OLD SOFT TOYS ARE GIVEN NEW LIFE BY CHARLOTTE Stuff love
Battered teddies rescued from landfill & sent to new homes
When Charlotte Liebling worked in a charity shop as a volunteer she came to realise it was no picnic being an old teddy bear.
She was saddened by the huge number of battered and unloved cuddly toys that were being donated, and horrified to discover eight million end up in landfill in the UK every year.
So Charlotte, 28, decided to do something about it.
The result is a rescue centre called Loved Before – like the BBC’s Repair Shop but saving stuffed toys and preserving the memories they had made for their owners.
In three years, with the help of her boyfriend and business partner Alex O’Donoghue, also 28, Charlotte has saved 50,000 from the tip and sent them off to new homes.
She says: “When battered bears were brought into the shop, it made my heart break to think about how cherished those toys had once been.
“They were well-worn and I could see they had been loved so much by a child at one point.
“Now they were either being sold for pennies as dog toys, or even worse, thrown away, as charity shops just aren’t set up to clean and repair them.”
The pair have turned the living room of their home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, into a teddy bear spa.
They ask people to send them their unwanted stuffed animals, together with their name and some of their back story, which they then pass on to new owners as they are resold, once they are looking their best.
Plush toys or stuffed animals are often made with synthetic materials that can take hundreds of years to decompose when sent to landfill.
Also the mass production of these toys requires heavy amounts of oil, natural gas, and water. So the pair are also helping the environment.
Charlotte says: “I have always been very attached to my stuffed animals – when I was little I would take them everywhere with me.
“I held tea parties for them, I’d take them on days out to the beach. They had all sorts of adventures, and even as an adult, I couldn’t get rid of them.
“I was shocked at how many toys were taken into the charity shop, where I volunteered.
“People are so attached to their teddies and they feel a lot happier about giving them to us, so they can bring joy to another family, than they do about throwing them away.”
Sorting through the boxes of unwanted soft toys that are delivered towith her door, Charlotte starts each day by reading their stories.
She says: “Children sometimes write pages and pages about their old toys, and I make sure that the toy’s name and stories of their adventures are passed on to their next owner. I’ll
never forget a lady her 80s who got in touch as she was about to enter end-oflife care.
“She donated her teddy bear to us. She told me she had slept with him every night since the day she was born. “But she knew she wasn't going to be around forever and to wanted her bear to be loved – and to continue spreading love in the world. “I end up in tears sorting through the toys quite a lot. Sometimes parents send us toys belonging to children who
are no longer here, which is always particularly tough.
“But the notes we get often make me smile, too. We’ve had toys found in all sorts of places, including one toy that was found by a roofer on the top of a house. To this day, it’s a total mystery how he got up there, or how he survived the elements.
“The person who found him thought he must have been after the best spot to watch the night sky – so called him Mr Moon.”
Now inundated both with donations and requests from buyers looking for ecologically sound toys with a past, partially restored cuddly animals now
fill their home, with many more arriving every week.
Each toy is logged on a system on arrival and given a tag with their name and story on.
They are then sent to the teddy spa – where they sometimes have their stuffing removed and refluffed and have an anti-bacterial bath.
It can then take up to five days for them to gently dry off before they are re-stuffed, sewn up by hand and have any scratches on their eyes buffed out with toothpaste. Next comes a photody shoot and the revitalised toys are ready for a new home – going on sale for between £10 and £20.
Since starting their business, Charlotte and Alex have also donated 50% of profits to charity and are currently supporting Make-A-Wish UK.
Charlotte says: “I spent a long time developing the best cleaning and drying techniques for different fur types, to make sure I could get toys looking their best.
“If we get teddies sent to us that are clearly new, or without any information, we have some local schools who take them in and foster them for a short while, so they have some stories to tell before they go off to their new homes.
“We’ve found that people really love having a toy with a story behind it. I’m always blown away by how in demand they are.”
And, while some of her rescue toys have humble beginnings, they can end up in very upmarket settings indeed. While the couple mostly sell the toys through their website, last year, they were given a permanent spot in branches of posh department store Selfridges in London, Manchester’s Trafford Centre and Birmingham.
But, having a house full of teddy bears and cuddly animals can have drawbacks. Charlotte says: “I’ve had to move my own favourite toy, Soppy dog, back home to my mum’s house. I’ve had him since I was seven and couldn’t imagine living without him, but I’m too terrified he might accidentally get caught up with the others. He’s in a blanket at the back of a wardrobe, and only comes out on special occasions.
“Also, when people come to our house, it’s difficult for them to find somewhere to sit that isn’t already taken by a teddy.”
■ Visit www.instagram.com/ lovedbefore_london
I end up in tears when sorting out the toys quite a lot
CHARLOTTTE LIEBLING TEDDY BEAR RESTORER 50,000 stuffed toys have been rescued by Charlotte