What To Do With Gifts You Don’t Want: Gracefully & Properly

Everybody gets gifts they don’t particularly like or want, but it happens. Perhaps it’s a phone accessory that doesn’t work with it or a smart speaker that you don’t feel comfortable using in your home. Take solace in the knowledge that you have options rather than scratching your head and trying to figure out what to do with the gift you don’t want.

Take that smart speaker, for instance, back to a retailer and have it converted to a gift card. Alternatively, if you received a gift card for a coffee shop you detest, you can exchange it for a different card that you will actually use.

Is It Even Ok To Give Gifts Away?

It’s gross to talk about getting rid of unwelcome gifts!

Even worse, should a thoughtfully chosen and lovingly given gift be disposed of at all?

Not hanging onto the gift outright is just plain impolite and lacks manners, right?

I believe that it is perfectly acceptable—indeed, I believe it is a good thing—to not hold onto unwanted gifts.

How you handle getting rid of them is crucial!

Unwanted Gifts Are Clutter

It’s also important to recognize that unwanted gifts that go unused become clutter.

Nobody wants more mess in their lives.

Use this fact as motivation to take action regarding an unwanted gift you recently received or even a large number of unwanted gifts you have stashed away in an effort to forget about them.

Ways To Deal With Unwanted Gifts

You can discard the gift you don’t want with the help of the advice provided below.

Politely Decline The Gift

No, this doesn’t mean “thanks but no thanks”!

Let’s put it this way: None of us wants to imagine that a gift we’ve given will be thrown away unopened (or, worse yet, regifted or donated; see ideas below!).!!).

Therefore, if the gift is clothing, for instance, you might try expressing your love for it while expressing that the color or size just isn’t right. Then, see if the person giving you the gift still has the receipt.

Then, you have two options: either you ask for the receipt so that you can set up an exchange, or they might offer to let you return the item and exchange the money for something more suitable for you.

Return The Gift To The Shop

A thoughtful gift-giver might occasionally enclose a gift receipt with their present.

If the gift isn’t suitable for you, you have something akin to a free pass to return it.

The key is to return the gift as soon as you can.

The gift and receipt shouldn’t be kept for a long period of time.

Even without the receipt, some large retailers will let you exchange an unwanted item. You can’t demand an exchange because it’s up to the retailer’s discretion. But if there’s something you know you’d prefer, it’s definitely worth looking into.

Donate The Gift To A Charity

Here, it’s important to consider two things in particular.

• As soon as you can, take the unwanted gift to the charity shop. Don’t just toss it in a cabinet or pile it with other junk that you’ll eventually remove.
• You must keep your charitable donation a secret from the recipient. Choose your charity store wisely, then!

Regift

This is potentially hazardous ground!

When regifting a gift, there are certain guidelines you must follow.

• First up, the gift must be in its original packaging and completely unused by you
• Second, you must make absolutely certain that the OGG (original gift giver) will never learn. Making certain that the gift is never unintentionally given again to the OGG is part of this.!
• Thirdly, the new recipient must never suspect that the gift is a regift

Some of these gifts you will give in the future are items you saw and purchased with the understanding that they will be useful gifts for someone else. Some of them are gifts meant to be given again.

Only I have access to the contents of this cabinet.

This rule guards against the disclosure of secrets and the ruining of surprises.

Repurpose

With your unwanted gifts, repurposing is a great way to get creative.

You can use it as a pencil holder on your desk, for instance, if you receive a vase that you don’t like. Alternatively, if a shirt is too big for you, you can make a pillowcase out of it.

Repurposing unwanted gifts is a very flexible process. So use your imagination to see what you can concoct.

Sell It

If you believe that the time it will take to list and ship the gift will be offset by the money you could make, you can sell it on a website like eBay.

As the purchaser is extremely unlikely to be a member of your social network or reside anywhere near you, this is a fairly secure method of handling an unwanted gift.

For helpful advice on how and where to sell items, read my post on how to make the most money from selling your clutter.

Accept That It Will Be Part Of Your Life

Sometimes you may simply have to come to terms with the fact that you will have to live with a gift you don’t particularly enjoy, at least temporarily.

In the end, you must decide if keeping the gift outweighs the inconvenience of parting with it.

The majority of gifts are given with love and thought, so it’s worth keeping an ugly vase or letting your child wear an offensive item of clothing just once to avoid upsetting the gift-giver.

Final Thought: Different Ways To Do

Although there are numerous approaches, managing unwanted gifts can be difficult. The situation and the nature of the relationship between the giver and the recipient will determine the best way to handle an unwanted gift.

These straightforward suggestions will help you keep your home clutter-free while you graciously dispose of unwanted gifts without offending anyone.

Do you have any unwanted gifts that you need to discard? What strategies do you have in place to handle them? Please tell us in the comments section.

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