Presents - Seasonal Thoughts

Now this is a ticklish but seasonally appropriate subject. I've been asked to dispose of more than one box of things which were no longer wanted and have been quite hurt to find items which I had given as presents. In a couple of cases the prices such items fetched on ebay have very nearly taken away the sting but that isn't going to happen often!

While tidying up for elderly relatives, there seemed to me to be an astonishing number of presents which they had never used. Some were unused for obvious reasons: they were never the right gift. However, many were, I suspect, put away as "too good to use".

I have learned a few things about presents

Rule 1 – When someone gives you a present they mean it for you now not for your niece-in-law who inherits it.
Rule 2 – Nothing you can afford is too good to use. Unless you can identify the special day when that bottle of champagne will be opened or the super new perfume used, then perhaps the best day for using it is today.
Rule 3 – Only wine improves with age. Use everything else now!


Finally, if an item is really not what you want or will use, get rid of it soon. Give it away, sell it but just don’t keep it past the stage where the donor can say “where is the **** I gave you?”