Mind

As a charity Mind often gets overlooked, especially amidst the very many Oxfam, Bernardos, PDSA, Cancer Research UK charities in the UK, and as one focusing on assisting with mental health, I think Mind does some excellent work. Having worked on a project regarding mental health in teenagers many years ago with Mind, it always draws me in when there’s anything Mind based. Firstly, this Mind shop is a rather nice size, it’s spacious, and doesn’t have that pokey, trapped vibe to it that most charity shops seem to deliver horribly well.
There’s a steady selection of most things in here, from entertainment with CDs and DVDs, a few videos and tapes, and if you’re lucky some vinyl. All the clothing in here looks like it’s been vetted to excellent standards, as there were no holes or frays in any of the clothes in here, and quite surprisingly for me there were some excellent selections, in all shapes and sizes. This Headingley lot are pretty trendy.
Greetings cards are pretty standard, but at least they’re not second hand, which could be problematic if it isn’t actually bob’s birthday, but I digress. There’s some literature about Mind about the place too, and the staff are really smiley and helpful which is always a nice thing to behold when walking into any shop.

Mind is a spacious charity shop and isn’t packed full of stuff. This is both good and bad because it’s easier to browse and find a gem but there isn’t a huge amount to choose from.
What there is though is mostly of high quality and there is a nice range of clothing, some children’s toys and clothes and a decent amount of books, vinyl, CDs, videos and DVDs. They have quite a lot of home ware and crockery and they also sell new greetings cards. As Rowena says it is easy to miss out Mind when running the Headingley charity shop gauntlet but it’s definitely worth a look in.

Tucked away around the corner from the Skyrack is Mind, the first on the Otley run of charity shops in Headingley. I think it’s location means that it is often overlooked, people will usually die straight in to Martin House — which is no bad thing as that place is ace — but it seems unfair to miss Mind out entirely.
Mind have a lovely quirky store that always has some interesting crockery or glassware on their shelves. Sure enough you’ll find all the standard items from a charity shop — VHS, DVDs, CDs, Books and more. They have a separate room that houses all their clothing, which usually has a lot of cool bits for girls.
They’ve never had a great deal of jewellery but all in all the staff are lovely and it’s great for a browse. Always worth checking here first for costume ideas before spending a lot elsewhere too, what with all the student dress ups and so on!

I bought some bench jeans from here for three quid. Bargain.