Holding onto gifts

So many of my clients feel the need to hold onto items that were gifted to them.
My advice to them is to realize and remember that gifts are generally not meant to be kept forever. People give us presants at a specific point in time for various occasions. Once recieved and appreciated - the gift has served it's intended purpose. By this, I mean that once a gift becomes no longer, useful, needed, admired, enjoyable or loved - it becomes a burden. No one wants the people they love to feel burdened by something they gave to them.
If it helps, reverse the scenario. If you give a gift to someone and they no longer have a want, need or desire for the item - do you really expect people to keep it? Think logically, items can get damaged and out of fashion quickly. These things certainly should not be kept if they no longer bring joy. Just because it was a gift, doesn't mean it needs to be kept forever - espeically if it's packed away somewhere at a bottom of a box in the back of a closet.
If you can consider donating these gift to others who may have a need - that is then a gift that keeps on giving instead of burdening.