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What do you do with old clothes that can't be donated?
Salvation Army on Mare Street is decent but the real move is a textile bank at a council tip, most boroughs have one and they take literally anything fabric. Alternatively, if you're anywhere near a TK Maxx they've got recycling bins in most stores now, they take rags, odd socks, the lot. I've also used the TRAID clothes bank on Queensway, they don't care about condition, it all goes to textile merchants. Just bag it up, no need to sort anything.
If you've got that much volume, look at the council's textile bank at a tip first but also check kerbside textile collection, some boroughs like Haringey and Bexley run a separate bag collection you book online. The other route people sleep on is charity shops with a rag contract, places like Traid on Camden High Street or the Salvation Army on Mare Street will take genuinely knackered stuff because they sell it by the kilo to textile merchants. Socks and pants in a tied carrier bag, label it rags, they won't sort it. Also Dunelm and some Currys take old textiles if you're buying something, fwiw.
Worth checking if your council runs a textile bank at one of the reuse and recycling centres rather than the on-street ones. Camden and Islington both take rags and ripped stuff at their tips, no sorting needed, it just goes into the textile skip. You can also book a bulky waste collection but honestly that's overkill for clothes. If you're near a Traid or Oxfam with a rag bin out back they'll take the grim stuff too.
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What are some innovative ways to anonymously compare rental prices in a city?
SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.
Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.
Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.
the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking