Regifting. This always comes up sometime during the year. You receive a gift that didn’t quite suit you or something you didn’t like. You don’t want to hurt the giver’s feelings so you try to pass the gift on to someone else.

UPS is making light of the situation this year by making their own regifting site. This is entertaining. I have no problem with regifting as long as something is new and usable. There are times when you receive a gift that just isn’t right and you don’t want to ask for a gift receipt from the person.  Think if you have ever received a gift from a student, coworker or club member what can you do. You can’t return the gift but after a while these things just pile up. So you can either give them to someone else or give them to charity. Sometimes the gifts are too nice to just throw out, are lotions and creams and aren’t accepted at a thrift store. Plus, for an inexpensive item, do you really want to bother with the hassle of eBay? That’s when regifting comes in handy.

The regifting site allows you to rate gifts and even regift items and email them to your friends. There are times when you regift and you are close enough to the regifting recipient that you can say, I got this from so and so, but I though you’d like it better. This is not a problem. I have a few friends and relatives who have done this and I have done this to and we are open enough to know each other’s tastes so that this isn’t a problem.

Most of the time when I regift, I will add the item to a gift that I already bought which makes it seem as though I am more generous, but what the recipient doesn’t know is that I am clearing out stuff out of my house. 

Tips for regifting:

• Make sure the item(s) are in good condition.

• Remove any tags and rewrap the gift.

• Remember who originally gave you the gift so you do not return the gift to the original giver.

• Do not give away anything personalized with full names, unless you know someone with the same name as yours.

• Do not regift stale food items.

• Do not regift handmade items.