Why Wedding Gift Registries Lead To Clutter.

Weddings are great…but sometimes the stuff you get for your wedding just ends up being in storage for the next 40 years. A lot of people (myself included, I am not letting myself off the hook here!) register for everything under the sun when they get married, whether due to pressure from their families to do so or because they just want to get more stuff…and many times it only leads to more clutter in their home. Multiple dish sets, 12 serving platters, 82 glasses, 3 sets of silverware – there is only so much a single family has use for. Yet the tradition continues among so many of us! For example, we had a perfectly fine set of dishes but somehow came to the conclusion that we needed yet another set – leading to us packing, unpacking, storing, and moving these 2 sets for years until we finally just ditched one of them. I don’t normally serve Queen Elizabeth dinner at my house, and if my family would have a problem with eating off nice & simple all-white plates, well…maybe next time they can go to Panera Bread instead. 🙂 We have 1 full set of dishes, 24 glasses, 8 coffee cups, and a single set of utensils – if we had more, we would have to find a place to store them for that once in a lifetime opportunity to have more than 13 people over for dinner!

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Creative Commons License photo credit: hamner.jonathan

If a couple does their gift registry the way that most couples do, they will end up with too much stuff they will probably never use. Ever. Registering for the things you feel you really need can pay off, as it saves you money from buying them later and still gives the gift-givers something to buy for you. But using the registry to pick up items you don’t need is just a waste of money for the giver and of space for the recipient. If I had to do it again, I think I would opt for/request a few small appliances if I needed them and then gift cards to favorite stores or travel destinations. That’s it! A few years after their wedding, almost everyone I know has said that they have too much stuff and too many duplicates in their house, mostly due to their wedding registry.

My advice? Don’t register for things just because that’s what you are supposed to do. Register for what you need and not what you think others will want to buy for you. Register at off-the-wall places even if you think family members might think you are strange for doing so. After all, this is your day, not theirs…and if you don’t want a full set of dishes to use once every 5 years when Queen Elizabeth comes for dinner, then you aren’t required to register for them. Do you really want to have store boxes (or worse yet, pack and move them every time you move) of “extra” stuff you don’t need or use? Don’t let anyone dictate what you register for for your wedding!

3 Comments
  1. June 22, 2009
  2. June 22, 2009
  3. June 22, 2009

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