Gift Giving Simplified, Or Not!
For years I have kept a drawer in my house that we have called “The Mathom Drawer.” If you have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s series of fantasy novels, you might know about “mathoms.” According to Tolkien,
“Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort”
Hobbits gave mathoms as gifts, and quite often so do I. When I need a gift in a hurry, I open The Mathom Drawer. Believe me, this is much simpler than navigating the traffic near our local shopping mall!
What’s in the drawer? Sometimes there are trinkets that other people have given me (soon to be re-gifted). I’ve also got books that aren’t to my taste, but that someone else might like. Sometimes I buy gadgets, get them home and think, “Why did I buy that?” The gadget winds up in the mathom drawer without getting used. I put funky “vintage collectibles” culled from my own collection in there. Other times, I purposefully buy a few things to put in there, if it’s something I think a friend might enjoy.
Over the years, this method has worked well for me. It has simplified the gift giving process a great deal, and reduced the stress I feel about shopping for gifts. I like to shop, but not when I have to find a specific gift. “Treasure shopping” is my name for it.
I can see I am about to have to change my strategy about this Mathom Drawer, though. As we have been sorting through our hoarded “stuff,” I keep picking objects out of the “discard pile” exclaiming, “That’s too good to throw in the Goodwill box! I’ll put it in The Mathom Drawer.”
If this keeps up, I’ll need a “Mathom Closet!” I don’t have room for all of this. Furthermore, those funky vintage collectibles call my name every time I open the drawer. They want to get back on the shelves from whence they came! All I’ve done is create temptation!
I could keep them in the drawer, and pull out something from the collection to satisfy my cravings the next time I get an urge to go shopping. I think, however, that I might have to celebrate a “Christmas in Summer,” to get that mathom drawer under control.
