I’m sure we aren’t the only house which seems to end up with a completely insane number of cuddly toys. of course, owning a toy shop hasn’t helped, nor has the ‘tradition’ of a new animal each at Christmas every year (that mounts up in a family of this size!) and it does seem that family member resort to soft toys when they can’t quite think what else will do. 13 years of babies and birthdays mean we have a huge mountain of cuddlies. It’s not that long since I took bagfuls of them to a charity shop, but the girls have got wise since and anyway, they LOVE so many of them. The list of attachments to stuffed bears and cuddly cats is quite endless. I sometimes wonder how Josie or Amelie actually sleep in their beds, they have so many ‘friends’ in their with them 🙄
When the Persil Pass on the Love campaign got in touch, I thought it was a good opportunity to try and relieve the pressure on the ‘fit to bursting’ blanket box where toys go to see if anyone remember them in a years time.
Launched by Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley at Camp Bestival this year, the picnics are a way to get kids out and socialising with friends, sharing their bears and passing them on if they need a new home. Jo and Persil encouraged any bears left at the end of the day to be sent on to Oxfam so they can be given to children who are in need of toys. Everyone wins 🙂 Some houses get less toys (hurrah!) and some get much needed ones, people get to picnic and play in the great outdoors and a charity also benefits.
If you’d like to donate any cuddly toys to be passed on, you can find your local Oxfam shop here. It would be great if you could make sure the cuddlies are washed in advance. We were fortunate to be sent a free hamper from Persil and it included some 2in1 Persil Comfort as well as a rather cute cuddly toy rabbit that Josie has decided will be for our new baby. In fact, the Comfort has provoked the washing of rather a lot of toys, not just ones destined to be swapped! Everyone is softer 😉
We held our own picnic with a couple of the girls’ friends (not in the pic) in our garden as we were a bit car-less and poorly that week. These are favourite toys in the picture, but we did find some to swap too 😉 it was fun 🙂
Persil have kindly offered to send three of my readers a hamper too; that’s it, pictured on the right. It’s rather lovely and has goodies inside 😉 If you’d like to win one, leave a comment and I’ll draw three random winners on Saturday morning.
Lovely idea, I tried to clear our boxes of cuddly toys yesterday but failed, only one is leaving the building. They all seem to have tell a tale, perhaps bought on a particular holiday, belonged to be late Nan, etc. We can’t part with them.
*tries to think of something relevant to say and keeps her fingers crossed that she might win without* 😉
Having seen the piles of cuddly toys in your house, it just makes me more embarrassed about the number in this house considering I only have one 13 year old boy!
I have fond memories of Grandma hanging my cuddlies out on the washing line by their ears when I was little. I still have a stash of beloved cuddlies in storage, I whittled them down first though and all those I could bear to part with went to charity – about 2 large bin bags full.
Not sure if you are including overseas entries.. but if so count us in! It has become my regular routine to sneak a few cuddlies from the kid’s stash and re-home them!
I’ve still got piles of cuddly toys from childhood and no children to blame! Must have a sort out one day!
Another one here who watches in wonder as her daughter manages to not only squish into, but then actually sleep in, a bed that contains seemingly millions of cuddly toys. This has encouraged me to have a clear out- no bad thing!
funny, I was just suggesting to Aprilia this morning that it may be time for Dog Tiger and Carrot (don’t ask…..) to have a little spa treatment 😉 Whoever thought that white was a good colour to use on a child’s cuddly needs their head seeing to!
We rehomed quite a sackful of toys recently but she still has 2 muck bucket’s worth of cuddlies that are too “precious” to give away plus the aforementioned trio that go everywhere plus a few others that guard her bed plus the one she bought for me for my birthday plus erm, well, rather a lot of Ty ones of mine and my teddy from when I was a tot and…. and…. and…. yeh, lots of cuddlies here!
What a brilliant idea! I was only saying the other day to DH that with a a boat fit to burst and another on the way we really should try and rehome some of the many cuddlies our toddler has accumulated (I only shudder to think how many more you must have with 4 girls and all a lot older than our one) but wanted to make sure they ended up somewhere where they’d be loved rather than in the back room of a charity shop or on a dusty shelf somewhere! So now I’ll be harassing my local oxfam!
there’s nothing nicer than the smell of freshly washed teddies…..’till your darling child decides to replace all the accumilated snot, grime and unidentifiable sticky bits within the first ten minutes of having them back!! ho hum!
Winners by randomiser for this thread were 8, 6 and 3. Claire, Jenny and Anni.
If you let me have your addresses I will send them on to my PR contact who will send out your hampers 🙂