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Every once in a while we receive a present that we consider absolutely horrific (or that you already have), but you accept the gift graciously and hope that everyone in the room didn’t see you almost die of awkwardness. Holiday season is once again upon us and you’re likely to spending your spare time de-cluttering for the holidays. When you come across years worth of ‘unwanted’ gifts, simply rewrapping them could make them a prized possession for somebody else. Don’t toss them away because below we’ll teach you how to reduce, reuse and regift.

Do a thorough raid

Give each member of the household a chance to ‘give away’ their unwanted goods to your regifting efforts; this means do a raid on your basement, your attic, your garage, and under your beds. It may have been clutter once, but once you clean it up and place it in a great gift box, you’re set to go. What is important is to ensure anything you regift has never been used before – or has been used a negligible amount of times – prior to giving it away.

How to prevent feeling awkward

Many people feel unnecessarily uncomfortable when they regift an unwanted present. Don’t. The reality is even if you feel a little bad about not wanting the gift in the first place or about giving it away, the benefit to the person who does receive the gift will be huge.
So when you practice regifting make sure that you’re 99 per cent certain the regift you’re about to give is wanted. What’s important here is that you’re not telling a lie, and you’re finding a home for a perfectly good item that is just not suited for you. Also make sure there is no social overlap between the person you’re regifting and the original present giver, so as to avoid offending anybody.

Regifting not only helps preserve your wallet but the environment and your household sanity too, so don’t let those Christmas gifts you’re not hot for go to waste unnecessarily.

Tags: gift ideas, gifts