The gifts that keep on giving (when I can find them)

So we’re barely into midJanuary and I’m already off to a head start for my Christmas shopping and birthday gifts for my family in 2020.

Why am I so organized, you may ask?

Actually, it’s not quite like that.

Last year I tried to be ahead of the game and purchased some Christmas gifts for members of my family over the summer.

In theory it was a good idea. In theory it would have been a better idea if I could have remembered where I put the gifts after I brought them home.

I purchased a Christmas gift for my sister in July, 2019. I didn’t find it until Jan. 5,

2020 when I was tidying up a storage room to put away my Christmas tree and holiday decorations.

She’ll likely now get it as a gift for her birthday in November – providing I remember at that time where I put it.

Likewise, in the fall I had bought some gifts for my sons and my husband. Those I did find before Christmas, but only after a month-and-a-half of searching for them.

You’d think I lived in some 25,000-square-foot mansion with 27 rooms in it when it comes to looking for these things. It is indeed baffling.

I will say tidying up the storage room is bringing me a great sense of satisfaction, however. It is beyond ridiculous to see the things I’ve hung onto for several years. As if storing them in a tote box makes up for the fact that I will never, ever use them again in this lifetime.

But they’re in a box.

With a lid.

Meanwhile, I find myself at least once a year going out and buying new tote boxes because I don’t have any empty ones.

Yep, makes sense.

It took hours of effort (okay, let’s be honest, a couple of days of effort with a lot of intermittent breaks) to clean up and reorganize my downstairs storage room but I have to say, it really paid off.

Literally.

While cleaning up I found an envelope containing gift cards that had been given to my husband and I.

One was a $100 gift card from Kent. The other was a $150 gift card from Canadian Tire.

We had received them for Christmas . . . in 2018.

Said my mom, “See, it pays off to tidy up.”

She’s right. And little does she know she also still has a Christmas gift coming from me – in February for her birthday!