I'm spring cleaning in January and have many softball tee-shirts, old uniforms for entire teams, and a stash of trophies. My loving, sensitive, understanding wife said, "They go or you go!"

I thought about her alternatives for a bit too long and my partner-for-life walked out of our stuffed garage. So I'm looking for ideas on what to do with the stuff. Please do not suggest anything starting with, "Shove them .... "

The uniform pants if they are not from the 70's & 80's you may be able to sell on ebay, guys are always looking for something on there. If you do not feel like going thru all that trouble Good Will, Purple Heart or some other clothing donation bin would be a good alternative, who knows maybe somebody you see on 60 minutes or 20/20 tv show will be wearing them in some foreign country. the tee shirts make great rags for your garage or shop, they also make great smocks for kids in art class. you may also be able to take them to your local spca kennel and let them use them as rags there. the trophies I would give to a local trophy shop and let them recycle them into trophies for the youth groups that do not have a large budget or you can donate to a local youth group to use the same way, its cheaper to buy a engraved plate then an entire trophy.

I donate most of my old awards (trophy's, bat bags, coolers, shirts, etc.) to my local high schools or YMCA. They always seem to be more appreciative then some of the other charities.

I gave all my trophies to a school for the handicapped and from what I heard the kids really appreciate them.

Thank You:

James

Midwest, our local softball park, gets so many things that get turned into the lost and found each year which are never claimed that Tim does what he calls "bag and tag" and donates them to the local Boys Club. I have donated things in the past to Special Olympics. There is also a potential tax write-off; so keep a list of what you donate.

Nancy, good idea. My longtime team sponsor of many decades ended up with lots of trophies. We found that the leaders of local Special Olympics were very glad to have them and they were easily transformed into meaningful trophies, even for events that didn't involve swinging a bat as the figure on top of the trophy implied.

I also donated about 200 trophies to the Boys Club in Albuquerque. I still have over 200 t-shirts and 200 hats-need to thin them out, I guess, but there are a lot of memories there. Great teams I played for-like 'Big Al's Pizza Parlor and Mortuary',Big Al's Heimers, (Big Al was a great sponsor), Cleats and Cleavage, Take it in the-------Shorts, and wonderful times with them. Wife is tolerant!

another plus of donating is you can have a nice write off at the end of the year.. say if the value of 200 T shirts at $10.00 a peace = $2k write off! I have donated to the Goodwill and got a receipt for my donations in the past....

2bornot2b,

I've seen many, mostly women's team take the shirts and have blanket/quilts out of them. The logo on the chest area of the shirt is cut out as a square and sewn onto and existing blank blanket/quilt patchwork style on both sides. There are companies that do this, but they can be pricey depending on size. Maybe you know someone who can do this for you. Just a thought.

Thanks - excellent ideas. I have a few bat bags too; I'll add them to the donation package.