What Suggestions Do You Have For Easily Returning Gifts? (+ A Few Of My Favorite Tips)

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If you're like me and have a teenager (or tweenager) at home, I'm betting you have a gift (or two, or eight, or ten???) to return after Christmas.

And, maybe you have a few online returns to take care of as well. (Ack!)

But, we can do this. And need to do this. (There's just no reason to hang onto things you don't need and won't use!) So, let's get started? 😉

(I'm betting my returns will total near $150, so YES we need to do this!)

Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Put all the items that need to be returned in one area of your home.
2. Find the receipts for each item if you have them.

For online returns:

1. Gather packing tape and boxes.
2. Visit the website of the retailer and print any packing slips. (Amazon makes it really easy: just login to your account and you may be able to return the items immediately and even have your UPS carrier pick them up for you at home!  I used this option and the UPS guy just came to pick up my returns without any issue ~ success!)
3. Several retailers include packing slips and even paid for shipping – one of my purchases from Vera Bradley included the return label that was pre-paid for me. I will lose $6 of the return to pay for that, but that's totally worth it as it's a bag that won't get used.
4. Pack every thing up and determine to make a trip to your local post office or UPS store if you need to – then get those items out of your home and sent back to make those returns quickly.

For in-store returns:

1. Make a list of exactly which stores you need to make returns to and map out the best way to mark those off your list.
2. If you have several stores to visit in different areas of town (or are shopping with kids), you may want to separate your returns trip into two different trips.
3. Put each item with it's receipt in a bag so you can easily return it when you get to the store.
4. Start your returning early in the day to beat the crowds and if possible on a weekday.
5. Determine not to purchase other items unless you need them while shopping (it's so tempting when there are so many great sales out there!)

So, just for fun, here's the list of stores I have to make returns to including a few that I raced through this morning. We raced to five stores in under two hours by planning strategically ~ I was thrilled to have a few stores knocked off my list!

Return Trip Day 1:

1. Bed Bath & Beyond
2. Hobby Lobby
3. Cabela's
4. Target
5. Kohl's
6. Walmart

Return Trip Day 2:

1. Eddie Bauer
2. Joseph A Bank
3. JoAnn Fabric