I have about three bags full of nice, high-quality stuffed animals that we no longer want.
Garage sales seem full of them, but they really don't sell well. Thrift stores also have bins and bins of the poor beasties, and no one wants them. I'd like to find a better home for my old friends than the bottom of a bin somewhere.
Any thoughts on other places where they could be used? Ways to display them at a garage sale so that they actually sell? Other ideas or experiences?
Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who made suggestions - it was a good jumping-off point for me to start researching. Here's what I found:
DO **NOT** TAKE STUFFED ANIMALS TO:
- Police Depts.
- Fire Depts.
- Hospitals
- The Crisis Nursery
- Bridging
- The Red Cross
You can take stuffed animals to CAP Agency, Goodwill, Salvation Army, or Arc Hennepin/Carver's thrift stores, but they have a lot of them already.
The best place in the Twin Cities to take them IF they are in GOOD CONDITION is Sharing and Caring Hands http://www.sharingandcaringhands.org/index.htm Mary's Place gets their stuffed animals from them. They also take GOOD CONDITION car seats, blankets, sheets, SMALL tvs, bikes, housewares, etc.
If you're willing to ship, there's a place called "My Sister's House" in NC that specifically requests stuffed animals on their wish list: http://www.mysisterplace.org/ I'm sure there are women's shelters here as well, I just know of this one through a friend.
As an aside, the Crisis Nursery has an excellent list of what they *do* need at this site: http://www.crisisnursery.org/pdf/Wishlist.pdf If you're looking for a good way to help your kids understand need and giving, you might want to take this list to the store and make a donation bag with them. The things are inexpensive and stuff we take for granted.
try contacting the local police dept. I think they take them to give to kids whose parents or parent has been abusive or has been arrested.
The crisis nursery downtown would love to take them.
You can just take them down to there location and drop them off.
The other place is "Mary's Place." They can always use them.
Hi K.,
Nice thought, I probably need to do this as well.... I talked to one of my coworkers who is married to a fireman and found that they may not take them at firehouses/hospitals directly, but you could donate them to the Salvation Army, as they are often at the scene of fires to offer help and placement assistance. Let us know what you find!
K.
I really like the idea of donating them to hospitals or even firehouses. That's a wonderful way of giving comfort to a displaced child. Imagine the relief it would give their parents as well.
I don't know about whether you are looking to sell them or not, but what about trying to donate them to a hospital or something similar? I think as long as they are clean and stuff a hospital or firehouse may take them to give them to children when they are sick, etc. I don't have experience with this other than my son getting a stuffed animal when he was transported via ambulance when he was very little. I am just not 100 % sure if they take them used or not...
