Do you recycle gifts?

[Buckeroo]

Just curious whether any of you recycle gifts that your kids received for birthdays/Christmas... If not, what do you do with duplicate gifts or ones that you deem "not appropriate" for your child?

 

[miaka]

sometimes i'll donate them to the salvation army

 

[MLBW]

Yes, I've been known to do this--especially when we receive duplicates of something or simply there is more than enough for my son--I'm always quite careful about the manner in which I do it in order to not offend or hurt the gift-giver.

 

[Canucker]

Yes. This Christmas my kids got way too much stuff... and I got a perfume gift set that will find a new home when the time is right.

 

[babymommy2]

No. If I recieved a duplicate, I would just return one of them. If it was inappropriate age wise, I would put it away unitl my child was older and could play with it. If it was a junk toy I either let them play with it knowing it will break right away, then i throw it in the garbage, or I put it in the pile of stuff for the next garage sale or the pile of stuff for the next donation box. i couldn't re gift it, because if I thought it was a piece of junk I would be to embarased to give it as a gift.

 

[nicolejoy]

I haven't done this - even with stuff that I'm 99% sure she won't ever use... I don't think I would - like babymommy said, (paraphrasing) I'd be embarrassed to give a gift that I personally didn't love - and if I loved it, I'd keep it - not give it away!!

If I get clothing that is a size too small, I'd try to exchange it for the exact same thing in the correct size, even if I like something else better - I figure that's what the "giver" wanted to give - so I'll graciously accept it

 

[0ze_Kid]

I lean towards babymommy2's thinking. I have a box with toys "for a later date" and every 6 months we cull the playroom of toys that have not been played with very often. I will sell a couple and give away the others to charity.

I have forgotten to do this with books so we have an abundance of those at the moment which I can't seem to be able to sit down and look at as to which ones they no longer read. I really need to do this.

My biggest annoyance is the little oys and items that are given to children at Seven7 McDonalds and the like... They are rubbish but the kids love them!

 

[southside852]

yep, i do it when my son aslready has the item or if he has something similar to it. i figure another baby would appreciate it more!

 

[Seb's Dad]

i set aside lots of gifts for those long plane rides!

there are also lots of charities that can use the gifts, or schools.

if the gifts are inappropriate, (in our house, bratz dolls are inappropriate), then i don't pass them on to anyone.

 

[AndreaY]

I have become cold heartedly systematical about recycling now. We unwrap and list all the presents given to my 3 yr old and 17 month old daughters and whom they are from. We keep the ones we like and think would be appreciated by the girls and the rest (60-70%) remains unopened and stored away. The presents then gets recycled to other friend's children, which is why we note down whom the presents were from, or it can get really embarrassing.

It's such a waste to have the kids play with stockpile of toys, each only couple of times, then each christmas and birthday becomes just another occasion to accumulate more rubbish. Think this method may get harder to carry out once they get older and realise some of their presents are missing.