Where To Donate The Baby Stuff and Recycled Gifts

At our company Christmas party, St. Rita Orphanage was one of our chosen charities, and seeing babies with few toys filled me with shame at how shallow my Christmas spirit had deteriorated.  And so I filled an entire balikbayan box with baby clothes and toys and sent them to be delivered during the post-holiday work days.

St. Rita Orphanage just after Loyola Memorial Cemetery in Sucat.  Website here.

The hardest thing was thinking "will I need this for the (fingers crossed) next baby?".  But I decided that our second child should be getting new onesies and lampins all her own.  These are, after all, the cheaper baby things to get.  In hindsight, I only just needed a dozen onesies, too.  So off they went.

Next was easy.  Stuffed toys of which we were never a huge fan of, yet managed to amass quite a collection.  A lot went into the donate pile, but how come we still have too many??

I'd still like to get rid that annoying Baby Alive doll.

Lastly books and more "durable" things like rubber mats, baby plates and toys.  If it's cheap or plastic, which most are, it will never survive a couple years of storage and still look new.  At least if donated now, kids can appreciate them more.  So off they went too.

(Why yes, I am a second child myself with hand-me-down issues.  How'd you guess?)

For toys for preschool kids and up, another option is the Philippine Toy Library, an org with a brilliant idea of collecting toys and books to build play spaces in poor areas.  That sounds like a good home for the birthday and Christmas gifts that kids aren't interested in.

Ladybug Girl just isn't into gifts yet.  Here we are on Christmas morning where her dad was opening presents for her.

Finally an upside to a home purge during Christmas!