Five Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Gifts

Now that the Holiday season is firmly behind us, a common problem has once again sprung up: what to do with those unwanted gifts that you may have received? A recent study in the U.K. found that 69 per cent of the populace are given presents that they don’t like. Fortunately, there are ways you can get rid of these gifts instead of letting them rot in your closet.

1. Regift

We all know people who fall into the “I don’t really like this person but I still have to give them a gift for their birthday” category. You can use your less than stellar gifts as birthday presents for these people. Actually, you can easily extend this line of thinking for these people on other occasions: graduation, weddings, etc. The key is that in one scoop, you have managed to get rid of an unwanted gift and not spend any money on people that you aren’t overly fond of. Definitely a win-win situation.

2. Donate

If you’re a bit higher up on the morality scale, you can always donate the gifts to a charity of your choice. Remember, there are many people who need different items throughout the year and there are a variety of charities who accept donations year round.

3. Sell Online

Who knows what people are looking for, so using Ebay/Kijiji etc. may yield some positive results. Getting rid of an unwanted gift and making some money off of it? Congratulations, now you’re officially the King (or Queen) of the world. You can use Facebook too, but then you have to make sure that the original giver of the gift doesn’t find out because you were too sloppy to realize this person is on your friends list (although that would be hilarious — email me if you did this).

4. Bribery

No, the cop probably won’t accept your coffee mug gift as compensation for not giving you a speeding ticket, but it may work on some other people. When I was a student in elementary school, my parents would always give little gifts to all my teachers during the holiday season and I noticed the teachers were a lot nicer to me after that. Although it could have just been an inverse relationship between their happiness and the time left in the school year.

5. Swap

It may be 2013, but you can relive what people used to do centuries ago and try to swap one good for another–just like the good old bartering system days. The days of trading chickens for a wheelbarrow may be gone, but you may be able to find someone who is willing to accept your subpar gift for something which is more appealing to you.

This article was researched and written by Hummad Waheed, a contributing author of promotionalcode.ca.