I did my first two sessions as a volunteer at the local Oxfam shop last week and really enjoyed it. So much to learn!
On my first day there happened to be an afternoon tea for all the staff and volunteers so I got to meet a lot of the team. They are all really nice people, great to work with.
I learnt how to operate the till, accept donations of goods (mainly clothes & homewares) that people bring into the shop, and how to accept and process the monetary donations for the current Turkey/Syria relief efforts - it was amazing to see so many people walk into the shop and donate money in solidarity with the earthquake victims. I also learnt how to arrange the shop display, top up empty shelves, use the price sticker gun, sort through the donations of homewares then price them and put them in the shop.
I’m looking forward to volunteering twice a week while I am here on my current cat sit (another two months), and I’ll hopefully be able to do it again on any longer cat sits I do this year and next year too. Highly recommended!
@cat.tails what a fabulous idea. I saw lots of Oxfam shops in London while I was there recently. Are they plentiful across the UK?
Once trained and with references from one shop, I would think it would be very easy to come up to speed in other shops as you move from pet sit to pet sit, allowing sitters to volunteer even for shorter stays and still make a difference.
Thanks for sharing your experience. We have “pet sit across the UK” on our list of things we’d like to do, and I’d love to do something like this while we do it if possible. Thanks for the inspiration!
There are more than 560 shops across the UK, some of them are standard shops which sell a mix of items, some are dedicated bookshops. Some volunteers spend their time with the online shop.
Large cities have Oxfam shops in various suburbs. What I have noticed on my travels as a cat sitter last year is that both larger towns and smaller towns (that are large enough to have a supermarket) will usually/always have an Oxfam shop on their high street as well as other charity shops. I am volunteering in a town that does not have a railway station but it has a vibrant high street with two Oxfam shops (one standard and one bookshop) as well as two supermarkets and many other shops.
Once you have been accepted as a volunteer and trained, you can move to another shop as long as there is not a gap of more than 6 months. I’m not sure what the shortest time to volunteer would be - I don’t think it would work for short sits of 1-2 weeks or less, but I don’t know the answer to this. I imagine volunteering over a period of one month (say once or twice a week) might be more common?
The application process is done online - you can have a look at the form.
They are pretty much everywhere and they are full of delicious treasures. Even just for the pleasure of seeing and touching .
One of my fav things to do in the UK.
Well done @cat.tails. You packed a lot into one day of training plus afternoon tea as well. It’s very rewarding to do volunteer work and see the generosity of people too, not just those who use the service. Oxfam would be so pleased to welcome you as a volunteer!
I travel a lot, but for my work. My first sit is in two weeks in the UK. I always go to yoga schools all around the world and ballroom dancing is the other thing on my “want to do” list.
Furthermore, I learn about crypto and financial maturity. Way too late, the latter became interesting to me. So yes: please learn any- and everything on investment and your view / feelings on money.
I wonder how it will be to sit someone else’s pets iso my own …
It has been really great to volunteer at the local Oxfam shops during my current sit in Oxfordshire, UK. I have done 2-4 sessions per week (usually 4 hours per session) at both the standard shop and the bookshop. I am hoping to continue doing it on longer sits in the future as well. I higly recommend doing it.
I also made good use of reserving and brrowing books via the county library system which has been very enjoyable and worthwhile. It costs £1.30 to reserve a book which can be sent in from any of the other libraries in the county network and picked up at library of my choice. Very good value! In 3 months so far, I reserved about 16 books, all non-fiction, mainly history straddling 5th century BC (Herodotus) to Italian Renaissance and English Tudor history through to modern 19th and 20th century history as well. The cost of borrowing 16 books is/was roughly the same as buying one hard cover history book.
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed your time at the local Oxfam shops doing your volunteer work @cat.tails. And well done on using the county library. I have two memberships, one in Somerset and the other in Oxfordshire, for when I am in the UK. Might have to join a different county’s library this year!!
@temba haha, yes, I might have to do that too - Oxfordshire (where I am now and will return for 5 weeks next year) and Cardiff (where I will spend about 16 weeks later this year on two separate cat sits). Last year I also joined in Nottinghamshire for a 5 week sit…
@cat.tails I’m puzzled why you had to pay to reserve books at the library? I thought borrowing was always free?. On my last trip to UK i also bought a few books that the library was selling. Aparantly they do regularly sell off stock when new books come in. They go for 50p or £1. And ofcourse good old charity shops are fabulous for books. Can’t remember the last time I bought s brand new book!
I too volunteered at an Oxfam shop for a while many years ago. I did it at a time I was between jobs and feeling rather depressed. I found it really helpful and uplifting to be doing something useful and interacting with all sorts of strangers. Keeping busy & distracted can be a good thing!
@Lokstar maybe it was free in the past? I think it is still very good value @ £1.30 per book as it probably does not even cover the petrol costs of them transporting the books to and from other libraries in the county. I have used the reservations service for books that must come from other libraries - it saves me time and money instead of me traipsing over there myself (to the relevant library which has the book) to pick up the book in person.
I’m Michelle from the UK. First house sit in Australia and then onto New Zealand for another. I’ve early retired so have earned the right to relax and do nothing and not feel guilty about it. Enjoy your surroundings enjoy the company of new animal friends especially if you’re grieving the loss of your own loved pet. Look online for local groups or travel sights where you can meet up with people and make new friends. I stay in the country after sits and do sightseeing and tourist things. Whilst on sits relish on seeing country as locals do. Catch up on reading and keeping in touch with family and friends old and new. Spend time researching new sits in other countries there is a big world out there. Most of all change your mind set and just enjoy
@cat.tails OK I understand now- the fee is to get the book from another library. But is the actual borrowing still free? I.e if the book you want is already there?
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