As readers will know, we are downsizing and have three beds to get rid of before we move. While you can sell a bed frame/base fairly easily, it is difficult to sell a mattress, and charities like The Smith Family, The Salvation Army or St Vincent De Paul will not take them. So, the only options seemed to be to take it to a place called Soft Landing in an industrial suburb where they are recycled. Fees apply1, and I have heard from another source that this will cost you about $50. An alternative is to book a bulky waste collection from the kerbside outside your house. This is free for a maximum of two cubic metres per financial year2. Three mattresses and bases come to more than 2 cubic metres.
The beds we are trying to offload are relatively new in that they were purchased at about the time our kids moved out. They have only been used for visitors and are in almost new condition. My partner was hunting around online and found GIVIT3, an organisation I had never heard of before.
GIVIT was set up in 2009 by a Juliette Wright who realised that normal charities were overloaded with unwanted or poor-quality goods, but were desperately seeking essential items. She saw a need to move away from the concept of donating clothes and household items by ‘getting rid’ of them to charity shops, much as we had done with our unwanted clothes. Her bright idea was to make potential donors aware of the items that would make the most difference to the lives of a particular person or family. That is how GIVIT started.
When the 2011 floods hit Queensland, then Premier Anna Bligh turned to GIVIT, which became the state government’s official website for managing donations during disasters. This allowed charities to better focus their efforts and resources, no longer burdened by mountains of well-meant but unmanageable or poor quality donations. The GIVIT website received 1.8 million hits in 10 days. Within three weeks, more than 33,500 items were matched with those who needed them4.
Our beds found new homes through GIVIT. The first one, a single bed (and mattress) went to a young family who had just moved out of a caravan into (I presume) government housing. Some blokes arrived to load the bed and bedside tables and bedside lights into a trailer. As they were leaving, one of the blokes, who apparently knew the family, said ‘now [the little daughter] will have her own bed’. That made me well up a bit to think of how that little girl would feel.
A few days later the queen-sized bed went. One of the GIVIT people arrived in a four-wheel-drive vehicle with a trailer. We helped her load the bed and mattress into the trailer. This bed apparently went to a woman with children who was escaping a violent relationship (what the bloody hell is wrong with these chickenshit blokes?). The last bed is to go this weekend, to a young person who is out on their own for the first time.
It is hearing stories like this that make you realise how privileged your life is. However, the real privilege is being able to help these people.
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