Donate Toys in Exeter | Free Collection
Children move on from toys faster than almost anything else — the action figures that were treasured last summer sit untouched by autumn, and the wooden train set that once dominated the living room floor gets quietly pushed to the back of a wardrobe. Across Exeter’s neighbourhoods, from the older terraces of Heavitree to the quieter streets of Alphington and the riverside edges of Topsham and Exminster, that gradual accumulation is a familiar story. When a clear-out finally happens, spending money on a council bulky-waste collection feels like the wrong direction — you pay out, and perfectly usable toys still get nowhere near a child who might enjoy them. Donating toys in Exeter with Anglo Doorstep Collections turns that around completely: the service costs you nothing, we collect directly from your doorstep at a time that suits you, and good-condition toys find their way back into use rather than into a bin lorry.
What We Collect
We are looking for children’s toys that still have genuine play value — outgrown rather than worn out. Soft toys and stuffed animals are always welcome, as are dolls, action figures, construction bricks, wooden stacking toys and rolling train track sets. If it is the sort of thing a child would actually want to play with, there is a very good chance we can take it. The one condition is that items should be reasonably complete and in a usable state — nothing that is broken or heavily damaged, please. Everything collected at an Exeter doorstep goes straight to our charity and reuse partners, where it reaches children who will genuinely get use from it.
How It Works — Three Simple Steps
Book online
Use our online booking form to choose a date that fits your schedule. The whole process takes under two minutes and there is absolutely no charge — not now, not later.
Leave your bag on the doorstep
You do not need to be at home — just place your bag somewhere our driver can easily reach it before the collection. Keep smaller pieces together so sets stay intact, and set aside anything genuinely broken rather than simply well-loved.
Toys reach children who need them
Usable items pass directly to our charity and reuse partners and back into circulation for families across Exeter and further afield. A large percentage of proceeds goes to charity.
Across Every Corner of Exeter
Our drivers cover Exeter in full — the city centre and every neighbourhood that spreads out from it, including Heavitree, Alphington, Topsham and Exminster. There is no need to load up the car, hunt for a city-centre parking space or spend time working out which charity shop might accept what you have. We come to you, free of charge, and collect straight from your front door. For anyone who has looked at the cost of a council bulky-waste collection and wondered whether there is a better way, a free doorstep pick-up that actually puts items back into use is a straightforward alternative.
City-wide Coverage
From central Exeter to the quieter residential edges in Topsham, Exminster, Heavitree and Alphington, we collect directly from your doorstep wherever you are in or around the city.
No Minimum or Maximum
A single bag of soft toys or several bags of mixed children’s stuff — all of it is equally welcome. We have no lower limit and no upper one, so put out as much or as little as you have.
Better Than Landfill
Published UK estimates indicate that around a million tonnes of reusable household goods — including toys — are thrown away across the country every year. Choosing reuse locally means fewer items heading to Devon’s landfill sites, and less pressure on the raw materials and energy needed to produce brand-new replacements.
It’s Not Just Families
The most obvious scenario is a parent sorting through a child’s bedroom, but there are plenty of other Exeter households sitting on children’s toys they have no further use for. Grandparents in Topsham or Exminster who built up a collection of kids’ stuff for weekend visits often find that, over time, those items have multiplied well beyond what is sensible. Childminders updating their resources, small nurseries refreshing their play equipment, and people who have carted boxes of children’s things through several house moves in a row all eventually face the same decision about what to do with it all. Construction bricks and wooden toys tend to be in steady demand; soft toys in clean, good condition rarely wait long for a new home. Whether it is a bag that has been sitting on a landing for the better part of a year, or a corner of the loft that has been quietly accumulating for far longer, a free doorstep collection is the most practical way to send those things back into use within the local community.
“In a city of 130,000 people, the sheer number of outgrown toys waiting for a decision is considerable — and a free doorstep collection means acting on that decision takes minutes rather than an entire afternoon.”
The Local Environmental Difference
Devon has put real effort into reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, and what individual Exeter households choose to do with outgrown toys feeds directly into that wider picture. Based on published UK figures from organisations including WRAP — which should be read as national estimates rather than precise local measurements — reusing goods such as toys saves the raw materials, water and energy that manufacturing brand-new equivalents would demand. Those are not trivial savings: production involves extraction, processing, transport and packaging, all of which carry their own environmental costs. When you factor in UK data suggesting that something in the region of a million tonnes of reusable household items are discarded across the country each year, keeping those items circulating rather than disposing of them begins to look less like a small gesture and more like a meaningful contribution. For a city of around 130,000 people, the combined effect of Exeter households choosing reuse over disposal has a genuine bearing on Devon’s overall waste footprint. Anglo Doorstep Collections works alongside Exeter City Council in supporting the local reuse agenda, and every bag of children’s toys collected from an Exeter doorstep — action figures, soft toys, construction sets and the rest — represents good items staying within the local circular economy rather than ending up in the ground.
Add More to the Same Trip
A toy sort-out has a habit of turning up other things that deserve to go somewhere useful, and we are glad to collect a mixed load in a single visit. Have a look at our pages for clothes, books and household items to see what else we can take at the same time. We also cover nearby Topsham, and a full picture of everywhere we operate is on our collections near you page.
For a broader view of the network we operate across, visit our toy donations area page.