Here Is What To Do When Kids Outgrow Their Car Seat In Texas

My son finally outgrew his car seat. I knew this day was coming and I wish I had done some digging before hand. Come to find out, properly getting rid of this car seat is a lot harder that it sounds.

Here is what to do with that car seat, at least from what I've been able to find out.

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You Can Always Donate The Car Seat...Sometimes

Something that I didn't really realize about car seats is that there is a lot that goes into them beyond just keeping your kid buckled in. I had no idea that "expire."

I instantly wanted to do what I felt was the right thing, and donate the car seat to any one of our area's charities that might be interested in it. There are several organizations locally that help single parents, mothers, and families.

I found out, you can't just go tossing a car seat at a non-profit all willy-nilly.

You need to make sure that it's still able to be used first. So, now I need to dig for the manufacturer's info before I get any wild ideas.

Also, there are some places like Target that will do trade-in events. They'll take the old car seat and recycle it properly and give you a discount toward a new one.

Recycle It On Your Own

Contact a recycling center and get the specifics. Plus, there are some things you'll want to do before hand.

You'll want to remove any extras from the car seat. That means fabric, padding, straps, and so on. You'll also want to remove all the metal pieces from it.

Be sure to contact the recycling center first before getting too involved in tearing the thing apart.

Trash It If All Else Fails

However, once again you're going to want to do this properly. You're not really supposed to just go chuck it in a dumpster.

You'll pretty much want to take the same steps listed above for recycling the car seat. Then, you need to mark it as "unsafe" or "expired" so people know to not use it.