GAWLER Community House is encouraging locals to drop in and grab a bargain, as volunteers continue to sort through the hundreds of donations left over the Christmas holiday period.

House manager Sharyn Lewis said so many items have been received for its Op Shop, residents are asked to hold-off donating anything further for at least another week.

“With the backlog, we actually just have nowhere to put it,” she said.

“We are hoping to get as much sorted as possible through this week, so that will give us a two-week reprieve and hopefully next week we can open the donation bin back up again.”

Mrs Lewis said the house had received many wonderful, high-quality items, including clothes and shoes, toys, and bric-a-brac items, which are now available for purchase in the recently-air-conditioned Op Shop.

However, the work-load for the 60 Op shop volunteers continues to be influenced by the leaving of rubbish, furniture, or poor-quality items by some members of the public.

Mrs Lewis said the Op Shop can often fill a skip bin with un-sellable items twice a week, with the cost to dispose taking away from funds otherwise spent on community programs or other  Community House initiatives.

“We often get bags of general waste, or we quite often get random pieces of rubbish thrown in the donation bin,” she said.

“It is not fair on our volunteers and it’s quite sad they have to deal with it.

“In fact we have had to roster volunteers on the weekend because of the dumping, because if it doesn’t get removed it gets rummaged through and can end up down the river or it just gets sprawled everywhere.”

The Op Shop also does not accept furniture or mattresses, with people encouraged to make use of Gawler Council’s newly-expanded hardwaste collection service for such items.