What is the solution to decluttering stuffed animals?

[Anonymous]

Dog owners would be happy to take them off your hands. Lots of dogs love to chew and shred them. It's too expensive to buy new but second hand is perfect. Don't send to the landfill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a large collection of lightly loved stuffed animals that I donated when I went away to college - to the children’s reading room at the local library.

Please don’t throw them away before making at least a few calls to find local places that might accept them. As with anything they won’t want any that are really gross, but if they’re in good condition I’m guessing they are acceptable to some places. And yes, you can always list them on the Facebook marketplace as free to a good home and meet people in a public place to hand them off. There are a lot of really poor people right now who would love to have things to give to their children for birthdays etc. and can’t afford to buy anything.

I would add that a good place to contact would be battered women’s shelters and local family shelters. They might both be interested in having such toys on hand to comfort children made homeless by violence or poverty.

You are guessing wrong. I speak from experience - these places are inundated with requests from people trying to unload their secondhand stuffed animals. The amount of staff energy to make sure these items are clean (guess what, they’re usually not as clean as you think), safety-check, sort, organize etc these items is LITERALLY not worth it, and is one of the many many reasons why we request new items from our published lists only.

I know it feels “wrong” to throw it away. This means too much was bought in the first place, not that you need to give it to someone else to make yourself feel better.

Listen little miss smarty pants - I’ve worked for battered women’s projects that DO accept stuffed toys as donations. I’ve donated my own. So YOU don’t have the skinny on every place in existence. You DO have the skinny on being an arrogant azzhole. Kudos to you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a large collection of lightly loved stuffed animals that I donated when I went away to college - to the children’s reading room at the local library.

Please don’t throw them away before making at least a few calls to find local places that might accept them. As with anything they won’t want any that are really gross, but if they’re in good condition I’m guessing they are acceptable to some places. And yes, you can always list them on the Facebook marketplace as free to a good home and meet people in a public place to hand them off. There are a lot of really poor people right now who would love to have things to give to their children for birthdays etc. and can’t afford to buy anything.

I would add that a good place to contact would be battered women’s shelters and local family shelters. They might both be interested in having such toys on hand to comfort children made homeless by violence or poverty.

You are guessing wrong. I speak from experience - these places are inundated with requests from people trying to unload their secondhand stuffed animals. The amount of staff energy to make sure these items are clean (guess what, they’re usually not as clean as you think), safety-check, sort, organize etc these items is LITERALLY not worth it, and is one of the many many reasons why we request new items from our published lists only.

I know it feels “wrong” to throw it away. This means too much was bought in the first place, not that you need to give it to someone else to make yourself feel better.

Listen little miss smarty pants - I’ve worked for battered women’s projects that DO accept stuffed toys as donations. I’ve donated my own. So YOU don’t have the skinny on every place in existence. You DO have the skinny on being an arrogant azzhole. Kudos to you!

I'm sure your stuffies went to a great home. But the other little truth of the industry is that lots of charities accept all kinds of things and then just recycle or toss them. But it's better to make a good connection with the donor than send them away disappointed.

[Anonymous]

When I donated to the local library many of the animals were still there in the children’s reading room a couple of years later. When I worked for a battered women’s project I accepted stuffed toy donations myself, invested the time (10 minutes to load them in the washer, 10 minutes to transfer to the dryer) to wash them and transported them to our shelter. We routinely accepted such donations. Kids fleeing violence don’t care if the stuffy they get is gently used.

And you’re still an azzhole.

[Anonymous]

How old are your kids? Let them have a toys yard sale. Price every toy in ¢. When my kids were younger we bought from a girl on her front yard very nice stuffed horses.

[Anonymous]

Note to new parents. Don’t give theee to your kid and don’t take the tags off—put them straight in a bag for toys for tots. I learned that lesson too late.

Instead of fighting over whether shelters will accept them, can anyone provide the name of a shelter that will?

[Anonymous]

I do think they are probably a plague on the planet. I still have some of the special one DS had as a child (he's in his 30s). Others I turned into dog toys and periodically let our husky rip one apart (they love yanking out stuffing) so I could throw it away. If he ever does get around to marrying and having a child, it will be nice to pass one or two on.

I never had a problem washing them, they came out pretty much fine, if someone will accept them as a donation.

Having had someone bring in bedbugs, I'm surprised kind of that charities even accept them. But I noticed that a thrift store near me some time ago went to outside containers for donations. Maybe they keep them in there for a year to make sure the critters die?)