There’s a general attitude towards regifting that essentially goes: it’s bad. Well, I have to say, I don’t necessarily agree. If someone gifts me something that I’ve never used, that I know someone else would thoroughly enjoy, and my budget is maybe a little tight, why should I let a perfectly good item go to waste?
Before you assume I’m just a Grinch type, you should know I LOVE gift giving. I get major satisfaction from finding the perfect pressie for someone, so much so that I actually buy presents throughout the year if I see the perfect thing and wait for a birthday or Christmas to be able to give them.
So regifting to me, at least when it’s done right, isn’t about getting rid of stuff you don’t want. It’s about making gift-giving more mindful, and rejecting the pressure to become a mindless consumer ‘in the holiday spirit’. Plus, the planet could do with a little less waste, don’t you think?
The extra blanket rule around regifting is to not make it obvious otherwise you kind of seem like a douche. How do you achieve that?
Who To Regift To
The short answer is anyone. But the better answer is anyone who you think of instantly when you receive a gift. The trick to any good gifting is making it thoughtful and specific to that person. It’s no different if you’re regifting.
Of course, there are rules within that rule. You never want to regift back to the original gifter, that’s going to be awkward and come across as very rude. It’s not much better to regift to anyone who knows the original gifter well. There’s a good chance OG gifter will see it, or that their friends or family helped pick it out.
What To Regift
There are a few exclusions to what you can regift. If someone handmade a gift for you, you shouldn’t really regift it even if it’s not your style, that’s a hard one to explain when the new person wants to know where it’s from.
I hope it goes without saying, but anything you decide to regift needs to be in its original condition. No dog-eared book pages or broken wrapping. That’s not regifting, that’s offloading your trash.
What To Check For
If you’ve actually put effort into thinking who would love the item you’re regifting, you don’t want it to look like you just didn’t care by leaving original gift cards or something on the present. In fact, unless it somehow looks pristine and new, just use new wrapping altogether. The original gifter probably already did, but check for price tags and that sort of thing as well.
Oh and make sure nothing on the actual gift was personalised, like an inscription inside book pages or something.
If You Can’t Regift
So you’ve received something you don’t really care for. Maybe it’s not your style, maybe someone else didn’t follow best regifting practice like you obvi will, maybe you just have no room for it. But you can’t think of anyone who actually would like it. What then?
If it’s still in good nick and you just have no one to regift it to, give it to charity. That could be by way of your usual charity donation bins, or you could go find one of those gifting trees like the ones they have in Kmart around Christmas time. Someone will still love it.
If you gave it a test before you decided it wasn’t for you, or if it’s just not suitable as a gift, you can give things away to mates at any time. Just don’t wrap it up and make like it’s a special present.
