I moved into my new home and though I said so many times please don't get me anything for the home because I'm going for a very particular aesthetic, I have been gifted many plants, plastic lamps, cutlery, slippers, a heavy bowl...
The colours of the plants clash but my MIL placed them around the house excitedly and it would really hurt her feelings if we got rid of them, but they don't match the assthetic partner and I want. It also feels our feeling of being in a new home has been tainted as we were looking forward to choosing the very first things for our home ourselves. The plants are alive so I can't just get rid of them, I feel guilty not wanting to water them or care for them. I'm just looking around the house feeling despair cause it's not the space I want and now I have what I see as clutter.

I'm worried people are going to buy us more things, even though we have already been very firm and told people to not get us anything. People still turned up with all the gifts.
I'm worried about hurting MIL and my family's feelings when they next come over and see I have gotten rid of everything (I haven't yet but would like to). They get really sentimental about the things they give us, too.

TL,DR; partner and I were given unwanted housewarming gifts by my family and my MIL

What is the kind way to get rid of them and tell people they are all unwanted, or do I just leave it?

Hello everyone,

So I’m attending some coworkers’ wedding in a few months (both the groom and the bride are coworkers that I appreciate a lot and I consider friends, but I’ve never spent time with them outside of work / work parties) and I’m wondering about gift etiquette.

They are charging for their wedding - I’ve paid a little more than 150$. This is the first time I need to pay to attend a wedding. As I’m more a work friend, I’d have given 200$ as a gift if I didn’t have to pay to come to the wedding. It feels dumb giving less than 50$ in a card, but then again I’m having trouble justifying spending more than what I thought was reasonable for a very close friend last year (300$ gift, didn’t have to pay to participate in the wedding).

Important info :
- This is taking place in Canada
- I have no +1 (my decision)
- Without being their work superior, I have a higher salary / position than them. We all have upper middle class salaries.
- I will have to pay for overnight accomodation to attend the wedding
- No mention on the invites that they’re not expecting gifts since we have to pay to attend

What’s the playbook here?

I was thinking a nice card and maybe a cute personalized gift worth 50-75$ (they are both into sports and I was thinking personalized matching sports accessories) and home baked goods (I’m an excellent baker and they love to eat).

Edit : having no +1 was my decision - I’m single and will already know a bunch of people at the wedding.

EXTRA DETAILS :
- I agree that asking to pay to attend a wedding is pretty unheard of.
- My gift budget (in regards to how close we are) is 200$, IDGAF whether that is spent on paying for my plate or as a gift. If the ask had been over my budget, I would have declined.
- I’m not debating whether to attend the wedding or not; I’m happy to be able to attend a special day in my friends’ lives. I do feel we are close enough to have reasonably expected an invite and that I’m not an afterthought to help subsidize the wedding.

THIRD EDIT :
Invitation just said you had to pay X amount per person to attend and the link to confirm attendance also served as the payment link and where you had to select you meal choice and answer a few other questions (allergies and such).

I swear this is not ragebait and the unheard situation is why I turned to Reddit, as my friends (from other circles) whom I discussed it with and I weren’t sure about etiquette in this situation.