The Pitfalls Of Re-Gifting

Re-gifting is a great idea.

You receive a gift from someone, you don’t like it, you can’t use it, or you already have one. You would never give it back, you’d be afraid to offend the giver, so you stick it in a storage area because it’s too new to toss out. There it sits in the storage area collecting dust until the next holiday comes along and you think “I know I have some things in storage someone can use.”

So you go to the storage and dig out several items you know can be re-gifted. You bring them to your wrapping table and wrap them and place a “To” sticker on it.

What a great way to save money and make someone happy!  Take a gift you received from a friend or relative, re-wrap it and give it to someone else! Merry Christmas.

What can go wrong?

Ahh, but wait, there is a problem. It’s been twelve long months or maybe even a couple of years since you put those items in the storage, and you have no idea who gave it to you.

Herein lies the problem.

A friend of mine is a re-gifter. She enjoys and loves to give things to others. She gave her sister a beautiful hand decoupaged platter. It had been in storage for a couple of years. It was obviously home made. She received a phone call from her sister Christmas night, thanking her for the beautiful platter. “Did you do this yourself?” she asked. 

My friend said “Yes I did, it’s the first time I ever tried one.”

Her sister said “It must have been quite a job to do how did you do it?.” My friend answered “No it wasn’t so bad, first you have cut out the picture, then glue it to the platter, and you have to be very careful of the brush strokes.”

Her sister said “Remarkable, it came out so well. You know my friend and I opened it in front of my daughter. My daughter said “Isn’t that the platter Mrs. Doe made and gave to you Mom?”  

Her sister said, “Yes it is and I gave it to my sister a couple of years ago when we cleaned out the basement!”

They both ended up laughing about the re-gifted item. That time it ended well, another time it might not end so well. Be careful.

The moral of the story is, if you have received any of those items that you would like to re-gift, place a sticker on the item with the donor’s name, and date you received the item. This might save you some embarrassment in the future.