Charity History Shop

The other day I walked into a London charity shop and browsed around. I felt a little strange looking at these clothes - some nearly new, clearly only been worn once... I saw a lovely dress but I wasn't so keen on picking up a stranger's discarded item.

The idea is to start a charity shop like these Oxfam/Red Cross shops here that rely on customer donations of good quality clothes/books etc. then sell them on to people to make money for charity.

When a customer donates an item, they write a short history about the item – perhaps it’s an interesting story about where the item was worn, and how it ended up here.

If it’s a book, the donator could tell the story of where they read it: “Read in the African bush while on a Safari holiday. Great holiday read. Not too heavy” for example… or what the book meant to them: “could really relate to the book’s hero. I am at a similar stage in my life. Wait till you get to page 133 – you won’t be able to put it down!”

If it was a dress or item of clothing they could leave a description of why it was bought, where it was worn: “I bought this dress to wear to a formal function held at the French embassy. My Father, a university professor, was honoured for his work on French culture. I bought the dress because it had a stylish, French feel to it. I had a fantastic evening at the Embassy, and was proud to see my father honoured. I’m donating it because I haven’t worn it since, and to be honest, it’s just not my style – I’m a jeans and T-shirt kind of a girl”.

I’m sure you get the idea, but the point is each item is no longer some stranger’s discarded junk – it’s an item that meant something to them, it has a history, it’s like an antique, it’s lived a previous life.