I hope you all got amazing gifts last Christmas that you cherish and find useful. But there are times when even Santa Claus can make a mistake and give you something you don’t want to keep. I got up with some ideas on how to recycle or get rid of the gifts you did not want to get. First you need to let go of the guilt about giving the gift away.
Marie Kondo, who is a leader in tidying up, says that gifts are meant to be received. The gift was the giver’s way of expressing feelings towards you. Maybe it was thankfulness or love that were manifested through the gift. Thinking about it like this, a gift is not just a thing. Ease your heart and thank the gift and the gift giver for the joy that it brought and just get rid of it. If the burning fear of getting caught still disturbs you, it’s okay to take your time to settle with the feeling. Remember that guilt is not a healthy feeling. You should be able to do whatever you want with the things you own.
Here’s my advice on how you can pass on the gift:
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Ask family members and friends if they need or want to have the thing you don’t need. Maybe you can find another person who got an unwanted gift, so there’s an option to swap them.
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Donate it to your local Samaria, UFF or other group that sells already used items. Samaria is a Christian social work organization. It works through various ways and flea market is one of them. It accepts clothes, shoes, rugs and other small items related to home. UFF is an organization which works for common good. UFF has a clothes collection for used clothes.
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Put it on sale on a webpage like tori.fi or in your local Facebook flea market group. If the item is brand new, why not make some money from it!
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Try to return it or change it to something you want. This naturally only works if you still have the tags on and got the receipt.
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Finally, there’s always the option of keeping the gift. Maybe you grow to like it and find it useful later. Please be honest to yourself and keep only good things.
Learn from this. Next time when somebody asks what you want just be honest and tell what you wish for. It is totally fine to tell exactly what you want, that is also convenient for the buyer of the gift. This way you can make sure that you get what you want and avoid the stress of getting something unwanted. I encourage you to recycle and find a new home for the gift.
Sources: The life changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo
Thumbnail from Pixabay, In-article photo from PublicDomainPictures.net