Thursday 7 December 2017

#335 Do they know it's Christmas?

Welcome to E14. The postcode without a charity shop. Ok, so there was probably one in Poplar but that was miles away. I'd sorted through my clothes and linen and had put together a heap of things I'd no longer need. The only problem was its size. It'd take three or four trips to offload it all. Trips to where though?

A search for clothing banks revealed two possible locations. One at the supermarket and another at the boat club. I carried a bag out to the store and walked around the car park. Nothing. I tried the customer service desk. Apparently there used to be a clothes bank three years ago. I wondered why it had been removed. I didn't trust Google's suggestion about the boat club and it was too far to walk to be wrong.

It dawned on me that the only way to give away the clothes without hiring transport might be to take them on the train to another area, making several journeys. That would take hours though. The alternative options were to bin the clothes, to turn up with an excessive amount of luggage or to hope the van driver would make a short detour to a shop when I eventually left. They probably would but I wasn't sure. They might count it as two trips or something. I would probably go with some combination of those options.

It was still only 9pm. If I left now, I could take a bag load over to East Dulwich. It happened to be the only local place I knew that had a clothes bank, where I could make a deposit without waiting for the shop to open. I decided to make the trip. I'd be back before 11pm. I could probably return tomorrow. Take some with me when I moved. Dispose of the rest here.

Part conscientiousness, part pragmatism, part convenience.


1 comment

Profound Familiarity said...

Indeed. Thanks for the suggestions.