What do you do with outgrown car seats?

[HerculesMulligan]

I have three from our two kids - all less than 10 years old, have never been in an accident or damaged and would come up well if deep-cleaned. I don't particularly want money for them, but I don't want to toss them into landfill either.

[BertieBotts]

You can't really deep clean a car seat as they could be damaged by that kind of cleaning. You can usually machine wash the covers of course.

If it's older than 7/8 years I'd probably just get rid of them, same if it's heavily used or has sustained any damage, even minor seeming damage like the covers being frayed or the warning labels worn off isn't great. They should have all original inserts, strap covers etc if you want to pass them on as well, and ideally instruction manual (though you can often download these, so not as essential, if you tell the buyer where to get it).

If all this is fine then you could put them for free on facebook or ask your children's school if there are any families they know to pass them on to or ask local health visiting team?

If too old/worn out to pass on then you can sometimes recycle the different parts if you can separate the polystyrene from the plastic and metal and the covers are just fabrics so can be recycled with fabrics. You can always contact the manufacturer and harrass them about recycling too as it's good to put pressure on them to recycle.

Allegedly some fire stations will take them for training purposes too but not really sure how true that is??

[pollyRae16]

I'm sure I read the other day that the lifespan of some car seats is 5 years if they've been used for multiple children or 7 years if only used for 1.
If you do decide they're too old to pass on make sure you cut the straps on them to make sure no one tries to resell them

[MrsWooster]

Into a charity shop. The ones around us still take them. There are people out there who are really struggling and a slightly shit car seat is better than no car seat.