"... more or less unwanted things like a fondue pot..."

Ha! Ain't that the truth! My wife and I got an electric egg poacher and we were living in a cabin with no electricity! I took it to a pawn shop unopened and I couldn't even get the guy to give me a buck for it!

A number of years back my brother in law made a bunch of trivets for Christmas gifts. He glued nice 12" square decorative ceramic tiles to pieces of plywood, wrapped them with a simple wood band and put some rubber feet on the bottom. Simple, very nice and very useful. Every time someone in our rather large extended family visits another, there's one of those trivets on the table. There's nothing like a gift that someone you know and love made for you. Of course, I never heard anyone complain about getting some dough.....