On the Take

“Thank you for doing such a fabulous job on the article,” the handwritten note read. “Everyone who has read it loved it. I can’t thank you enough for making me look so good.”

The note arrived in the mail this morning, along with a Macy’s gift card. At last I was on the take! True, it was plastic money, but it was money nonetheless.

The woman who sent the gift card is a professional home stager I’d interviewed for an article about how to decorate your for-sale home to increase the likelihood that it will sell and sell quick. (Hint: Get rid of the gun collection and litter box, and paint the front door.)

Although, as a freelance journalist, I would never accept a gift that could in any way be considered a bribe, this doesn’t stop appreciative interviewees, clients, editors and publishers from sending me small thank-you gifts after the fact.

Over the years, I’ve received everything from fancy greeting cards and magnetic calendars to bottles of wine, plant fertilizer, slug bait, pizza, loose-leaf organic tea, bicycle-trail maps, movie passes, theater tickets, books, photographs, coffee mugs, music CDs and even dryer balls (non-toxic, allergy-free, plastic balls you throw into your clothes dryer instead of that old tennis shoe).

What do I do with all this free stuff?

Well, store it in the free tote bags, of course. In fact, right now, I can count no less than three gift tote bags in my office — a colorful one from a business organization, a zippered one from a political-action group, and a cloth one from a company that makes a highly-effective, fast-acting, environmentally friendly liquid formula that kills moss and algae on roofs and walks.