Things you wish people would stop buying you

[tequilasunrises]

Had a bit of a pre Christmas house declutter earlier and found that DH has THIRTEEN unused Lynx shower gels in the bathroom cupboard - all from Christmas last year.

Having chucked out a load of moisturer/bath sets il never use I had to sigh hand thinking about the next influx I’m going to get from his relatives this year.

I try not to be ungrateful but we’ve got such a tiny house and hoardes of toiletries really isn’t conducive to minimalist living!

What do you always get for Christmas/Birthdays that you wish you didn’t?

Things with cats on. Ornaments, mugs, etc.

Yes. I love my actual cats.

Doesn't mean I want a life size ceramic one that is also a flower pot...

I'd actually be happier if they just got presents for the cats. One can never have enough Dreamies.

Alcohol. I very rarely drink anything alcoholic. I'll have a toast glass at a wedding or a special occasion but that's about it. It will be regifted or go off. Plus I've been pregnant or breastfeeding since mid 2017.

Smellies - I have incredibly dry skin and most is bad for my skin and gets donated to the food bank for their side table for people to choose from. Anything exfoliating or scrub like goes straight in the box at church or Tesco, whichever I go to first. My nan knows what works and does it well 😊 she keeps me stocked up for the year!

Random 'pretty things'. My DM is guilty - she loves pretty ornaments - they're well meaning but gather dust and just clutter places 🤷

Stuff with owls on - I'm a brownie leader, not an owl enthusiast.

Always well received: chocolate, socks (how I wear them through so quickly I don't know 🤷), warm stuff - PJ's, bed socks and the like 👏

Candles - I only used them occasionally before and now we have a small child so will never use them.
Mugs - we had a big clear out last year and I've got a lovely set of mugs and when we get given more I feel obliged to keep them.
Ornaments - this one is 90% of the time (my DM has great taste) but otherwise I just struggle with where to put them and feel guilty if I don't want to keep them. We've spent years trying to declutter!

Body lotion.

Also well received - anything I'm going to need to buy my DC anyway 😅 I love love love getting useful stuff for them for my birthday as I won't need to find space in the budget at any specific time! Clothes in the next size up, books etc....!

I love a body lotion but find scrubs a total waste of time. One year I had about 5 scrubs. Donated them all but it was ridiculous.
A couple of my friends think I'm much cleverer than I am, and that I have any time to read, and give me hard books. Which is a nice thought but I can barely follow the blurb on the back!

Body lotion/Hand cream. Never use the stuff. And Jewellery. You. Don't. Know. What. I. Like. Even. Though. You. Think. You. Do.

Doesn't anyone find it ironic that mumsnet is full of threads like this about getting unwanted 'tat' for xmas yet at the same time there is dozens of threads of people wanting ideas for extras to pad out their children's stocking.
I find it all quite amusing.

Anything from Baylis and Harding.

Hear, hear! People think it's expensive. Just the smell makes me itch.

Another teacher here who has all the mugs, doesn't drink wine, is fussy with which chocolate I'll eat and who gets so many smellies sets it means I never need to buy my own through the year. I stick one or two sets in the staff loo for general use and also donate chocs to the staff room, so the office staff get a look in too.

I also get
2nd hand tat from my sister.
And clothing that's very hit and miss in style and size from my Mum.

2nd sis takes me for afternoon tea, so that's perfect.

I like receiving most of the things mentioned on here, I don’t receive much. I’m fussy with smellies as I have sensitive skin but the DS’s use anything that I can’t use. I don’t like getting too much food, people that do buy for me or joint family gifts seem to gift us chocolate so I no longer buy any with our Christmas food shop or we would be eating it for months, anyone that knows me knows I like to keep fit and eat healthy so 6 tins of roses isn’t really what I want.

Body Shop body butter.

I have an ever-increasing collection of the things that would last me a lifetime (if I used it, which I don't) and still they come.

Scarves. Never wear them but get one every year from one of my nieces.
Bath bombs.
Mugs - I’ve never drunk tea or coffee in my life and I’m not going to start just because someone gave me yet another mug.

But I love cozy pajamas, fluffy socks, and anything with skulls on.

My dad sent me money by western union. I wish he hadn’t. It’s just gone into my purse and will be used for petrol, tolls, maybe a lottery ticket or two. But we have a lot more money than him so we would prefer it if he kept it for himself or saved it towards the cost of coming to visit us.

Vegetarian cookbooks. It's a lovely thought, but I have at least 10 already, gathering dust on a shelf in the kitchen. So much easier to Google recipes (sadly)

Avon gift sets- nothing Avon has been near my skin in 15 years because every single time it made my skin itch, swell and then weep if not quickly removed. SIL is a very pushy Avon rep and pressured me to try a few ranges, same result every time. Still I get a fucking gift basket every year.

I have a similar problem with any kind of aerosol, because they trigger my asthma (and the same for my son, who has very severe allergies). So people who give my kids Lynx etc really piss me off. Fortunately I saw the problem coming and bought them fancy aftershave and matching solid deodorant (Davidoff Cool Water) which allows them and me to breathe and smells nice without being too strong.

Cosmetics of any kind. Because of my very sensitive skin, but also because I last drew on my face for my wedding 25 years ago. I don't have anything against cosmetics per se, it's more that when I do it, it feels like a toddler scribbling on their own face with a marker pen. My mother knows this, but she doesn't care. It's what I SHOULD want in her opinion, so it's what I get. Or got, I doubt she will send anything this year, to my huge relief.

thehygienebank.com/locations/

Enter your location to find your local hygiene bank drop off point. They always need products, men’s products in particular.

You can also donate to your local homeless shelter.

Pyjamas (don’t wear them!)
Calendars and diaries (it’s 2019!)
Live laugh love style wall art tat

I’ve already got a pile ready for a charity bag. I wish ppl would just save their money

So every year MIL (it would be my MIL wouldn’t it ) gives us £100 worth of Morrison’s saving stamps, except we don’t live near a Morrison’s and we both hate going in supermarkets at the best of times, never mind at Christmas, so we get a weekly Ocado delivery.

So while it’s a very generous gift it puts us out as we have to take time out at the busiest time of year to go there and find things we want to buy, we don’t want to buy our Christmas dinner from there because that gets delivered from Ocado just in time for the big day and we like the Waitrose stuff so we’re not going to downgrade to Morrison’s for Christmas Day.

God, I sound really ungrateful don’t I!?

My in laws always bring us loads of chocolate whenever they come to visit. DH doesn't like it (weirdo) and the DC are too young for it so it's down to me to eat it all. I do like chocolate but there's a limit to how much one person can eat...

I also don't get why they buy it when their own son doesn't like it!

Chocolates. I'm diabetic

And have very little willpower.

So I invariably eat them, feel absolutely shit for doing so and am like a bag of adders for poor DH. Last year, at my request, he hid them. I'm not nice to be around when my blood sugars are high

Lynx - Do they think he's 14???

For me:
Toiletries - allergic to fragrance
Candles - allergic to fragrance
Reed diffusers - allergic to fragrance

This unfortunately accounts for 90% of gifts I am given, apart from mugs. I don't drink tea or coffee, which anyone who knows me well enough to give me a gift is aware of. But still the mugs arrive. I have no need of mugs.

Anything that stinks, gift sets, Yankee crap, perfumed drawer liners, soap, hand cream, and especially Bayliss & Harding shite. Exception is Floris candles in certain scents, not just the reduced ones that no-one likes because surprisingly, neither do I.

Mugs, I have cupboards of mugs, all of which are there because they are used, chosen because we like them. There is no room for more mugs.

Cheap chocolate made mainly of sugar and palm oil. Or even not so cheap chocolate made with palm oil. It gets re-gifted, along with the stuff that stinks.

Novelty sweets. I can't eat cat heads, I just can't. Even if they don't smell like cat sick.

Socks with toes. How on earth are you meant to get them on?

Itchy scarves, gloves for huge hands instead of ones that are my size.

Woolly hats with dead Chinese dog pompoms on top.

My mother, who loves a bargain god love her, buys me loads of beauty products every year that I can’t use. I have a very specific routine that works for me (fussy face skin and prone to thrush so cant use scented body products). I have mentioned that I don’t need any more stuff but she buys it anyway. I donate it.

I was a nurse for years and every year got at least one godawful nurse-related gimmicky present (mugs, cheap tote bags, t-shirts). This Christmas is my first as a non-registered nurse (my PIN expired and didn’t revalidate), hopefully no more nursey toot!

Toiletries. Every year I get some useless set from my ILs. End up giving it to my daughter. She loves them!

We get a "buy a gift" hotel break voucher from mil every year and it does my head in. We have to spend ages on the phone finding a hotel that can accommodate us on the dates we can do - you can't book anything online. Most places flat out say they can't accept the booking too. And I know I sound so ungrateful, but they're never really nice places. I don't think it's a treat to drive a couple of hours to stay in a room that isn't as comfy, nice and as (usually) clean as our own house. What's the point? If we were travelling somewhere for a reason, that's different.

I also hate toiletry gift sets - never use them. Who on earth uses body lotion?!