Unwanted Holiday Gifts

I box them up and donate them, but I make sure that they go to a place far away from where I live. I learned the hard way that if I donate the stuff to a local thrift shop the person who gave it to me will buy it for me again and present it to me as a gift. I FINALLY wised up and found a donation site where the stuff ends up over a hundred and fifty miles away so I don't get it given to me again. Some of the stuff does get tossed or taken in for recycling. There isn't too much that ends up that way. What bugs me is receiving gifts that are useless to me from people that I have informed that I am trying to sort and cut down on the amount of stuff I have in my home. I have worked since 2000 eliminating about a ton and a half of stuff. I had to deal with my Mom's estate which included my dad's stuff, my brother's stuff, my late aunt's stuff and my stuff. You couldn't move in my house!!! Mom had over 1000 yards of quilt fabric. A neighbor and I spend 6 weeks measuring and pricing fabric. Then another 3 weeks sorting and tagging yarn...and it went on from there. Mom also loved furniture and collected it like crazy. When you live in a 1100 square foot home you don't have room for a lot of furniture. So, after over 8 years of sorting and disposing of all the excess, I don't want to gain a ton more of excess stuff from well meaning gift givers. So, I accept it politely and then it goes into the donate box and then goes to Fresno which is 150 miles from my home so it won't find its way back!!!

I just toss them. I've gotten some pretty useless and thoughtless things. It's not about money, but I know a lot of people gave me junk because they thought they would get a great gift from me. So, next year, they're off my list. So, I'm junking their gifts because no one else would want it or use it.