Find yours and create a listing. You can post in multiple groups if you are on the borders of a couple of towns. There’s unfortunately no app for Freecycle so you have to use a computer to post and communicate. Click here for a user guide from Love Junk.
Freegle works exactly like Freecycle and is just as popular. Search for your town group and post a listing. You can also see if there are any ‘Wanted’ posts searching for what you have to give away. There’s an app for Freegle which makes it convenient if you can’t always be by your computer to respond to messages.
Olio was orginally setup to reduce food waste, however, you can also now share items. For further details see their website here.