Sask. mom ditches gifts for less clutter, more calm

Soon after having her first child five years ago, Carey Olson started to notice her home filling up with items. The clutter started making her feel overwhelmed.

"It just seemed like way more than we needed," she said, noting that as the kids started to go to school and play outside, the gifts accumulated from birthdays and special events seemed unnecessary.

"You just find you have so much stuff lying around, and they don't use any of it."

For the past few years, the family from North Battleford has been minimizing, reducing gift buying and giving, and finding new ways to celebrate occasions — and Olson has found it freeing.

"It makes me feel better, in my brain space. It's less clutter, it's less confusing, it's easier to think."

Olson started encouraging grandparents to change their habits, that instead of buying gifts, they would spend a day baking with the kids or taking them to the movies, "where you don't end up with anything left over, other than memories, which is kind of the goal."

She's taken on a few 30-day minimalism challenges as part of the change. On the first day of the challenge, she'll get rid of one item, on the second day, she'll get rid of two items, and so on, until by the end of the challenge, she will have ramped it up to getting rid of 30 items within the day. Nobody in her family has noticed the missing items are gone, she said, with those goods potentially ranging from anything to expired food and medication to toys and clothes.

New approach to gift-giving, receiving

Emma Kramer-Rodger, who writes a blog focused on environmentalism and making lifestyles more sustainable, said gift-giving doesn't necessarily have to be a part of North American culture.

"The most common thing I hear is that people say it's so stressful. They say, 'I don't have money to buy a gift, it's so stressful to have to go shop'," she said.

"You shouldn't be stressing yourself out to show affection for someone else, because there's a lot of ways to do that that doesn't involve you having to spend money or doing things that stress you out."

Olson said she and her husband have held birthday parties for their children, but have asked people not to bring gifts, or if the guests were keen on bringing something, to buy necessary items or gift cards. It's a move she said that has been well-received by others who are moving toward reducing consumerism as well.

"For the most part, people tend to be opting out, and it's nice to see."

When it comes to giving to other children for special occasions, Olson said she hasn't eliminated buying gifts, but will at times re-gift brand-new items that her kids haven't used, or that they've grown out of. On other occasions, like Valentine's Day, her children might make homemade goodies like cookies to hand out, instead of buying knickknacks.

"The obligation is always there for something, and so it's to try and do something that's not contributing to the problem, and that's creative," she said.

Thinking outside the box for gift alternatives

Like Olson, Kramer-Rodger has found making homemade goodies has been a good way to replace gift-buying, while she and her family have really enjoyed the practice of buying each other concert tickets in lieu of material goods. Another thing she recommends is second-hand gifts, passing on items that a person no longer is using, but another may appreciate.

While occasions like Halloween, Easter and Christmas prompt thoughts of gift-buying, Kramer-Rodger suggests there could be alternatives to packaged goods.

For instance, at Halloween, many of her friends took advantage of the City of Regina's Healthy Halloween Passes, to hand out coupons offering kids admissions to city facilities like skating rinks and swimming pools.

She's also taken advice from the older generation, who are grandparents themselves, when it comes to alternative gift-giving.

"A lot of the things they say to do is give gifts that remind the children what a fortunate part of the world we have live in, and that gift can give back," she said.

For instance, people can donate to a wildlife preservation in the child's name, she suggested. The wildlife preserve may give a stuffed animal to the child in recognition, while also providing updates on how that animal is doing. Other gifts include sponsoring a child through a charity organization, or buying gifts of chickens or goats for communities in developing nations.

"We hear so much about the pollution aspect. We hear about the damage of trash we're producing," she noted.

"A lot of that has to do with how much stuff we buy, how much stuff we consume and all the resources that goes into making the stuff on a regular basis."

Olson said her goal to streamline life has encouraged her and her husband to think twice before buying.

"I'm still just kind of starting this journey, and there's a lot of people that are able to live with way less," she said. "I still buy things from time to time, but I'm buying a lot less than I used to, and I think about it more when I buy it and I try not to buy stuff that's not necessary."