About what to do with old clothes and toys?

[A4710Rider]

My DS is almost 5, apart from one or two treasured items (Rugby top and Snow dog) I have a wardrobe full of clothes (from Next to Primark) in very good condition.

I also have 4 crates worth of toys that are never going to be played with again.

What to do with them? Can I just take all the clothes to a charity shop or should I do cash for clothes and spend the pennies on an afternoon out? I don't have the time or the inclination to put all of the toys on selling sites?

Has anyone ever done a car boot for all their DC's old stuff?

Storage is starting to become a massive issue.

If you do a car boot you'll probably get rid of quite a bit but it will take the whole morning and you probably won't make very much. But children's clothing and toys do normally sell.

You could look for somewhere to donate them specifically like a women's refuge or refugee centre? Though not many young child refugees in the UK. Women's refuge might be better.

NCT Nearly New Sales are a bit like car boots but you don't have to stand there and deal with hagglers - you just price up the stuff and wait to see what sells. You pay a percentage to NCT at the end but keep the rest.

Or wait and see if your school does a car boot/second hand sale as part of their summer fair? Maybe suggest it to the PTA - that parents can either pay for a stall and sell their stuff or give a certain percentage of their sales to the PTA fund?

Thanks, Bertie.

I'm beginning to realise that my future lies in Lego, lot's and lot's of Lego. Which isn't cheap and it would be nice to raise a few pounds to put towards some more. Will look into Nearly New Sales, hadn't heard of it before.

If you live anywhere near Manchester there is the wood street mission which take clothes and charities like little bundles who take clothes and toys for babies. Worth a google x

Donate them - search for baby banks in your area or charities working with women fleeing domestic violence, asylum seekers etc. If you have a Sure Start centre in your area they may be able to advise, or you may be able to donate the toys to them. Our GP surgery has a sign up asking for (plastic, hygienic) toys for the waiting room.

Sell them - NCT nearly new sales, Mum2Mum market or eBay.

Give them away - Freecycle or Facebook selling pages. Be prepared for the odd chancers though!

We keep only the very nicest & best condition stuff, in case we decide to have a 2nd child (unlikely due to various circumstances), literally about 1 small bag full per year. We charity shop / otherwise donate everything else, e.g. to school fundraising fairs. School gets the decent bits in best condition, also all old school uniform for spares, charity shop the reasonable stuff. Shoes, all glasses, old mobiles (formatted) go in the bins to be sent to schemes in the 3rd world etc. Any clothes that are really past it are cut up for rags, used for cleaning shoes, or chucked in the clothes recycling bank.

CBA with reselling. If we'd a car I might, possibly, do car boots. They look a lot of hassle though.

Thanks folks.

Your daughter's school might want the toys. The one where I volunteer always appreciate any toy or book donations; I think they want the toys for either after school club, or for use during wet play. Or donate the toys to the PTA for the summer fete toy stall, if they have one.

We take the vast majority to charity shops. The kids are used to it and they see it as normal to give away what we don't need so someone else can use it.

I was thinking about taking some of the toys to our local A&E as the ones in there are a bit grubby and bashed, keep forgetting to sort that out.

I've done a couple of car boots, which I hated as I'm not strong enough to say no! I don't think I made much either

I now try and sell the decent bits on a Facebook site and the rest sits in my boot for a year goes to the charity shop.

NCT are apparently very particular as to how you present your clothes (pristine, individually bagged and prices etc). You can make a decent amount of money but you really have to be organised.

I always intend to sell the old clothes , but have finally accepted that I'm just too lazy to! So off to the charity shop it goes!

I did try to donate to a refuge, but because you can't be told where the refuge is you have to live near a volunteer or employee who can collect it from you when it's needed, as they have no storage space. We didn't have anyone near us sadly.

Pick a cause close to your heart, and donate to their charity shop. Or failing that, donate to one which is he easiest to drop off to!!