I am a registered nurse and also volunteer for the Red Cross and will be leaving shortly for the disaster in New Orleans. I just wanted to suggest a wonderful way to help your local shelter. I travel in my job and stay at motels. I always take the little shampoo, lotion and soap that is given out and I also ask my friends and relatives to do so as well. When I have enough I put them in a basket and deliver them to the local shelter so that they can give them out to people who really need them.
This collecting has been done at Sears, Roebuck & Co. Corporate headquarters for many years or at least up until I retired in 1996. Hope they have continued it.
I still do it and contribute collection to Sarah's Circle, a drop-in center for all women in Chicago's Uptown area.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
We are way overloaded with hotel/motel soaps. We just can't control ourselves about taking them home. Does anyone know who might like them or what we could do with them?
I have made way more liquid soap with them than I can ever use, too, so that is not the answer I need. I would love to donate them to someone who can really use/need them.Donate in your area: homeless shelters, battered women shelters, child care centers, etc.
Check with local churches. Especially Baptist churches. A lot of them do shoe boxes for operation Christmas child. Our church gathers items all year round. Soap, toothbrushes wash cloths.
I do agree that if you have a hoard of hotel toiletries, donating them to a shelter, church or rescue mission is the charitable thing to do.
I wonder though how many people actually do donate the items to the needy. And I wonder how it is that the average person can amass so much of it in the first place. Was it simple greed that prompted taking the items, because it was there for the taking?
I knew someone once who even took home the extra roll of toilet tissue. Now that's cheap !!
Wouldn't dream of taking toilet paper or anything else, it just seems the soap gets put back into our travel bag thinking we might need it at our next stop...and there are times that has been necessary or the bar is so small it is difficult for my husband to use. Thank you for the previous suggestions, I am following up on them. Our church does the Shoebox ministry each year but no mention of needing or wanting soap in the past, I 'm checking on that and our local Rescue Mission..
Guest soap is there for the guest to use. Its cost is included in the bill. The hotel puts no restrictions on when, where, or how the soap is used. When the maid cleans the room, she finds soap missing and replaces it, accordingly. She has no way of knowing whether the soap was used during the guest's stay, or not.
Common sense dictates that if you are heavily laden with hotel soap, you should stop taking it. If you have an uncontrollable compulsion to take the soap, help is available. As for the possibility of needing soap at the next stop, why not pack your own favorite soap with your luggage.
I donate all samples to the church's food pantry. They are very happy to take even the samples that come in magazines.
There is an organization called Haiti Awake in wilmington nc. They could use the toiletries to bring to Haiti for the children in the orphanage.
Help KIDS
Have you heard a great all volunteer charity call 4 KIDS Charity. They correct Hotel full size Toiletries and make hygiene bag for kids most of these bags or for teens that or homeless, or unprivileged student.
If anyone is looking to donate he hotel toiletries or just soaps, please contact Tammy Fisher at Brown Bag Ministries Lakewood, CO. Please go online and contact her there. WE are a mobile food bank that provides fresh produce to low income families and seniors. Occasionally, we make it to I-70 motels and feed the families there.
Thank you.
Why be so negative. I always take the toiletries. I figured I paid for them and they can be donated to a good cause
For those of you who think that taking toiletries from a multimillion dollar hotel and giving it to charities is a bad thing to do, step back for a moment and think about what youre saying. Would you prefer they throw them out or would you prefer to put them to good use.
Hello. I'd be HAPPY to take the hotel soaps as I like to create bags for homelss people. If you don't mind, I'd like to work something out to take them off your hands if they are still available. Please let me know!
Mail them to me. I am in the process of making purse packs for women. Soap, shampoo, qtips, dry shampoo, nail clippers, pads, tampons, individually wrapped facial wipes. Body cleansing wipes, toothpaste, toothbrush, toothbrush holder. Granola bars, bars, nut packs. Used unwanted purses. Anything of this nature I pass out to women on the streets of Chicago. Care of Beth Miller
Traveling a lot for work allows people to amass these products. Not greed. What an odd comment.
