Receiving gifts that end up unused can quickly lead to clutter in your home. Pro organizers often face the choice of keeping these items or finding ways to dispose of them. We consulted with organizing experts to discover the common gifts they prefer to give away to maintain a clutter-free environment.
Kitchen Appliances
Kitchen appliances are the gift that most organizing experts say they usually get rid of. In a world where counter space is limited, it makes sense that these are often the first to go despite the price point.
“Bulky gadgets take up precious counters or storage space and often go unused,” says Barbara E. Tanaka, strategic home design and organizing advisor at Real Estate Bees. “They’re hard to let go of because they seem too valuable to donate but aren’t practical to keep.”
Not to mention, most people are gifted kitchen appliances they either don’t know how to use yet or have limited uses.
“If it serves no more than a couple of purposes or has no significant impact on the cooking process, then it’s clear that such a tool will not be in use for long,” says Brian Davis, professional organizer and owner of Handy Rubbish.
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Candles
Other than kitchen appliances, candles are another common gift that pros normally give away.
Candles seem like the easiest gift to give during the holidays: they’re cozy and add welcoming scents to your home—but there is such a thing as too many candles. And if everyone is gifting them, you’re bound to end up with too many, and ones with scents you don’t like.
Home Decor
If you’re gifting decor, make sure you really know the recipient’s style, otherwise this might be a gift that gets passed on to someone else eventually.
“Decor rarely matches the recipient’s style and often becomes visual clutter,” Tanaka says. “Yet, many keep it around, hoping they’ll find a place for it someday or because it feels sentimental.”
Books
Unless the book is requested by an avid reader in your life, chances are you can skip out on giving this as a gift—physical books add to visual clutter (especially if they’re not on a bookshelf) and once a person reads it, they may never pick it up again.
“It is nice to be gifted a book but if the title does not suit me in any way, it is only going to be a decoration piece,” Davis says.
Promotional Items
If you’ve ever received a T-shirt or mug and wondered where your gifter could’ve possibly gotten it from, chances are it might have been a promotional item that they received for free.
“Free promotional items shouldn’t be kept because they’re free—most of the time they are unnecessary and just add to our clutter,” says Meghan Cocchiaro, home organizing expert and owner of Organized by Meg LLC,Cocchiaro.
Rather than holding on to these items out of sentimentality, you can donate them to people in need instead.