What Can You Do With Unwanted Gifts?

a gift with a pink ribbon

As lovely as it is to receive gifts for your birthday, Christmas, a leaving do and so on, it is fairly common to be given items that you may already have or may not want. Now I know full well how much we never want to hurt anybody’s feelings or cause upset so what can you do with unwanted gifts that will benefit yourself and/or others?

Ask For A Receipt

If you feel comfortable enough to ask the giver for a receipt so that you can exchange or return a gift then this may be your first port of call. Of course, if an item has been specifically made or ordered, is from a small online retailer etc this may not be possible but being open and honest can usually prevent any upset down the line.

Keep To Re-Gift

A great way of making use of your gift/s is to keep hold of them to re-gift to others throughout the year. This may sound a little distasteful but take a moment to think about it. You have a gift you don’t want/need which may be far better suited to somebody else you know. So instead of it going in the bin, going to waste, sitting in your house and collecting dust, isn’t it better that it goes on to bring somebody else some joy? This is not only good for the environment but also good for your pocket too.

a gift being given

Save For Later

Quite often a lot of unwanted gifts are to our children and when this comes at Christmas time it can all become pretty overwhelming. Suddenly your house is full of toys, you can’t see your living room floor, you were already bursting at the seams and we all know that children cannot focus on that many toys at once. So, before they get the chance to rip open the packaging and release that latest toy, slyly remove a few from sight and find a place inside a cupboard to tuck it away for a rainy day. You may be pleasantly surprised when a day comes that they ask for a toy like that, when they want that crafting set, when you have a bit of a boring day and need something new to entertain them. Don’t write it off immediately.

Donate To A Women’s Refuge

Take a look at what women’s refuges are in your area and check what items they will happily accept. Most unwanted gifts we receive tend to include toiletries, soaps, kids toys etc and all of these can be welcomed by somebody who really needs them.

Donate To A Charity/Thrift Shop

If you cannot get any use from the gift and you don’t have anybody you can gift it to then another option would be to donate it to your local charity shop. You will be freeing up the space in your home, helping your chosen charity and your item will go on to somebody who will want or need it.

secondhand sign

Sell Online

This may sound very cheeky but if there is no way of returning or exchanging your gift, you could hang onto it for a while and sell it online a little later on. There is no point in cluttering up your house just because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings and the sale of the item could go on to help you in some other way.

Adapt or Upcycle Them

Sometimes a little creativity can make items into something a lot better or completely different. Perhaps you were given a cushion that isn’t quite to your taste? You could recover it, add some embellishment or personalise it. Maybe you were given a dress that you feel is a little drab? Why not have a go at adding something that is a little bit more ‘you’ into it? Or if you aren’t too handy with a sewing machine, why not ask somebody else to help with the transformation? It would be so nice to be able to keep that unwanted gift and make it into a wanted one.

Choosing any of these options here will help to keep more waste out of landfill, will help your home to be less cluttered and will put your unwanted gift to good use.

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