The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Adoption agency’ re-homes plushies
Brit hopes toys will be looked after instead of heading to a dumpster.
By Cathy Free
Charlotte Liebling was volunteering at a charity thrift shop in London eight years ago when she noticed that many of the boxes dropped off by people were piled high with stuffed animals.
Teddy bears, rabbits and other plush animals in good condition were tossed into a bin together and sold for pennies at the shop, she said, but the majority of the well-loved soft toys were thrown away.
“As somebody with an affinity to stuffies, I knew they had sentimental and emotional value, and I hated to see them just thrown in a bin,” she said. “I was sad to learn most of them ended up at the landfill.”
Liebling, then 20, said she had a favorite stuffed dog named Soppy that she had relied on for comfort since age 8.
“I put him on my head when I’m feeling stressed,” she said. “I could relate that a lot of people felt sad when they brought their stuffed animals in because I couldn’t imagine dropping mine off somewhere.”
Liebling said she went home to her apartment in Bedfordshire and couldn’t stop thinking about all of the throwaway plushies that were filling up landfills, not only in Britain but around the world.
“I started researching what the big picture looked like, and pretty soon, I had little Post-it notes and drawings all over the walls with ideas about how I could help change things,” Liebling said.
In 2019, she put her ideas into motion with Loved Before, a company she describes as a “soft-toy adoption agency,” which cleans up donated plushies and resells them online for an average of $10 to $15, plus shipping. The renovated stuffed animals are also available at three Selfridges department stores in Britain.
In the past five years, she has collected more than 60,000 plushies that she has cleaned up and sent to new homes, she said.
She has donated 50% of her profits to charity, she said, and this year, some of her proceeds will go to Make-a-Wish UK.
Lauren Sergi said she donated her collection of stuffed toys to Liebling’s project after she came across a TikTok video about Loved Before last summer.
“My family and I were moving, and as I was sorting through my bedroom, I realized just how many soft toys I had accumulated over the years,” said Sergi, 24, who lives in Devon in southwest England.
“I didn’t donate them because I didn’t love them anymore or had grown bored of them — it was because I loved them very much and wanted them to go on adventures with new friends,” she said.
Sergi and other donors are asked to send a brief bio about their stuffed animals, which Liebling and a small group of employees and volunteers use when creating online stories for the toys.
If a stuffed animal comes in without a backstory, Liebling will give it to a “foster carer” for a few weeks, and that person will then do a write-up.
“Or we’ll pass them over to a school classroom, and the children will take them on adventures and write the stories,” Liebling said.
Before the plush animals are posted for the public, they go through a high-temperature steam cleaning, and some are photographed wearing cucumber eye patches and towel head wraps to show they have been to a “spa,” Liebling said.
“If they need it, some of them will then get extra grooming, stuffing and repairs,” she added.
The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, with most toys selling out each Monday, the day new batches are released, she said. Loved Before toys have been purchased by people in more than 25 countries, with the United States coming in at No. 2 after Britain.
“We know this is a real need in the U.S., so we’re making plans to test the water soon and establish ourselves there in some form,” Liebling said.
Emily Dreimann of Sheffield, Britain, purchased a stuffed pig from Loved Before as a present for a friend’s young daughter.
“He’s a pirate pig named Captain Porkchop,” said Dreimann, 33. “I’m a sentimental person, with cuddly toys being a particular weakness, and I fell in love with the whole concept.”
After ordering the bright pink plush, Dreimann said, she went through her parents’ attic and gathered up about 20 soft toys to donate to Liebling, including “Pink Ted,” a teddy bear that attended all of her childhood tea parties.
“Finding a guilt-free option where I could send off friends has been ideal for a softie like me,” she said.
Liebling said her hope is that each Loved Before toy will be looked after and passed down for decades instead of ending up in a dumpster.