Every once a year, or shall I say (every month?) I get told by my wife to stop buying toys. Well, like that’s going to happen? Me and my 7-year-old love buying toys and it is the single most important to-do thing on the weekends. Well, who are we kidding? It is the single most important thing to do whenever we go out. Oh, come on! It is the single most important thing that is on the top of me and my son’s mind “WHENEVER” we go out as a family day out. We end up parking the car right next to practically any toy store and me and my son hop into the shop and go frenzy onto which toy we should get next. Well, that’s me!
Let us now get straight to the topic in hand. What do you do with your children’s toys that have gone old? Not that they age of course, but what exactly can you do with your children’s OLD toys is the right way to phrase it. This isn’t an easy one! Quite a few times in a year, I try to round up all the used toys along with some unused ones which my son has never played with and donate them to a worthy cause. This includes toys that my son just played with a tad bit and left into the wanders of the closet and others that are entirely unused just because we kept on adding new ones to our brigade of toys.
Needless to say, decluttering your own stuff can be a bit tricky. Especially when it comes down to your kid’s toys since there are several other challenges to face along with it. Emotional sentiments, the continuous need of your child’s desire to play with an old toy once in a blue moon, and many more. And most of all, the approach that needs to be exhibited by the parents when informing their child that their old toys are going to be donated to a local charity. Oh, the meltdowns! But fret not, I am going to share some excellent tips in this article that would minimize such meltdowns and tantrums.
How to Donate Your Children’s Old Toys?
There is a lot more involved in donating your child’s old toys to the charity. You can’t just round up all the toys and throw them into a bag and walk over to your local charity and dump them there. This process should be a fun one for both you, the child and eventually the charity shop who would be receiving this gift from your family.
How do we go about ensuring this is a smooth, easy, fun and a learning process for your child? Read further:
Get Your Kids Directly Involved in This
If your idea of decluttering your household from unused toys is by doing it when your kid isn’t’ around, then you sir, are in for a messy surprise once they find out. And dear God! They “DO” find out. Your kids are bound to be upset when they find out their old toy is missing. And secondly, this approach does not promote the concept of sharing and giving. Which is vital for us as a parent to develop right off of an early age.
You can achieve this by quickly asking your kid to get involved in the process. Don’t ever do it when they are not at home. You can start off by convening them and asking them to help around decluttering the toys room. Gradually convincing them on the importance of sharing stuff with the less fortunate ones around us.
The approach that I resorted to was that “Hey, let us give this bag of Legos to a child who doesn’t have a lot of toys as you do?” And guess what, the answer almost every time is a “Sure dad!” – This approach not only solves the problem of making space in for new toys at your home but also teaches your kid a very valuable approach in life that it’s not always about receiving but also the approach to give back should always be there in them.
How to Choose A Charity to Donate Toys
Head over to this link by Forbes which would let you pick from a list of charities around in the US where you can set up an appointment and they would ideally pick up your donations “FOR FREE!”. Other places where you could ideally donate your children’s old toys are:
- Hospitals
- Social Services
- Police and the fire departments
- Your local Doctor’s office
- Daycare centres
- Shelters
- Children’s homes
- Military families
- Churches
Got more than toys that you want to donate. Then these chaps at DonationTown have done an excellent job into making this whole process a lot easier and less cumbersome. Just click on the link above and punch in your Zip-Code. Once done, you would then be contacted by the charity organization that is near to your location, and they would schedule a pickup for you.
The Number Approach
Often at times, when I and the wifey involve my 7-year old to donate his unused; old toys away to the charity. We give him a particular number. For example, sake, let that be 5. We ask him to give away 5 toys of his choice that he wants the other children to have from him as a gift. This approach works wonders, since almost every time he ends up giving double the amount, we advise him to.
Ship Them Yourself
Pack everything up that needs to be given away to the charity. Get hold of a recyclable box and pack out everything in it. Be sure to lash and tape it properly.
Now, get hold of your local freight forwarder and ship the cargo off to countries where you deem fit.
I know of a few family friends who have used the Lego’s RePlay Program to donate their children’s old Lego blocks. You just need to enter your zip code, and your email ID and this link would generate a PRINT LABEL that you can just affix onto your Lego box and send it off.
Go Through the Toys
If you are fond of Kid’s Meal toys from the fast-food restaurants around your town, then you too would have a box labelled “HAPPY MEAL TOYS” (Well, at least that’s what I have labelled it as) lying around in the corner of your house. If all of them are in good shape, then there is no harm in donating those as well to your local charity.
Few things you need to consider before you ship the toys off to the charity are:
- Make sure the toys don’t have any broken parts. Since broken toys or ones with lost attachments are of no use to the charity.
- You wouldn’t want the heirloom to be given out into the charity box. Let us say your son loves his kinder toys collection of “The Smurfs”. Since they are old, doesn’t necessarily mean they are useless. If he plays with them and adores them, then keep them as an heirloom for it to be passed onto your other children or even the next generation of your family.
Washing those teddy’s
Before your start packing and zipping the toys to be given out to the charity, ensure that you wash and dry them nicely. This given the toys an added look and somewhat satisfies the requirement of a few charities that recommend the charity-givers to wash the stuffed toys before they hand it over to them. Trust me, it only takes an hour or two; depending on the type of stuffed animals that you are washing. And saves the charity tons of time. A good gesture!
There are a couple of ways you can wash your stuffed animals. If you are washing it by machine then keep the below guidelines into consideration:
- Place the stuffed animal into a mesh laundry bag.
or - Zipped pillowcase
or - Pillowcase with ends tied for added protection against wear and tear.
- Choose gentle wash settings on the machine.
- Add detergent
- Air dry
If you are washing your stuffed animals with hand, then make sure you:
- Soak them in cold water for sometime
- Add the detergent (only small amounts)
- Gently squeeze the stuffed toy with hands so that the detergent could saturate in
- Don’t scrub too hard
- Rinse it with a bucket full of fresh cold water
- Airy Dry
Composing A List
Once you have decided what toys need to go out to the charity, now is the best time to compose a list of what those toys are. This is practically helpful when the time to pay taxes is nearby. Since a sizeable donation to the charity can result in “charitable tax deductions”. Use this website to calculate your tax reductions by just filling in a simple form. TurboTaxIntuit guarantees 100% accuracy. They also have a smartphone app that you can use on the go year-round.
If you do decide to file for tax reductions, then I suggest head over to the IRS website to make sure that organization you are donating to qualifies for a tax reduction.
Once you have confirmed the organization is in the exempted list, always ask for a signed slip or a formal receipt of a sort, that would then allow you to use it in your W-2 tax forms confirming the reduction.
Follow the Charities Packing Procedures
Specific charities have their own standard procedures for accepting donations, in terms of packing and transportation. Make sure you read their guidelines before you arrange for a pickup or if you decide to drop the toys yourself at their location.
Almost all the charities that I have ever donated to accepted toy donations in boxes. Some even accepted in black garbage bags as well. But to each, their own rules! Such guidelines are easily accessible on the charities website, or you can just give them a quick call to find out more information on this subject.
What I usually do is to pack all the like shaped toys together, which makes the charities life a lot easier into sorting them out once they receive it. Once I have all the like-shaped toys together, if they are boxed then I ensure to put a clearly visible label on the box and write on it as to what type of toys are inside. Similarly, all such toys can’t be put away in boxes, I use big black garbage bags to put them away. A similar rule of sticking a bag label on top of the bag with a note on it allows the charity to organize your donations effectively.
Related Questions
I am sure after reading through this article, you may have some more questions in line with this topic. Therefore, I have tried my best to cover those in the questions below. If you have got any more questions, then please feel free to contact me by using the contact us link at the bottom of this page.
What Type of Toys to Donate?
Most of the charities wouldn’t mind any kind of toys to be donated to them. There are however a few that would publish their wish-lists on their websites requesting for a specific category of toy types to be donated to them.
One such that I know of is Nation Wide Children’s.
Do Fire Departments Accept Stuffed Animals?
The answer is “YES”.
If your stuffed animals are BRAND NEW. Then head over to any of your local fire department and just hand over the stuffed animals to them. They would definitely cherish your donation.
If you are keen into donating used stuffed animals to the fire department, then head over to BrothersHelpingBrothers and contact them for donations directly to the fire departments across the US.
Where to Donate Toys for Christmas?
Head over to Toys for Tots and donate your gathered up used toys at your home. Toys for Tots has delivered almost 566 million toys to children since they founded back in 1947.
To find out about the drop off location, type in your city and zip code here, and you would be given with the list of businesses that would accept your donations.
Conclusion
It is, without a doubt a selfish move to donate toys. You must be astounded by this very statement. Well, yes! It is selfish indeed since now I get to buy more toys for my kid *smile*.
Jokes apart! Donating toys is an excellent way of giving back to the community, and at the same time, it also keeps on reminding your young one that life is not always about getting stuff that you want. Sometimes you also need to give it back. And what better than teaching them to start off by giving away their once-loved toys to those who aren’t able to afford it. Are you convinced that toys should be donated? Love to hear from you. Use the contact us page at the bottom of your screen to let me know your thoughts.