Ready For Love

When she was in college, Charlotte Liebling worked at a store. It sold used goods. People donated items for the store to sell. Some were stuffed toys.

Liebling knew the toys had been important to their owners. She felt sad when they were sold cheaply. Sometimes, they were sold as dog toys. Others were thrown away.

When she was little, Charlotte Liebling loved her stuffed bear.

So Liebling did some research. She found out that millions of toys are thrown away each year.

Liebling had an idea. Used toys “have so much left in them,” she told TIME for Kids. So in 2019, she started Loved Before. It’s a toy-adoption agency.

A Loved Before customer unboxes her adopted stuffed toy, Dua the Giraffe.

How It Works

Someone donates a soft toy. It can be mailed in. Or it can be dropped off. There are now drop-off points in the United Kingdom.

This stuffed frog is one of many soft toys that Loved Before has saved.

The owner writes down the name of the toy. They write a story about it. The story can mention the creature’s favorite things. It can describe an adventure the animal has been on. Liebling says that sharing what makes the toy unique helps people understand its value.

Next, the toy is cleaned and photographed. It is packaged with its name and story. Toys are posted for adoption on the Loved Before website each week. The company donates money from the sale of each toy to charity.

Loved Before gets donations of stuffed toys. The company cleans them up. It takes their picture. Then it packages them in an eco-friendly box, ready to ship to a new owner.

Loved Again

Loved Before has sold more than 50,000 toys. It plans to expand to the United States soon. The company hopes to teach kids “about the value of loving secondhand things,” Liebling says.