The Salvation Army has been forced to stop receiving donations of everything except furniture in Orange after being overwhelmed.
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A storeroom at the rear of the Thrifty Store on Summer Street is overflowing with piles of clothing and more than 30 large containers of donations received since January that staff have yet to process and put on sale.
It has called out for more volunteers to help work through the backlog.
Captain David Grounds said the situation had been created by the generous donations of people in the just-finished school holidays and the closure of the St Vincent de Paul Society's charity bins in McNamara Street.
Vinnies is still receiving goods over the counter at its new store on Peisley Street and is negotiating with Orange City Council and other authorities about placing bins at sites around Orange.
Captain David Grounds said the Salvos could not re-start receiving other items, including clothing and bric-a-brac, until its backlog was cleared.
"We are getting overwhelmed. It's become a safety issue," he said.
"It's not a permanent thing. It will be a while before we can [resume taking other items]."
He said winter and the school holidays were traditionally times when people had clean-ups at their homes and donated items to charities.
"There's too many donations at this time. People are very generous," he said.
"We can only take as much as we can handle."
Captain Grounds said some other charities were still accepting clothing, including at the UPA (United Protestants Association] charity bin in a car park near Aldi off Peisley Street.
The Salvation Army store's longest-serving volunteer Jenny Agland has been there for 36 years and said more helpers were needed.
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