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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My MIL goes to the hairdresser at least weekly. For gift occasions, she buys me things from their gift area. A lot of it is accessories that are targeted toward older women trying to look hip. Think lots of animal prints and statement bracelets. In her mind my style is like the Mike Myers "Linda Richman" character on SNL, I'm over 60, and and I shop at Chico's, while in reality I'm 40-some and more the classic/preppy type.

Before the hairdresser, there was this older women's clothing shop she went to constantly, similar aesthetic, and all my gifts came from there. My DH agrees they were pretty bad. A couple years ago, he was on the phone with her and she told him that store had closed, and he immediately rushed to tell me the good news. For a couple years I got store gift cards and it was great. But then she found this hairdresser.

What is odd is that supposedly I am the favorite DIL, but she has always given my SILs gift cards to nice stores rather than fake-fur earmuffs and snakeskin-print bags from the hairdresser's. I do appreciate that she puts a lot more thought and effort into my gifts than she does into theirs, and try to see as much humor in it as I can.

She is also someone who grew up in the Depression and she and my FIL literally never threw anything out. They weren't hoarders, but they packed up (with lots of mothballs) and kept lots of things that should have been donated or sold long ago. Now she is in this phase of rooting through the house and unloading random stuff. Every time DH goes over there, he comes back with a pile of read magazines and at least one item she unearthed out of the basement. Old toys, old clothing, cutesy knickknacks from her former gift business, random piles of mismatched dinner plates. A couple of years ago, she gave my tween daughter her old bright green ski overalls from the 1970s and a pair of big wool mittens of the same era, all reeking of mothballs. Another time it was a bag of old Christmas lights. Last week DH came home with this creepy Christmas decoration with a Santa doll riding a bike, which is now in our front hall giving us the willies, but it has to stay there bc she comes here for Xmas. Again, she does not do this to my SILs. Their houses look like Pottery Barn catalogs. Mine looks more and more like a cluttered resale shop. [/quote]

There is hope, DIL. As the interior designers say on on the DIY shows, edit! Donate. Save only what is workable and won't be clutter. So, a dinner plate. Wool mittens get air out and tied on a front door wreath. Old Christmas lights can be used as a garland, unplugged. Is the box interesting? The Santa...can you save his clothes only and use those in a display? Or is the bike alone worth saving?  I'm a big proponent of taking things apart, putting it outside/making a wreath, part of a display outside...then tossing or donating.

My family room has a jumble of Christmas ornament boxes! that I got from my late grandmother in law. The boxes are 50s era and beautiful...[/quote]

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