I collect Blythe dolls, but I’m sure there’s other people who have a lot of Blythes and a lot of other old toys – including old Barbie dolls with matted hair, stuffed animals that stay on shelves and toy cars that still have wheels. There’s not a lot of organizations that accept used toys. Organizations take new toys – they want to be sure that the toys aren’t on recall lists or have lead parts or lead paint – all of these are perfectly acceptable concerns to have, especially as you’re trying to do something good with donated toys, not giving someone lead poisoning.

Things that you should check on your used toys are:

• All parts are included – if there are batteries needed, remove the old batteries and make sure none of the old batteries had leaked out into the toy.
• The toys are clean – you can wash and dry stuffed animals with the regular laundry. Non-electronic toys can generally be washed in water-and-bleach mixtures.

You should not donate toys that are missing important parts (i.e. eyes, ears, noses, limbs, etc.) and any toys that you donate should be something that looks gently used and not overly loved. If you can, make any repairs to make the toy like-new before donating it, no one really wants to receive a naked doll with hacked-off hair or permanent marker eyeliner (although, I’m sure there are some rescued Blythes that looked like that at one point!).

Be sure to read all of the guidelines towards donated used (or new) toys – some organizations do not accept toys that use batteries or toys that have any painted surfaces.

Do some good for your community and give back with good used toys for children. Links of some organizations/groups that take used toys include:

• BabyBuggy.org (New York City, USA)
• Operation Give (USA)
• Second Chance Toys (Illinois,  Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey)
• Stuffed Animals For Emergencies “SAFE” (Ontario, Canada; Dominican Republic; USA)

If you know of any other organizations that accept used toy donations, please include the link below in the comments and I’ll be sure to include it on the list.