What would you like to donate?

Before you donate, use our handy checklist to make sure your items are suitable for resale in our shops:

1. Are all items in excellent condition / full working order?
2. Do upholstered items have their fire labels attached?
3. Have any ‘Smart’ TVs or electronics been restored to factory settings? It is your responsibility to remove any personal data from these devices.
4. Have you checked the full list of items that we can and cannot accept? Please note, we are unable to accept upholstered furniture without fire labels, gas appliances, oil heaters or loose cover sofas.

We accept furniture and large electricals at our Home & Living shops in Leominster, Hereford, and Ross-on-Wye and at our Whitestone Donation Centre. 

Need a hand getting your items to us? Contact our team about FREE furniture collections!

If you have large items of furniture you would like to donate, why not use our free Furniture collection service? Our friendly 2-person team can collect the items from your front door for free within a 20 mile radius of one of our Home and Living shops. Our Collections Team may ask you to send photos in advance and our expert drivers will review all items before collecting, to ensure items are saleable. Disposal of unsalable items costs St Michael’s thousands of pounds each month, so your help is hugely appreciated.

Please note, we do not provide a house clearance service and cannot offer collections for items such as clothing or small household items as it is not cost-effective for the hospice.

Our shops are always keen to receive clean, good-quality donations of:

• Clothing (women’s men’s and children’s)
• Shoes and accessories
• Formalwear (including bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, 3-piece suits and accessories)
• Homeware (including China/crockery, mirrors, photo frames and kitchen accessories)
• Furniture (upholstered furniture must have relevant fire / safety labels or we are unable to resell your items)
• Bedding and soft furnishings
• Curtains
• Electrical goods (including fridges, cookers, washing machines and televisions. Please ensure any ‘Smart’ devices have been factory reset)
• Children’s toys and games (toys must have appropriate CE labels attached)
• Books
• CDs/DVDs
• Vinyl
• Unwanted gifts (including unopened toiletries or cosmetics)
• Garden appliances
• Pushchairs with a 5-point harness (two over the shoulders, two at the waist and one through the legs. We are unable to accept pushchairs that do not have this harness)
• Antiques and collectables

Please see below for a full list of items that we cannot accept in our shops. 

Please call your preferred retail outlet ahead of your visit to ensure they are accepting donations. We would hate for you to have a wasted visit.

For full information and contact details for all of our retail outlets, please visit our Shop Finder page.

We really appreciate your kind donations. Unfortunately, there are some items that we are unable to resell. When these items are donated to us, it costs St Michael’s Hospice thousands of pounds to dispose of them. Please check before you donate – we would hate you to have a wasted journey.

Clothing, jewellery or accessories we cannot accept:

• Used underwear, swimwear, socks or pyjamas
• Clothing in need of repair
• Unwashed items of clothing (our shops do not have the means to wash clothing so it must be disposed of at cost to the Hospice)
• Branded uniforms (including school uniforms), workwear and sports kit
• Children’s anoraks/coats with a drawstring hood or drawstring neck (due to risk of strangulation)
• Pierced jewellery
• Animal fur or ivory

Appliances & furniture we cannot accept:

• Broken or damaged furniture or appliances
• Upholstered furniture without fire safety labels
• Gas appliances or oil heaters
• Wall units that are over 5ft wide
• Unassembled or incomplete flat pack furniture
• Pianos/organs
• Old style ‘box’ televisions

Homeware or collectable items we cannot accept:

• Broken or damaged items
• Blankets, duvets or pillows
• Electric blankets
• Used candles
• Sharp knives
• Ivory

Sporting goods we cannot accept:

• Skates, skateboards, roller blades and ice skates
• Crash helmets, visors & riding hats

Safety apparatus we cannot accept:

• Child’s car safety seats
• Pushchairs & highchairs without a 5-point safety harness
• Crash helmets, visors & riding hats

Beauty & Cosmetic items we cannot accept:

• Unsealed cosmetics
• Foot spas
• Razors and epilators

Books, toys & media items we cannot accept:

• Magnetic toys
• Video (VHS) tapes
• Pornography

Other items we cannot accept:

• Food or perishables
• Livestock i.e. fish

This is not a definitive list of everything we cannot accept, so please don’t be offended if something cannot be accepted when you go to donate. Our team will be on hand to help and offer advice.

Make your donations to St Michael’s Hospice go even further!

By registering for Gift Aid you’ll help us earn an extra 25% on the value of the items you donate, at no additional cost to you.

That’s an extra £25 on top of every £100 raised. Which would make an enormous difference to helping to fund hospice care.
Sign up in-store or with your collection drive – make your donation and we will do the rest.

Gift Aid is a government scheme which enables charities to reclaim 25p of every £1 donated by tax-paying individuals. The scheme also allows charities to reclaim 25% of the sale price of donated goods sold in charity shops.

For St Michael’s Hospice, this amounts to a whopping £100,000 that could potentially be recovered from the Inland Revenue if all our donors were registered for Gift Aid.

What can I do to help?

When you take your donated goods to any of our charity shops, just ask to register for Gift Aid, provided that you are a tax-payer. Fill in a form on our device in-store or with your collection driver and you will be sent your unique donor number. Each time you bring in a donation, tell us your donor number so that 25% of the selling price can be recovered.

Three times a year, we will write or email you telling you how much Gift Aid has been reclaimed from your donations (this is a legal requirement).

Do I have to be a tax payer?

Yes, you do have to be a UK tax payer and pay an amount of income and/or Capital Gains Tax at least equal to the tax that we reclaim on your donations. You can find out more about Gift Aid on the Inland Revenue website.

I donate goods regularly. Will I have to complete a form every time?

No, you just complete one initial form; just make sure that you provide your donor number every time you donate.

I have noticed that other charities run the scheme already

Yes, the potential extra income that can be raised from this scheme is tremendous. By choosing to donate your unwanted items to St Michael’s Hospice, you can be sure that your donation raises as much money as possible, and at no extra cost to you.

Click here to register for gift aid.

When you donate items at any of our charity shops, all items are carefully checked, sorted and assessed for quality. If they are suitable for that shop, they will be priced and put out onto the shop floor. However, some may not always remain at that location. If we feel they would sell better at another shop, they are sent to our central donation distribution centre in Whitestone. Here, each item is checked and sorted again before then sent on its way to its new home in the most appropriate charity shop or to ou online shops.

Why are items sent to a distribution centre?

By distributing items across shops, we can ensure that donations reach their best potential.  This lets us distribute items across our different locations to best match demand, store capacity, and shop-specific needs, ensuring items are given the best chance at a new life and can raising as much money for St Michael’s as possible.

If I donate items to a discount shop, will they be sold there?

Not necessarily. Even if you donate items to one of our popular discount £1 shops, your items may be sent to other locations. Our Whitestone team determines the best location for each item to maximise its value and benefit for St Michael’s Hospice.

How do you decide which items go to which shops?

Once items are passed on to the team at our central distribution centre, they will sort them based on factors like item quality, type, and demand across our shops. We aim to provide a variety of goods in all our shops, but specific items may be sent to locations where they are most likely to sell well, such as our specialist shops or discount Pound shops.

Can I specify which shop I’d like my donation to go to?

Because of our centralised system, we cannot guarantee that a donation will be placed in a specific shop. We ensure the best possible distribution across our network to help raise the maximum amount for St Michael’s Hospice.

Yes we do!

If you have large items that you would like to donate, you can book our free collection service.

Our friendly 2-person team can collect the items from your front door for free within a 20 mile radius of one of our Home and Living shops. As a general rule we can collect six large items in one collection. If you have more than six items then a viewing may be required in advance of a collection, please speak to our Collections Team for more information and advice.

Our Collections Team may ask you to send photos in advance and our expert drivers will review all items before collecting, to ensure items are saleable. Disposal of unsalable items costs St Michael’s thousands of pounds each month, so your help is hugely appreciated.

Please note, we do not provide a house clearance service and cannot offer collections for items such as clothing or small household items as it is not cost-effective for the hospice.

We aim to minimise waste as much as possible, both to make as much money as we possibly can from all your donations and to keep waste out of landfill. Discarding items costs us money and is always our last resort.

We distribute many items to our Pound Shops, and in some instances, if we have excess stock, we may donate items to other good causes in need.

In previous years, where possible, we have recycled what cannot be sold. However, due to recent changes to the fabric recycling market, we are no longer able to sell off unsaleable items to third parties and now shoulder the cost of disposing of items ourselves, this includes old blankets, clothing needing repair and used undergarments. As a result, we can only accept quality clothing that we can sell on the shop floor.

Waste disposal is costing St Michael’s Hospice tens of thousands of pounds and every pound spent in this way is a pound less to spend on patient care. So, we need the help of our amazing supporters to review their donations, checking that everything is clean and undamaged and disposing of any damaged goods prior to visiting our donation centres. Ask yourself:

Does it pass our easy 3-step check

• Is it clean?
• Does it work and it is safe to use? (does it do what it is meant to, does it have all its component parts, is it damaged)
• Would I buy this in its current condition?

If the answer is yes, we would love to receive it!