Regifting | How I Gave a Repurposed Gift in a Meaningful Way

Have you ever repurposed a gift? Yep, I have! Ever told the recipient that it was a repurposed gift? I recently did!

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It was a book titled “Cationary Meaningful Portraits of Cats” by Sharon Montrose and purrrfect for my friend.

My husband and I have started talking about downsizing. Retirement is on the horizon, and we want to have more with less! More time to travel, less time working in the yard. More time for hobbies, less time cleaning the house.

More time for everything we want to do and less time doing the things we don’t want to do. You see a pattern?

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We have accumulated many beautiful things and keepsakes. It is now time to decide what to do with them and then distribute.

So I’m trying to place a lot of my possessions in the garage sale pile, donation pile, ask-my-kids-what-they-want pile, and last but not least, the repurposed gifts pile.

As I was going through the bookshelves, I discovered a picture book of cats that was given to me by my childhood friend. Nancy is my oldest friend – not in age but in length of time – and we’ve known each other since second grade. She loves cats, and I love dogs!

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This gift was payback for giving her a picture book of dogs. I thought the dogs in the book had great personality!

My friend, June, is a cat lover and the thought crossed my mind, why not give this cute book, “Cationary” as a repurposed birthday gift? The book already has a little history of why I have the book. (See Nancy’s writing inside the cover.)

I knew June would love the book because of the cute play on words, the precious cat pictures and receiving a unique type of gift – a repurposed gift!

To explain the significance of the book and to keep the repurposed book going forward, I wrote this message inside the cover:

Did you know a cat book has nine lives? (1) My friend, Nancy, purchased it. (2) Gave it to me. (3) I gave it to you. (4) Give it to a friend as a gift to pass along and touch 9 lives!

What have we learned here? By adding creativity and a “thoughtful twist” to something you already own that you know someone else would love makes regifting an act you can be completely open and honest about!

The cat could very well be man’s best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.  – Doug Larson

Please share your repurposed gift ideas in the Comments section. (And help Baby boomers like me downsize!)