What to do with outgrown toys and baby gear

The kids outgrew it years ago, nobody's buying it new, and the garage is full. The trouble with toys and baby gear isn't deciding what to keep. It's that some of it is unsafe to hand to another family, and a lot of it is plastic with nowhere to go.

Pull the safety items out first

Car seats, cribs, helmets, and anything a baby sleeps in or rides in have a shelf life. Before you load a donation box, set those on the driveway and check each one against the recall list and the label on the shell or frame. A car seat with no label, an unknown history, or a date past the maker's limit can't be passed on.

Cribs are the other trap. Drop-side cribs, cribs missing hardware, and any crib that sat in a damp attic shouldn't be donated. Same with old walkers and anything with a strap that's cracked or chewed.

Sort the small stuff into three boxes

Games, puzzles, and building sets are worth donating only if they're complete. Count the pieces and bag the set with a note about what's inside. A puzzle missing six pieces wastes a volunteer's afternoon and gets thrown out anyway.

Stuffed animals are the hardest to move. Most donation desks won't take them used, and a bag of them from a damp garage is a mold problem. Keep the two or three that matter, wash what survives the wash, and let the rest go.

What a donation desk will ask you

• Is it complete, clean, and bagged together?
• Are all the parts and the instructions there?
• Is there a recall on this model?
• Can one person carry it?
• Is it missing a battery cover, a charger, or a strap?

Big plastic leaves a different way

Ride-on cars, play kitchens, water tables, and big outdoor toys get refused by a lot of donation desks because of the size. Check your town's bulk pickup rules before you set one at the curb — some want a call ahead, some want a tag, and some won't take plastic play equipment at all.

A ride-on with a dead battery is scrap, not a donation. Strip the charger and the key if you still have them, and don't leave the thing in the alley hoping.

Sell in lots, not per piece

The resale money in toys is in the bundle. Photograph a whole bin of same-age toys on a clean floor, name the brands and the age range, and price it to move as one lot. Nobody drives across town for a four-dollar action figure.

Baby gear that's still current — a stroller with all its parts, a bassinet with the original mattress — is worth listing on its own with real photos. Wash the cloth parts first, or nobody answers the message.

One bin for the next kid

If there's another baby coming or a grandchild in the picture, keep one bin and label it with the sizes and seasons inside. More than one bin turns into a storage unit you pay for. If you'd rather buy it again than dig it out, don't keep it.

Car seats are the thing people get wrong. Cut the harness straps, write on the shell with a marker, and put it out with the trash. Never leave one at the curb as a freebie, where somebody picks it up and puts a kid in it.