Gift Giving and Pleasures of Keeping Things You Hate

I’m not going to name any names or take any pictures of specific items, but I’ll tell you… in my lifetime I have been given some unusual items. And I married a man who had also been given unusual and sentimental items. Heck, I’ll throw him under the bus on this one. A man at Adam’s church gave him some things that he thought Adam would enjoy (how sweet), but one of the items was a book on Anarchism and Explosives. Hmm…. Interesting…. Now it’s sitting curiously on our windowsill and I’m constantly worrying which of our guests will say “Marcy, what kind of man did you marry!” Worst thing is that Adam won’t get rid of it (apparently it’s really cool). It’s fair because I won’t get rid of some silly things people have given me throughout the years. Okay okay… like the shell one of my professors gave me as a “You’re wonderfully made” speech that I’m sure was given to many students. 

So what do you do if you have an “I don’t like it, but I must keep it, really really weird thing”? Maybe it’s not weird. Maybe it’s just not your style or it takes up way too much space, but your mother in law (not you Kim) gave it to you and she looks for it every time she visits- I admittedly do that sometimes when I visit friends, ick. Do you paint it? Hide it and pull it out when they visit? Chuck it anyway? Break it on purpose? What?? 

Having something you keep that’s stupid for sentimental value is just SO DIFFERENT than keeping something because someone might notice that you got rid of it. I wish I could say that this is the reason we are surrounded in our home by so much stuff. I’m just going to blame that problem on all of the books… 

I have no solutions to this gift receiving problem, but I can surely try to help at the other end of it. So here it is!

Helpful hints when gift giving: 

1.       If you have terrible style, your house is a wreck, and you are willing to admit it: stick to a gift card.

2.       If you would rather be caught dead wearing it, using it, or having it in your house-unless they asked for it specifically: don’t get it.

3.       Remember that once this gift is out of your hands you have no control over wear it may go or what may come of it. That’s part of gift giving. GET-OVER- IT.

4.       If it’s not on their baby or wedding registry and not even like anything that they’ve asked for: it better be really awesome.

5.       Remember that most people would rather have a smaller amount of money to use on something that they need and or like vs. having something you bought cheaply to be more impressive that they can’t stand.