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Organizing the Home

Stuffed animals?

18 years ago

What do you do with all the stuff animals your children seem to accumulate? My daughters are 18 & 10 and have picked out the ones they want to keep. The rest, are in 4 LARGE storage containers in the garage. I check with local hospitals and they won't accept them. Any ideas would be appreciated, most are in really good shape, some still have the tags on them.

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Comments (6)

quiltglo
18 years ago
I would just drop them off at your local charity thrift store. Ours always has tons.

Our local quilt guild does an "animal and a quilt" type fundraiser thing. Since most all stuffed animals can be easily thrown in the washer, people pick up animals and then make small quilts to go with them. After people "bid" on their favorites, they are donated to the local police/fire/ambulance/social services to give to the kids they work with. The groups willingly take them since they know everything is clean.

Gloria
Kelly_68
18 years ago
This may sound odd, but I often see staff from our local zoo at our local thrift shop with bags of stuffed animals. They buy them for the animals in their facility, so if you have a local zoo maybe they would take them. Or what about an animal shelter, our dog loved a stuffed animal to play with. Daycares, elementary schools, foster homes, social services that deal with children in crisis may be will to take them. Good luck.
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If the stuffed animals in question are "special" and you really want to salvage them, try the following. Remove stuffing and throw away. Mold spores are in and will remain in the stuffing. Not safe for your child. Next, wash the animals using mold killing solution (maybe liquid Lysol). If animals are free of mold, re-stuff animals with new stuffing. Doubt you will want to go to this much trouble. I personally would buy new stuffed animals and not take the risk of mold spores still being in the animals. Health of our babies/children are more important than stuffed toys.
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She's six; any chance you can reduce the collection a little bit by having her choose some to give to kids who don't have any toys? With the holiday season approaching, that might be a tactic to try. Otherwise, you will either need to add more storage or reduce the collection. Maybe add another hanging hammock--they are easy to put up and to take down and not as permanent as floating shelves. Or maybe box some of the extras up for a month or two, to see if she misses them. Or maybe give her a huge incentive to reduce the collection. Is there some toy/game that she really wants, but there isn't room for, because she has so many stuffed animals? Is she mature enough to understand that if she clears a certain amount of space, say the space taken up by 20 stuffed animals, there will be room for the thing she really wants?
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I've only recently started collecting the smaller stuffed animals to recycle as plastic bag holders! BEWARE this is not for the squeamish: I dissect them, cut off their arms and legs, and sew the bodies shut just above where the legs would be. I elongate the arms and make dresses for them, but they're really to hold your your old plastic grocery bags. You can buy a pattern on ebay, or just make up your own for the dress part. I'll probably end up selling them on ebay someday, right now, I only have a couple of bears.
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Is there a local zoo around? Our zoo goes to the SA for stuffies for their animals, maybe they would take yours. You said they belonged to you as a child, do any of them have value so you could sell them. Hope they find a new home.
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Adella Bedella
18 years ago
Our local zoo no longer allows stuffed animals.

I see people at the thrift store buying them for the people in nursing homes. Our library will accept them for the childre's area also.
jannie
18 years ago
I have brought good,clean (but outgrown)toys to my pediatrician's office.
sue102
18 years ago
Nursing homes, children's homes, preschools and the Salvation Army are usually willing to accept clean, well loved stuffed animals. When my kids have outgrown theirs, I gave some to each of those places in our area and they were happy to have them.
Sue
kudzu9
18 years ago
I was in the same situation as you with zillions of leftover, but perfectly good, stuffed animals. I waited until December last year and advertized them on Freecycle. You'd be amazed at how many people are in such dire circumstances that they struggle to be able to buy Xmas presents for their kids. I must have gotten a half dozen responders within a few hours and I divided up the stuffed animals among them.

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