The Hunger Games Guide to Gifting

Let’s all rethink gifting

Over the past few months I’ve helped a lot of time-poor people clean up.  The one common denominator is gifts. Everyone gives and receives gifts. It’s part of our culture and how we show love and respect for one and other. The number of times I have heard people say “I can’t throw that out, it was a gift from…”

In fact, the majority of clutter I tackle is gift related. Particularly, gifts that were never given. Lovely items bought on sale months ahead of time or in anticipation of the perfect occasion that never comes. Too often they languish forgotten at the back of a cupboard.

I used to do this, buying Christmas presents for my kids throughout the year, only to find them on Boxing Day while looking for space to store all our new stuff!

Gifts from well-meaning friends and family are nice, but not always as cherished as the sentiment behind them. Many of us have cupboards and drawers full of not-quite-right gifts but chucking or giving them away seems disrespectful. Without meaning to, we are adding to the clutter in our loved ones’ homes. Re-gifting unwanted items is a good solution in theory — at least they’ll go to a good home — but we’ve all heard the urban myth about a gift that inadvertently made its way back to the original gifter.

Gift vouchers are another great idea gone wrong. They can make excellent gifts — I once bought four dresses with a generous Westfield voucher — it’s just that they tend to get filed away and forgotten until Ruthless comes along and uncovers them under four years worth of paperwork. In the course of decluttering, I have found tonnes of them: hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of gift vouchers way past their use-by dates. I think we all know who got the benefit of the vouchers and it wasn’t the giver or the receiver. 

I found this lot buried under four years of clutter, some still usable

I’d like to challenge you to stop buying gifts. Instead, share an experience with your friend, family or loved one. Why not go out for a drink to a funky bar, or see a movie together? The time and effort you put into finding the right gift could be better spent on writing a personal note.  Tell someone what makes them special to you. Or recall a funny moment you shared together and make them laugh; we all need more of that. It’s always nice to receive gifts, but a heartfelt expression of love is a rare and wonderful present.

Instead of buying gift cards, I have taken to using Paperless Post to send messages. It goes down really well. Who doesn’t like getting an email card?

If you must buy that gift on sale well ahead of the next birthday or festive season, put a reminder on your phone telling you where you put it and who it was for.  Then contact me to be Ruthless and find all your missing gift vouchers.