The person sorting donations must decide when a gift becomes someone else’s disposal problem.

Somewhere between generosity and disposal there is a line, and the person sorting the pile is the one who has to find it. A gift given without thought about whether it is usable transfers the work of discarding to somebody else, wrapped in the language of donating. Good intentions can outsource labour.

So apply a plain test before you give anything away: would you offer this to a friend. If not, dispose of it yourself. Giving well takes a little more effort at your end and saves several people a great deal at theirs, which is more or less the definition of a real gift.