Kayla Ellis’s children came home from school recently and asked their mother what was going on: the hallway was full of bags of clothing, trainers and toys. Ellis remembers her own mother also eyeing the chaos – and telling her she’d bitten off more than she could chew. Her mother was referring to the unofficial charity shop that Ellis has installed in her house. Ellis, a 31-year-old gardener from Cardiff, says: “I’ve got some builders coming next week to give me a quote to build a shed in the garden, so I can store the rest of the stuff in there.”
Ellis did not intend to create a charity shop in her house; it just sort of happened. (Technically, it’s not a charity shop, as all items are free, but locals call it that and it has caught on.) The idea started when her son was picked on at school because he didn’t have a trendy backpack.
