Op-shops 'chocker', so thousands of boxes of donated clothing are being given away for free

Lorna Edlin, Western Bay of Plenty area manager at the Society of St Vincent de Paul, stands among the thousands of boxes full of clothes ready to be snapped up at a community free sale next month. Photo / Andrew Warner

Thousands of boxes filled with "good quality, pre-sorted clothing" – at no cost.

That's right, all of these second-hand clothes are being given away for free.

Come all ye hipsters, bargain browsers, frugal foragers, and economical, environmentally-friendly fashionistas. And Joe and Josephine Bloggs.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul in the Western Bay of Plenty, bursting with donations, is having its first "community free sale".

Area manager Lorna Edlin told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend yesterday that the society's local op-shops were "chocker" and this was a last resort.

"We're inundated," she said.

"We thought, you know, we're sick of throwing stuff away. The one thing we cannot do in Tauranga is recycle clothing. There is no one that's willing to get on board to help us."

Edlin said she had tried sending trucks to Auckland to give the clothes away and had tried ringing around schools to organise sales.

She said they also fill containers with clothes for Fiji through Aquinas College.

"We're happy and prepared to give it to anyone who wants it. But no one wants it."

Edlin estimated there were about 3000-4000 banana boxes full of donated clothing, as well as blankets, duvets and shoes, in storage at the moment.

On March 23 – between 10am-2pm at 67 Courtenay Rd, Row B, Gate Pa – rows and rows of these boxes will be opened and laid out for the public to browse through.

"There's a lot of really nice stuff in there."

Edlin said there are designer brands as well as some retro items and clothing from stores like The Carpenter's Daughter and North Beach.

"There's nothing we haven't got."

A similar sale a few years ago, where the clothes were sold for $2 a bag, attracted thousands of people, she said.

Edlin said people "freak out" when they arrive at the storage facility and see the number of boxes stacked high towards the ceiling, in several places.

"No one can believe that we can actually do this. This is hours and hours of manpower – going through and sorting all this stuff."

She said all the clothes are donations that have come through the local op-shop stores and have been sorted, with the items containing marks, holes and stains removed.

They are then put into categories.

"You could do a thesis on the amount of stuff we have here," Edlin said.

One observation she has already made – about 90 per cent of the clothes are women's.

Edlin said local firefighters will help unload all the boxes on the day and the Society of St Vincent de Paul in the Western Bay of Plenty is planning on holding these community free sales twice a year.

"What we do at St Vincent de Paul is we feed people, we clothe people, that's part of our mission statement and I thought what a good way to get a bit of goodwill with the community and also a bit of publicity."

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Note: A previous version of this article said the community free sale was happening on February 23. It is in fact happening on March 23.