Outside the Gift Box
We have two great incentives for this. The first being budget. We all need to spend wisely these days and secondly, we need to consider our environment both immediate and global. The ideas of - recycle, reuse and refuse is a way to respect this bigger picture. The key is to only bring into your life items that are either needed, used, (or if it's a decorative piece), valued and loved for the positive energies it brings to you and the space it inhabits.
This suddenly becomes tricky when purchasing for someone else.
We want to do the right thing and show our loved ones we care, but how can we do this without infringing on their space, their taste and their needs while also ensuring little environmental impact and making sure that our money is well spent?
Think about what surrounds gift giving. It's the sharing, memories, stories and smiles. Without sounding too clichéd it's about giving the gift of happiness. So, let's look outside the gift box and outside of the store bought gift card.
I found most ideas fell into one of six categories:
- The Gift of Memorable Experiences
- e.g. movie or show tickets, high teas, zoo passes, theme parks, beauty treatments. - The Gift of Learning
- e.g. art or circus skills workshops, personal trainers, latin dancing or surfing lessons. - The Gift of Consumables (also see my article It's The Thought That Counts Isn't It?)
- e.g. prepaid phone cards, iTunes gift cards, memory sticks, food or wine hampers, stationery, strings or reeds for musical instruments. - The Gift of Care and Assistance (set a time limit e.g. 1 week, 1 month etc. & create a home-made gift card)
- e.g. babysitting for new parents, dog walking, chores, or reading to an elderly person in care. - The Gift of Charitable Donations
- e.g. gift certificates in the form of donation or sponsorship to a cause suitable to the passion of the recipient. Check out sites such as Oxfam, Karma Currency, RSPCA, WWF, World Vision etc. - The Gift of Subscriptions
- e.g. magazines or an online site of interest to the recipient, DVD rentals, or memberships for things such as the RACQ, Double Helix science club for kids or www.safari.oreilly.com who do online reference books for those in the IT industry.
Using search engines such as Google or browsing through the yellow pages yield many more ideas - be creative!
Angela Miller-Davis is a Professional Organiser who helps people to find solutions for an organized lifestyle through her consultancy Less=More, Brisbane.
