Does anyone have any genius ideas for what to do with kids party bag tat?

[Imicola]

You know, all the random clutter that never really gets played with, mostly made of plastic, which comes home after every kids party. Pop its, slap bands, glow sticks, rubber balls etc etc etc. I have a drawer full of it, as I can't bring myself to throw it out and I doubt any charity shop would want it. Also mini packs of pencils or crayons.

Does anyone have any fantastic ideas to use or repurpose any of it? I don't want to just chuck it all in landfill, I just wish parents didn't buy it in the first place.

Mini packs of crayons are ideal for restaurants, travel etc, the rest should be recycled if possible

Charity shop, women's refuge, food bank, children's ward?

School fair lucky dip usually like these. Put them all in one little sealed bag for charity shop?

Charity shop it.

Charity shop.

Give them put at Halloween instead of sweets? Appreciate that may mean living with them for a while! Add to your own children's party bags and regift...

Give it to your children's teachers for prizes they can hand out in class?

If broken, chuck. If not broken, donate.

I reuse it all as lucky dip prizes for PTA events or parties etc

Homemade crackers - or return them in next year’s party bags?

This stuff is genuinely not what anyone would want to have donated!

I used to use it for our home prize shelf. I stocked tiny physical rewards for dc to earn whenever we were on a skill or a behavior.

School fairs do the ‘lucky jars’ a jam jar stuffed with party bag crap and sweets they can win.

My cats love the bouncy balls. Mini pencils/crayons are ideal for restaurants. The rest of it I keep in the drawer in the playroom and it does get used in some inventive ways like Barbie was wearing a slap band as a weird kind of tube top recently, and the other day the Sylvanians had a glow stick disco.

I disagree OP, I think there are plenty of kids having a shit Christmas who would be thrilled with slap bands and glow sticks.

Homemade crackers is a good idea, and also the lucky dip idea, I'll keep that in mind for PTA events, tombolas etc. We do already use what we can for travel, restaurants etc but I'm finding that we're getting many multiples of the same trash!

I’m sorry I haven’t got any good ideas for you OP, I’m 42 and this sort of stuff was in our party bags back when I was a kid, I feel awful about all that trash we have sent to landfill and it’s still going on!

I added a drawer full to a pass the parcel this year. I like the Halloween idea too!

You can melt crayons down if you break them up into little pieces and put them in silicone moulds in the oven? Could do them in cute shapes and regift them? I agree we end up with so many mini packs of crayons in the same few colours!

But these items are already theirs

Sort them out into sets. This is what I did when my kids were younger. eg, dinosaurs, small animals, hair bands, bobbles, marbles etc. Put them in separate bags and give to charity shop or donate for lucky dip.

Keep a box and add them all. Make them into party blind bags back next time. If you mix the bits about and treat like a lucky dip nobody will know.

Put it on the local free stuff site everything goes off ours

I know what you mean, I hate it too!! It’s not just the physical waste, it’s the waste of time/energy/purchasing of someone one buying it, filling bags or wrapping it, then the recipient having to do something with it, then the charity shop having to get rid of it as all the crayons got smashed in transit…

Someone should make a range of compostable party bags and contents!

I used to collect it all in a large jam jar (along with any spare yucky sweets) and donate it to school for the jam jar tombola.

It's a brilliant idea until your dc win it back. 🤣