It helps me to go ahead and make decisions about certain things so I can avoid making bad decisions in the heat of the moment.
Heat of the Moment = When the carhop at Sonic (or the coffee-fixer at Starbucks) asks if I want to keep my used-up giftcard.
I tell them I don’t want it. No decision needed since the decision has already been made.
If I let myself stop to consider all the possibilities, the decision overwhelms me.
I mean, with a used-up giftcard you can:
Scrape soap-scum off of a shower door.
Let the kids play store.
Let the kids pretend it is an iPhone and take pictures all through Colonial Williamsburg. (My daughter did this. Serious as she could be.)
Fix a teensy-tiny-bit-uneven table leg.
Keep jewelry from tangling during travel by punching holes into the gift card.
Mark the place in a well-organized bookshelf so a book can get back into the right spot.
Hahahahaha!!! OK, it’s official. I’m getting ridiculous when my daydreams of why I should keep something (which I totally don’t need) involve a perfectly organized bookshelf.
But seriously, I have to stop myself. The truth is . . . I can let every cashier keep every used-up giftcard from now til I die and I’ll still be able to find forty strewn throughout the house if I ever actually need one.
I’ll just have to check to see if they still have 32 cents left on them.
--Nony
This made me laugh out loud. I make art charms and trade them and this month- they are made out of GIFT CARDS!!! I can die cut them in my machine. lol I love it. But guess what I have NONE! I threw them all out when I moved. I used to find the rogue card and file it away to check it’s balance. I came to the conclusion- if it isn’t in my wallet, it’s a goose egg. I think I may go scavenge through Hubbie’s car… 😀
The same goes for hotel room keys. I have to leave them in the room or my daughters just have to have them. It’s not like we don’t have enough at home to open every hotel room in NYC.
Ugh. Hotel room keys are even MORE useless!! And yet I’ve had plenty.
Be careful about leaving hotel key cards. They have very useful information about you that someone might be able to use.
Hotel keycards do not hold personal information. They are coded to the door and if scanned, they show the hotel, room number, and dates for coding. The machine used to code the cards isn’t privy to the information on the hotel’s computer system. I have worked for several hotel chains while in college. 🙂
In my recent decluttering, I’ve come across quite a few gift cards! I have been putting them in a baggie (in my underwear drawer–but hey, at least they have a home!) so I can check the balances and toss them if they’re empty. Shamefully, I’m willing to bet most of them have never been used. It’s not that I’m not grateful for the gift I received at some point…it’s just that I’m unorganized and irresponsible.
In my wallet, I have a Costco cash card that I received a refund on. I used the balance that same day, but kept the card because I wanted to ask if I could refill it…I got the genius idea that I would just round up my total and put the rest on the cash card, and then be able to use that for a “free” trip to Costco around Christmas or so. But I’ve been there several times and I keep forgetting to ask. Tossing it today…after I make sure it has a zero balance. 😉
And, yes, I have hotel room keys, too. Scrapbooking RUINED me because I think I have to keep everything because it will look cute on a scrapbook page!
Ha! I think I need this embroidered on a pillow or something: “I’m not ungrateful, it’s just that I’m unorganized and irresponsible.” This made my day. 🙂
I hear you sister. In truth, these things just add more clutter, which I totally don’t need!
LOL I love it. It hadn’t even occurred to me that empty gift cards could be repurposed. I’m going to stick with my current plan of NOT keeping them.
Donate the small remainder of your gift cards to either your server/barista or the car behind you. Happy all around and no clutter! 🙂
Love this idea!!
The only one I keep is my Starbucks Gold card, it has my name stamped on it…. My hubby has gotten me into the gold by buying our beans there. Hubby says he can taste when the beans are stale (as in from the grocery). At least (the very least) they throw in a cup of coffee when he buys are beans. I just recharge my card ever once and a while and treat myself once or twice a month.
I love your idea of pre-made decisions…Here’s one I have: as soon as I find a brand/product I like I stop looking. That way I basically am just replacing thing x with thing x and don’t end up with unfinished products (example, with a teen age girl, guess how many unfinished bottles of lotion/shampoo/conditioner/styling products we accumulated? Then my “depression-era conserver mentality” kicked in and wouldn’t dispose of the stuff. Decided to dump and recycle ’em and now have a short list of what works which is all that I buy or mix up (if using my own recipe).
If it ever happens again, (Like Dana, I need to re-declutter often.) you can combine all the shampoos into one bottle, all the conditioners, and all the lotions into their own. That way you’re not getting rid off all that usable product.
But I’m with you – sometimes it’s just better to get it out of the house.
PS I actually thought your graphic was the reminder not to accumulate those cup cozies and extra plastic cups take out beverages come in. Ha ha!
I felt very accomplished when I deleted a Starbucks card VIRTUALLY. I use my phone so I really don’t need any. But I’m keeping the one that has Sir Paul on it. Because: SIR PAUL.
Great tip! I’ll need to make some decisions beforehand, too. Probably not about gift cards, though. I have a need to keep really cutesy ones. I didn’t have a use for them til now that you’ve given me so many ideas! 😀 lol 😉
This is SO me!!!! There is always that hesitation on my part; that moment of “wait – I could use it for….” My kids have loved playing with them too! ; I think of all sorts of nebulous art projects that they would come in useful for (all those art projects I will never get to because I’ve got so many other things I need to be doing… and no space to do those art projects in anyway because, well, the place is a mess…) Making the decision beforehand is definitely wise!
I need to do that with paper clips. I don’t know how I wind up with the darned things but they wind up in my desk drawer. The sad thing is, I do pretty much everything on my computers. I use index cards for grocery lists and other notes, but paper? Honest to goodness paper? Yeah, not so much. And yet I still love the back-to-school sales when I can get college ruled notebooks for twenty cents. I type so much you’d think I’d forgotten how to use a pen for more than: milk, dog food, cat litter, etc…, but I have to have those notebooks. I mean…what other time of year are you going to get such a great deal on something you’ll never use? 😀
Always trying to save a buck here so I keep mine.
In the past I would pay my kids in gift cards for random jobs that weren’t their normal chores!
I always get them back after I had a cashier try and toss mine when I told her she didn’t deduct them properly. After I got it back from her I checked and it had $37 bucks STILL ON IT!
Something I don’t keep? That’s a tuff one because I always find another use for instance I used to cut guitar picks out of them for my son! LOL!
I know
I need help
That’s why I read ASCL !
Pat
Interesting. I’ve never given it another thought when faced with that question. I always say “No” I don’t need them anymore if they aren’t empty. Yes I supposed they could be re-used and therefore there’d be less waste when buying a new one, but I rarely if ever buy a giftcard. (I personally find them impersonal unless the person specifically asks for one.)
I have to admit I keep mine. I keep about 5-10 in a ziploc bag, along with an old toothbrush. They go in a basket under my sink. Along with my dish soap, scrub pads, a hand floor scrubber, and magic erasers. I use them for scrapping hard to clean items. They work great for cleaning the oven, cleaning toothpaste off of the bathroom sink, dishes that are hard to clean (stuck on scrambled egg on a electric griddle) And whatever that was my kids spilled and did not tell me until it was stuck-I don’t want to know! I have gotten better though. I used to keep them all-and had them stacked everywhere. I threw away about 40 of them and found the rest a home. Then I started saying no when asked if I wanted to keep them. When they get too bad and don’t work I trash them. I did such a good job at it, I am almost out, but got in the habit of saying no! LOL
I don’t suffer from the desire to keep empty gift card, but I still struggle to throw out other stuff for the same reasons you mentioned – I might be able to make something with it. Ugg. But when throw something out lately, then I wish I had kept it. HELP!
Were there specific reasons you wanted the items back or was it just a vague feeling?
Whoa, I had no idea people kept gift cards (I do struggle with other things). I’ve never had more than 5-10 in my life that I can think of. Here in London, there’s a travel card (just like a gift card) but to get one costs 5 pounds deposit (= $8.35) so that people don’t throw them away or litter. If you plan on never taking a bus or train again (and preferably your balance is depleted) then you can turn your card in and get the deposit back. And you can register your card so that if you lose it and report it, you won’t lose the balance on it. That would be one card I wouldn’t keep to clean with!
You’re good. I had no idea you could do all that stuff with a used up gift card. Now I’m going to second guess myself when it’s time to decide whether to toss it or save.
Ugh. We had a hotel key card on our dashboard for months and I finally threw it out. And my husband was not pleased that I did. He often tells me he doesn’t keep junk, but our house says otherwise. But he insists on keeping every card, homemade or otherwise, someone sends/gives us. Like, greeting card, not gift card. I have made a little bag of gift tags from some of the really impersonal ones, but when I tried to toss the invitation to my nieces 4th birthday party, he wasn’t having it, and I still don’t understand why.
It’s 2023 now. Do you understand why yet? Has he talked about why he has attachments to these type things? I’m very curious. But I also like that he’s sentimental about a niece’s Bday invite. 🤗 it is quite touching actually.
just found this…fells like youre in my head…..
I recently figured out how to set up a “ONE” Starbucks gift card, and transferred all the other balances to that one. Threw the others away. 😉
That is a great idea!
Donate your used cards to preschools do the kids can play ‘mommy’ or use in crafts. Also, to the lady with barely used toiletries. ..donate to your homeless shelters or an aftet school center in your local low income area. The kids these often need them and don’t get that kind odd supplies.
One Christmas I bought my son a punch that makes guitar picks–out of old credit cards, plastic containers, and…..used up gift cards! He loves it. 🙂
They are the best cleaning tool around. I keep one in every room! I also keep them handy by the bathroom doors for use as skeleton keys since we’re always getting locked out!
uh oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have read this article. My eyes lit up at all Dana’s ideas for gift cards….
Same 😂
In particular the travel jewelry idea 🤪
Well here is us February 21,2023 and this is still a relevant article. This made me chuckle especially at the end. I too have to use up every penny!