Comments on: 2008 Gift Giving Guide: Gifts of clutter

By: God help us, every one...

God help us, every one... — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:59:29 +0000

My heart aches for the grandparents who scrimp and save to give something personal and tangible to grandchildren who prefer Visa gift cards, or cash, and who will go online to make snarky, eye-rolling comments about the gifts their grandparents eagerly wrapped up.

Susan’s suggestion is wonderful. I hope these grandparents donate to charity in their grandchildrens’ names instead of feeding the money-grab Christmas has become.

By: heather

heather — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:22:09 +0000

I don’t get why people always say they hate giving gift cards – yet who likes that sick feeling of getting (or giving) a gift that you can tell by the recipients face fell way short of the mark. We all have so much stuff already – why do we insist on killing ourselves going out into mall-hell to get more. We should all just make movie – coffee – dinner – drinks dates with each other. And for out of town family and friends – send a letter, photos, or phone cards so you can call one another.

Enjoyed reading this roundup! But it makes me a little sad to hear of all the not-so-well-off people struggling to have a gift to give someone. Home baking would be lovely (most of the time!)
Merry Christmas everyone.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:42:26 +0000

My worst Christmas gift ever was fake hair, lots of fake hair. My mom bought me lots of those ponytail hair add ins to make your hair look thicker, and scrunchies with fake hair attached. She thought they would be great for me because I don’t style my hair and these would be easier. Well, if I don’t style the hair I have (which I like to think looks perfectly fine just washed and brushed), I’m not going to figure out how to style these into my hair. My other gift that year was a fish stuffed animal that makes kissy sounds when you press its lips. I was 22-23 at the time.

By: Battra92

Battra92 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:12:54 +0000

@Emily: I would love an original Ms. Pacman machine as well. There’s also that 20th aniversary which was bundled with Galaga.

A college friend of mine is refinishing an old arcade cabinet to become a MAME machine or something, which would be the perfect solution, I think.

By: ohwolfman

ohwolfman — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:49:52 +0000

I ask for the same thing every year: Candles, Uniball pens and coffee. Nothing fancy – nothing expensive. Just basic candles, and storebrand coffee. They’re all gifts that are consumed and I enjoy immensely.

What I get instead: A yodeling pickle, A plastic garden gnome that looks like he’s taking a crap, a set of glasses that say “I’m Bob’s Wife”, coffee cups with udders, snowglobes…

I’m told that giving “just pens or coffee looks cheap” and “you can buy those for yourself. I wanted to give you something special.”

This year, I’ve asked for NO gifts. Let’s see who listens. So far, I’ve netted some homemade cookies, which is my favorite gift ever.

By: Loren

Loren — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:06:14 +0000

I know this is from last year but I can’t help but add to this hilarious list.

My sister every holiday swears up and down ‘I hate presents, don’t buy me anything, I hate buying presents’. But for every holiday she insists on buying ME cheap plastic crap and kitchen equipment I don’t need. Despite obvious hints that I make about sustainable, renewable, presents she could buy me (including statements like ‘Look how gorgeous these fair trade scarves are. OH and they are only 20$! I would LOVE to have one of THESE!’ and flat out saying ‘I updated my Etsy.com account last week, maybe you can order something off my favorites list for my Birthday! And filling my favorites with reasonably priced artwork, hand made goods, and vintage things.)
I still receive things like this DIY plastic Triceratops lamp… http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/ae04/
I usually retaliate with something fair trade or organic because she LIKES fair trade and organic. But if this Christmas doesn’t go any better I may have to actually follow through with “Oh, well I didn’t get you any presents because you ‘hate’ them”.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:30:48 +0000

Not so much outrageous – but mysterious – we have old friends who ALWAYS give us bowls or platters. Always oddly shaped, with very pointy corners or wavy sides. All colours. Every shape you can think of. Dozens of them by now. They mean well …. but why does it always have to be a bowl ….

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:10:39 +0000

I’m going fairly anonymous on this, as my mother may someday learn to use Google.

Growing up, my single working mother bought me lots and lots of cheap presents for Christmas, thinking that the number of presents opened was the important part and helped make up for us being poor the rest of the year. Every year since I’ve lived on my own, I’ve asked for and failed to receive fewer, more selective gifts that I will actually use and enjoy. (It’s particularly irritating because she complains about how she has no money [which is true] but then continues to buy me stuff I don’t want or need, despite her awareness of the fact that I am more able to buy such items for myself than she is.) For years, I’ve kept these “best daughter” and angel-related plaques/suncatchers/jewelry boxes/ceramic plates around, because she’d visit and wonder why they weren’t being displayed (as if I had room to dedicate entire walls to these pieces). However, when she was helping me unclutter my craft area (ironically, she’s very good at keeping her own space free of crap), she lectured how I had too much stuff!!

I immediately lost any guilt about wanting to get rid of the junk she’d given me over the years. This Christmas, after she left, I simply sorted through the stuff and immediately placed all the new items that I knew I would not use or did not like enough to keep into a box to donate. It was quite liberating, and I hope she DOES start asking where these things have gone before next Christmas, so that I can (nicely) let her know that I was serious when I told her I didn’t want many things for the holidays. Since asking didn’t work, maybe seeing that I don’t keep most of the things she spends her hard-earned money on will convince her.

By: Natalie in Western Australia

Natalie in Western Australia — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:29:30 +0000

Its my 40th year and instead of gifts, I am asking for each person who is valuable to me to please do a scrapbook page with a photo of themselves and some words for me which I will put in a big album on the night of my party. That means more to me than some gift I will look at occassionally, eat or eventually use.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:45:49 +0000

Bath and Body Works “stuff.” How much scented lotion and soap can you possibly use? I take it to work and give it away.

Cookbooks. At 50, I pretty much cook what I cook, or use online recipes. I think I’m giving them to the library book sale…

Also, there are about 150 DVDs on the shelf. So why do we seem to always rent movies? What am I doing with all these.

Stacks of CDs without cases. Cases without CDs.

By: You shouldn’t have! - Simpler Living - timesunion.com - Albany NY

You shouldn’t have! - Simpler Living - timesunion.com - Albany NY — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:26:49 +0000

[...] Unclutterer has a humorous roundup of gifts that say “I had to get you something.” All of them are gifts of clutter. On the list: [...]

By: Hippolyta

Hippolyta — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:18:41 +0000

A common theme here seems to be that so many gifts can be either wonderful or awful depending on the recipient. Some people think receiving money or even gift cards is disappointing. For others those are absolutely ideal. Personally I’m with the other gardeners in that I would seriously love to receive a load of boulders! But yeah, that gift is certainly not for everyone.
Another gift I love, either for giving or receiving, is a donation to a charity that both the giver and the receiver would like to support. But again, it’s not for everyone: some people would be disappointed not to get something that is for them personally, or they would feel preached-at. I would only give this gift to someone I know shares my views about clutter and improving the world. The idea to make the recipient happy, after all.

By: Mara

Mara — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:49:04 +0000

Last Christmas my mom gave me a sweater with Celtic knotwork on it (lovely, but a style I haven’t liked since I was 16), a teapot shaped like a pincushion with a Beatrix Potter mouse on it, and a chipped wall vase shaped like leeks.

I did ask her to get me a set of viola strings — which she did. The stuff above was all from her thrift store; it went to my neighborhood thrift store in short order. I’m trying to get her not to give me any more clutter, but haven’t been very successful.

We (three daughters) got Mom a rice cooker last Christmas, and a bread machine this year. She loves them. But then, she’s gluten-intolerant and is also the world’s worst cook, so anything that improves her quality of life / food is a good thing. I love my own rice cooker, but that’s because it allows me to work on other stuff while it’s cooking the rice.

By: ConfusedNazgul

ConfusedNazgul — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:03:40 +0000

My father-in-law generally only gives money as gifts, which is very nice, but for the last few years he’s insisted on stuffing stockings with junk he found at the dollar store. He thinks it’s funny and makes us (myself, my husband, and his sister – all of us in the 21 – 26 age range) open everything in a big ceremony before dinner. It’s always junk like those cheap, inedible chocolate Santas (made from probably 0.5% chocolate), flashing Rudolph noses, and plastic “travel games” with instructions written in Engrish. Last year’s haul was two plastic bags full! I’m hoping he won’t be able to do it this year because he has to travel across the country to do Christmas at our house this year… I’ll be unpleasantly surprised if he packs his luggage with all that junk.

By: MGA

MGA — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:34:44 +0000

Clutter, clutter, and more clutter. When I do a scan of gifts over time– I think of the dinner out certificates, mall gift cards and more and I know that those certificates are here somewhere but I can never quit locate it when I need it. One restaurant has now gone out of business! Yikes. I think the best gift is a ‘date’ with an old friend, family member or whatever to see a show, enjoy a meal, visit an exhibit, whatever– just enjoying each other’s company. I always feel guilty about sending those cutsey clutter gifts off to the recycle world– like maybe my DNA will be tracked back by a sad but earnest gift giver… could that really happen?