So! I work in a charity retail shop! People donate things, we sort them, we sell them, repeat. My job is in the sorting part, where I go through crates of trash bags filled with donations from around the state.

I look through them to see what we can sell. My line is for clothes and linens. I make sure they have no stains, no holes, are in season, etc, otherwise they get tossed. If I find stuff that isn't clothes/linens (like books, toys, dvds), I put them in a shopping cart and eventually hand that over to the people who handle that.

It was an ordinary day. Actually, this took place the day or so before Thanksgiving. (I've been meaning to share this story for a while, never got around to it.) Now, nobody knows what's in these trash bags before I open them, unless the people who donate them label it, which doesn't happen all that often. This was one such bag, no label. No biggie.

I open it, and the first thing I pull out, much to my confusion, appears to be... an ice cream pint?
"That's weird." I thought. "They know we can't take food. And why ice cream??? That would melt!"

Except. It hadn't melted? I blinked, realizing that there was no coldness to the pint, nor any mushiness expected of melted ice cream.

I turned it around.

It was not ice cream.

Ewww... mark this NSFW please, and also my condolences.

.... OKAY PHEW. I. Honestly thought it was gonna be worse.

So, my dear friends, picture this.

This 36 year old woman, silently regretting all the choices in life that led to this moment, just staring at this, and wondering what in gods name do I do with this.

Then I realized an additional horror.

Typically, when someone donates a bag, the bag contains similar items. If I pull out a kid's shirt, I'm going to expect other kid stuff in there, like kid jeans, kid pajamas, etc.

"No." I mentally begged. "This a one-off. They wouldn't."

I looked in the bag.

And it was filled with more sex supplies. Lube. Feather-ticklers. Tying sashes. More lube. Rope. Pretend cuffs. More lube.

The saving grace was that none of this appeared to be used. Wrappings were still on, plastic uncut.

After at least five minutes of me mentally screaming WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS , I glanced at the time. About an hour left in my shift.

I decided this would be Future Mel's problem, shoved everything back in the bag, and went on with my day, somehow hoping it would be gone when I returned on my next shift.

It was still there when I got back.

Ultimately, I decided this was a Not Clothing/Linens bag, so, Other People would get to deal with it. I spilled it into the shopping cart, quickly jogged over to the Other People, refused to say anything or make eye contact, and then ran back to my table.

None of the Other People ever talked to me about it. The last saving grace.

And that, my dear lovelies, is the story of why I will now always wear gloves at work.

Happy Holidays.

And I did put in a NSFW at the top, just in case.

"well, why aren't there donations for sex things?! people in need have sex, too!"

At least it was sealed???

OKAY GOOD, like... I'm very glad my suspicions were wrong, that's ALL I'll say there. But lord. PEOPLE! WHY YOU DO THIS?!

Ayasugi_san

it does feel like donations that should be handled by the store that sells the goods. not mixed in with everything else

On the plus side, my dear ones, you now have a positive affirmation whenever your life takes an unexpected turn. "Well, this was bad. But at least I didn't have the mental and moral quandaries of getting sex supplies at a charity shop."

I feel like someone needs to make a "Donating Is My Kink" tee shirt probably a crop top or booty shorts

if that ever becomes a real thing I APOLOGIZE FOR BRINGING IT INTO THE WORLD

Yeah I was worried this would be a lot worse too.

well you've put a new paranoia in my brain, thanks guys XD

this was wild lmfao

LMFAO I am so glad everything was unopened

PLEASE tell us if that stuff ends up getting sold in the shop, I am immensely curious

I'm certainly not gonna kinkshame, as long as everything's clean I don't think the desire to donate them somewhere is wrong (not the lube though, even unopened that feels iffy), but I do feel like a run of the mill (I'm assuming from the description) Goodwill-adjacent store is the wrong place to do so lol

whoever donated it probably should've asked their local kink community for advice first

yeah

damn, the most I've ever seen in the back was a lesbian couple donating a bunch of sextapes

well, pornos, but you get the idea

Ffff. as someone who worked four years in a thrift store you absolutely never know what people are gonna donate. I've never seen a whole bag of kinky things before. but uhh... yeah the occasional items would randomly be in a bag or box.

One time I had to explain the concept of doujin to a manager because someone donated some Naruto doujin too. the uhh... r18 variety.