People in the villages and towns around us give us nearly everything we hand out. If you have outgrown baby things in good condition, we would like them.
What we always need
- Nappies, sealed, any size. Size 4 and above go fastest
- Baby wipes, sealed
- Clothes in 0 to 3 months and 18 to 24 months, which run short more often than the middle sizes
- Sleepsuits and vests
- Cot sheets and blankets
- Toiletries, sealed and in date
- Towels, including hooded baby towels
What we can usually use
- Clothes and shoes up to age two, clean and unstained
- Prams, pushchairs and slings, complete and in working order
- Travel cots, moses baskets and cot frames
- Highchairs, bouncers and playmats
- Breast pumps, steriliser units, bowls and weaning spoons
- Books and toys, complete and wipeable
- Maternity clothes
What we cannot take
These are safety rules. If we turn something away it means we cannot vouch for it, not that you did anything wrong by offering.
- Car seats. We cannot know whether a seat has been in a collision, and the damage that matters is often invisible. We pass on new seats only.
- Cot and moses basket mattresses. Safer sleep guidance is that each baby has their own new, firm, flat mattress. We buy these new.
- Bottles, teats and dummies. We cannot sterilise them to a standard we would stand behind.
- Opened nappies, wipes, toiletries or formula. Anything consumable has to reach us sealed and in date.
- Drop-side cots, and anything subject to a product recall.
- Anything damaged, incomplete or missing its instructions, particularly prams, cots and anything with a harness.
- Clothes that are stained, bobbled, torn or smell of smoke. Kindly meant, but we pay to dispose of them.
The condition test
Ask yourself whether you would hand it to a friend who had just had a baby. If you would apologise for it first, put it in the recycling instead.
Washed is enough. We check things again before they go out, so please do not iron anything on our account.
Where to bring things
[COLLECTION POINT, ADDRESS]
[OPENING DAYS AND TIMES]
Please take donations home again rather than leaving them outside when we are shut. Cardboard and rain between them ruin a good bag of clothes overnight, and we then pay to throw away something you meant well by.
Large items and big loads
Ask us first at chair@avonvalleybabybank.org.uk. Storage is our tightest constraint, and some weeks we cannot take another pram.