Do you donate hygiene / amenity kits to charity?
 

What do people do with the hygiene kits from airlines? I have some unused UA kits thought I would try to give it away.

Many articles say not to try to give material items to the hurricane relief because its too difficult to get it there.

Mrs Darlox and I have donated many unused, unexpired amenity kits in the past. Typically local churches or homeless shelters will always take them because that kind of personal hygiene stuff, not to mention the kit itself, can be useful.

No idea if any of them have ended up being sent to disaster zones... I just figure there are a bunch of homeless people in CLE who can brush their teeth and enjoy Cowshed lip balm...

We also used to give them to friends and family who were flying long-haul coach for vacation or business, and they were well appreciated there too.
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I donate all of mine* to my temple which are in turn distributed to various homeless shelters

*minus the occasional case if it is a new style or unique in design :)

In the latest Big Metal Bird, I learned that United itself collects them and donates the supplies and recycles the kits. I have since started leaving mine onboard.

Ditto.

Which one was the best one ever?

The int'l first class kit I recall had a better case and had mouth wash but everything else inside was the same as the biz kits.

Is that the case at all airports? I thought a 3rd party cleaning crew at other int'l airports especially would just through them out. If I am connecting I take it with me so I have many now.

I usually give my stuff to the salvation army but found out they call the good will store to pickup items and resales them. I'll look for some homeless shelters to give to.

If you're referring to the case itself, it would be the ones from Swiss which were a tin box which had their various airplanes on them :)

I don't really know, but considering the cleaning crews also have to package up all the Polaris bedding for laundry I wouldn't imagine it too much extra effort to include the amenity kits.

Of course it goes to Rimowa from LH, TG, BR, NH (now Samsonite)

I became a hoarder five years ago. I now have over 300 kits taking up valuable closet space.....time to unload.

I didn't have 300 (perhaps a few dozen), but I donated them to a local homeless shelter. They were truly appreciative and sent me a very nice letter thanking me.

Great suggestion....I think they just found a home.

Exactly - they really need items like this year round and not just at the holidays when many people think of donating items and time. They always are happy to get them.

A friend of mine works with a homeless shelter. I am (was) a bit of a hoarder when it comes to amenity kits/hotel toiletries. I gave a huge bag of stuff (read: hundreds of items) to her last year and she said it was life-changing for a lot of their clients. I now regularly give her all the kits and toiletries I get from travelling. It is a great thing to do and I encourage everyone on this forum to find a local shelter or women's group and do the same