Charity Shops and the Imagined Futures of Objects: How Second-Hand Markets Influence Disposal Decisions when Emptying a Parent’s House

This article explores the processes whereby things are donated, or not donated, to charity shops. I draw on in-depth interviews conducted with adults who have sort-ed through the houses of older family members who have moved into residential accommodation, and in some cases subsequently died. The affective qualities of objects and the informants ’ responsibilities to be ‘good ’ family members by en-suring ‘safe passage ’ for their parents ’ possessions worked to ensure that many objects did not enter the second hand market, but were preserved within the fami-ly or wider social networks. Competing instincts to be ‘responsible consumers ’ by not keeping things unnecessarily, worked to ‘move things along ’ into charity shops, where informants believed the objects could come to be valued and singu-larised by other people. By providing an imagined future where goods can contin-ue to be useful and have the opportunity to extend their biographical life, I argue that charity shops and other second-hand markets can help people to dispose of objects which they do not want to keep, but which they find difficult to throw away