What to do with unwanted gifts?

[speakout]

I have already a large bag of stuff I have been given that I dont want to keep- what should I do with it? Mostly gift sets, mugs, cheap perfumes slipper socks, toiletries etc, Everthing is new with labels on etc,
Most of my charity shops are not accepting donations- I don't want to bin them- what will I do with them.

Mugs and toiletries - homeless shelters, soup kitchens and women’s refuges.

Just to add if you contact any women’s refuges it’s likely they won’t give you an address to drop stuff off for obvious reasons. I had to do a handover of stuff in a supermarket car park.

Fb free sites, sell on ebay or try and return for store credit? We have a few expensive lego sets to find a new home for.

I was just pondering this morning about why people feel the need to buy people this stuff, the “just something to unwrap” that will, inevitably, end up in a charity shop or landfill.

If you type ‘unwanted gift’ into ebay you get listing after listing of the same unwanted tat.

I’d just keep it in the bottom of the wardrobe until charity shops are accepting donations again, I don’t live anywhere near a refuge/shelter.

Donate for tombola prizes at Spring fairs would be another option, but I agree that it's a pointless waste buying all this stuff.

Overpriced and overpackaged nonsense. Hopefully increasing interest in avoiding waste will cause it all to die a death and people get over this notion that we all need 'something to open'.

Freegle

Ps hey @speakout ! Hope you had a good Christmas. I’ve also been known to eBay a few things with tags as usually you will find someone who would like them.

eBay freegle keep for peoples presents just make sure it's not the people who gave in firsts place charities such as homeless women refuges etc

So each year before Christmas I donate shoeboxes of gifts to Samaritans purse charity for children around the world in severe poverty. The gifts in the shoeboxes have to be new with tags etc. Any unwanted gifts (soft toys, duplicate toys or games, crayons) that my children receive are put away in the under-stairs cupboard to be donated next year. I also put any toiletries on Facebook free groups.

I am cynical about christian groups using showbox gifts as incentives to sweeten their indoctination.
I know some shoebox schemes will require attendance at bible school lectures or include religious literature with the boxes.
I may get in touch with women;s aid or similar- thanks.

Lots of local refuges or children's services do a shoebox scheme with no religious ties, you might find women's aid are inundated this time of year but will appreciate the things in six months or so

Just tell everyone who gives you these gifts that you are not doing presents any more? What a total waste!

NalPolishRemover I have tried for many years- it is my mother who is the worst offender- she will litterally buy me 50 gifts from B&M and pound shops

@Rhioplepog have a google of operation Christmas child. They add religious literature to their shoeboxes.

Slipper socks and hand creams can be sent to me 🤣. In reality someone on a local Facebook will probably want them.

Food banks often accept toiletries.

[quote alrightfella]@Rhioplepog have a google of operation Christmas child. They add religious literature to their shoeboxes. [/quote]
I agree with the comments about some shoebox schemes. Horrible organisations with very questionable roots

@Rhioplepog

So each year before Christmas I donate shoeboxes of gifts to Samaritans purse charity for children around the world in severe poverty. The gifts in the shoeboxes have to be new with tags etc. Any unwanted gifts (soft toys, duplicate toys or games, crayons) that my children receive are put away in the under-stairs cupboard to be donated next year. I also put any toiletries on Facebook free groups.

Samaritan's Purse/operation Xmas Child are a vile organisation. Please don't support them.

humanists.uk/humanism/humanism-today/humanists-doing/good-causes-and-charities/samaritans-purse/

Toys and toiletry sets gratefully received by Ronald McDonald houses (attached to large, see rmhc.org.uk). Toys for presents for siblings at Christmas, who are often staying with their parent(s) while another child in the Children's Hospital next door. Some types of toy or game also useful for their communal living room and they will use some that aren't immediately useful for fundraising efforts.They might only be able to take and store them towards next Christmas though.

The toiletry sets, and normal basic toiletries, are used to give out year round to parents who often come in at short notice and with nothing but what they were wearing, in the middle of the night. Toiletries are expensive in hospital shops, the range is small, and the parent might need to be at the bedside all the time when not sleeping, esp in the early days. Often this parent also has loss of income while staying at an RMH.

The longest stay of a parent that year in the one I supported (before I moved) was 254 days!

The food bank will take toiletries.

This is why I tell people not to buy for me

At all people also buy shit for my kids and Its absolute tat 🙄

Use the app olio.

Mother, I agree with every fibre of my being.
I absolutely loathe the gratuitous gifting and consumption of Christmas, I can't bear it.
This is the mindset that tanks ecosystems and hastens irrevocable degradation of habitats, depletes resources and heats the planet.
I so wish second hand gift-giving was normalised. We do almost all our presents second hand; clothing, technology, books, jewellery, toys, tools etc. It's cheap, doesn't contribute to resource depletion, supports the local economy and keeps an unwanted item from ending up on trash mountain.
I went into B&M to try to find some shoelaces while in transit a few weeks ago. It was a veritable Santa's grotto of seasonal plastic crap from floor to ceiling. I had the sickest feeling and had to leave the store. How people don't see landfill while trudging up and down the isles, I don't know.

As others have said, local food banks will take toiletries.

I volunteer for Home Start and we would take things like new toys, toiletries, mug sets etc to give to parents in need, and their children, in our area. Might be worth checking with your local one, I know they all have different requirements.