Clutter-Free Gift Giving Ideas

Hey its Leigh Ann here for What’s Up Wednesday. Today we’re going to talk about clutter free gift giving. And give you some ideas on what you can do. I’m coming at you from the deep freeze in Camore Alberta in the Rocky Mountains. I think it was like minus 33 with the wind chill. So we’re all wearing tukes inside up here at the moment.

Anyway, the key at this time of year for everybody is to destress, is to really have a plan. And also have a budget. So that when the bills roll in in January, you’re not in shock. So just off the top, before I begin with some clutter free gift giving ideas. I just wanted to let you know, have a plan. Find out the gifts that people want. It’s going to save you time in the end, so you’re not returning things in January. And also set a budget per person that is really reasonable for you. And then, the next thing, with clutter free gift giving is think of gifts that are consumable. That’s the whole thing about clutter free.

Have you ever had this happen, where you have the small kids around the house, and its Christmas morning and there’s a whole bunch of gifts, and they are just rifling through the gifts. And they are opening each one. And then, they go off and play with all their other stuff, and all the gifts are just sitting in the corner?

My point is, less is more with gift giving. And sometimes when we get caught up with the season, we end up spending way too much money. And because we don’t have a plan, and we don’t have a budget, January is kind of a downer, because we have to pay for everything we have purchased.

So here are a few ideas for you today on consumable gift giving.

Lessons. That’s an awesome one. Especially for kids. Maybe they are learning to play the guitar. Or the piano. Or there is some kind of music class they can attend. So think about lessons in your gift giving plan. And that’s always good for grandparents. Because they are always trying to think of what can they get children? So consumable gifts are best.

The other things are tickets to an event. Maybe it’s a hockey event. Or maybe it’s a play. Maybe it’s something you can do together. Or for teenagers, those things are really good, some kind of event. Maybe it’s a rock concert or something like that.

Other things are memberships. Could be a punch card at a gym. Could be things like a zoo pass. Or maybe a theme park if you have one. Some other ideas are, from the service industry, like women love this, manicures. Pedicures. Maybe for the guy or the girl, detailing of their car which is an awesome, awesome gift. Especially if you live where we live and there’s always snow and stones and dirt accumulating in our cars really easily.

Then, the other thing is edibles. Right? Food. Like everyone’s into food now, right? Like you can do the, actually I’ve got a few things here. Like the nice oil and balsamic vinegar. It’s a super great gift. Especially if you are going to go over to someone’s house and you want to bring something other than the go-to wine bottle. So, here’s some ideas. And if you’re from Canmore, we actually have a great evolution place where you can get all these amazing things.

I mentioned tickets to an event. Gift cards are always good. Especially for your teenagers. So, like iTunes gift certificates, unless it’s going to be charged to your account anyway. Which is mostly the case with parents.

This is for after school, but you can get like gift cards to restaurants, amazon, indigo, the bookstores, all that kind of stuff. So those are great gifts to give as well.

What else do I have here? If you really want to kind of do something homemade, like do it yourself. I actually for my partner, Grant, last year. But he forgot about the coupon book and he just pulled it out this December. It’s a good thing I put like an expire date for the end of this year. But anyway, what I did was I just went to Bovalley basics and got these little coupon things. And I did up this little coupon book with a nice silver pen. Things like I’ll mow the lawn if you don’t want to. Or shovel the snow. Movie night. Or you don’t want to cook dinner, I will. All these great gift certificates. But you got to make sure they keep them out and they remember them. Because Grant has to redeem these in the next three weeks. So that’s a good gift.

The other thing is, you can do do-it-yourself gifts. Like you can get these beautiful bottles and put some water in them and a little bit of essential oils. I get the labels from Bovalley basics. Which our stationery store. This is like a bed and linen spray. Where I just put lavender and cedar wood in there. And a pinch of salt just to mix it all up. It’s a really nice gift. And it’s like $7 to make that.

And as far as like stocking stuffers. I just want to give you some ideas. I always like the toothbrush, right? We always need those. Have you gone and seen some people’s toothbrushes? They are totally mangled. So lots of toothbrushes are good. You can get beautiful beeswax candles. They are so beautiful. And they are not toxic when they are burning, right?

Beautiful skincare products. We’ve got this Rocky Mountain Soap Company here, which is awesome. And they got the lip butters, the lip balms. You can get those beautiful soaps and things like that, that you can put in the stockings.

For women, we can never have enough of these hair ties and barrettes and things like that. So these are great things we are going to consume and we’re going to use. And they are not just going to get stuffed away somewhere where we never use them. And I guess the thing for me, with stockings, less is more. And if you buy something, get something really good. Instead of like you know, Winners has all those discounts. Lotions and potions and things. That look like they are ancient. And you know, who wants that? Get something beautiful and something the people are going to love. So less is more.

If that’s just one item, it’s just one item.

What else do I want to tell ya? Oh, these are kind of fun, too. These little honey tubes that you can get at the health food store. So it’s a nice sweet thing. Then, of course the orange and the toe, I don’t know if you guys grew up with that. But I certainly did and I continue that tradition. And then, the other things are sometimes change or something like that, you can also put there.

But the whole thing is about not waking up in the New Year and having way too much stuff. And nowhere to put it. That’s stressful. We’re trying to simplify our lives right now. And we all have way too much coming at us. So let’s start at the beginning, before Christmas comes, and set a plan, set a budget, get consumable gifts so that we’re not left trying to put things everywhere in our house, right? They are things people can use.

So, I think that’s all I wanted to say today. And stay warm if you’re in the Bo Valley. It’s like unbelievable cold. Luckily we have the sunshine today.

The other thing I wanted to say is, I know people are thinking about just the holidays and surviving that. But hopefully you can take some time where you can zoom out and start thinking about what you want to bring in for 2017. And if you want to talk to me about that, I would love to have a conversation. You can message me. And I have a free discovery session that I’m offering. So if you are interested, just message me. But in the meantime, enjoy the holiday season. And remember that less is more. And really it’s not about the stuff. It’s about the moments.

So have a good one. And happy holidays.

Photo by Juliana Malta