I’ve gone through a lot of phases in my life when it comes to gift giving. A lot of it has been determined by the amount of money I had or made— some of it is dependent on the amount of time in my life— or just my general mood. Years ago, before spending hours at a time on a computer (and probably before I lived in West Palm in general), I used to love to checking out small shops for gift buying (I much prefer to shop for others than myself). Then I would find gifts for people and think, “this would be the perfect gift for this person’s birthday!” (but their birthday would happen to be months away), then I would buy the gift and a few hours or days later I would see the person and spoil the surprise immediately— because it is too hard to wait on gifts sometimes! Well now, small shops are to a minimum around here (read: practically non existent) and even if there were a bunch well, I don’t have all the time in the world to go window browsing around town, especially with a kiddo.
So, I started just hitting the “save to bookmarks” button online when I randomly found or happened to click pass a gift I saw—you know, to save gift ideas for a later date. This didn’t go great for me. I would spend way too much time going through bookmarks later to find the right thing I was looking for. And when you have a lot of people you love, well, the bookmark lists add up. Things like pinterest are helpful, but unless you know the person you’re gift buying for inside and out, there’s no perfect way to know if the gift is right for them. This is usually a reality of gift buying— which is okay, but in my spend less, get more living type head, I’d rather be sure to find a perfect gift that may not necessarily be practical (gifts, don’t have to be practical, they’re gifts), but will absolutely be well loved. I mean, nothing is more practical than a well loved gift. And in general, well loved gifts are great, aren’t they?! They create less waste, sure, but whats more exciting than giving (and getting) the perfect gift?
I’m excited to tell you guys about giftry, I’ve teamed up to be one of their ‘influencers’, if you will. It’s an exciting new site designed to find the perfect gifts for people. First off, let’s start with: it’s free. Hooray! There are no gimmicks. You create a profile, use it, create personal lists, and have fun! 
There’s also a neat ‘gifts for me’ section that is created automatically. I actually don’t have any gifts listed for myself yet, but I’m sure if you give me some time, I’d find some things πŸ˜‰ The good thing about this section is it comes in real handy for other people. Once you create a ‘giftry’ for a friend and add that friend to the account, it becomes a secret account!  All of the gifts they’ve selected for themselves go side by side with the gifts you’ve selected. And what’s even better is you can add people to help pick out presents. Meaning, I could team up with my brother to help add perfect gifts for our mom. Or I could team up with my mother in law to find the most awesome cooking or backyard gifts for Alex. 

I mean, it was a bit late to use it for Marlowe’s birthday this year— but Christmas is coming and this will be the absolute best way to let all the different family members know what Marlowe might like or need most. 
So this is the no waste awesome part about it, by collaborating with friends and family, it saves time to find the perfect gifts (no wasting extra time!). And by helping friends and family with gift picking, we help bring down the level of extra gifts (less wasted stuff and less wasted money!)— but maximize the level of gifts really wanted (more fun!). Amazing, right? I mean, I can get tremendously geeky when it comes to things like finding the best way to maximize efficiency and fun— but I think it’s amazing πŸ˜‰ 
I’ve had the chance to use giftry for the past month or so now— and it’s been great— not only have I been able to add gifts that I’ve personally found for people, but I’ve also found random, perfect gifts that I wouldn’t have even known existed (like a magnetic arm band for screws and nails?!— so random, but kind of perfect for Alex’s backyard projects). Haha, anyway, the holidays are coming…. so let’s be smart, thoughtful, collaborative, and excited to find the perfect gifts for people we love! 
If you’re interested… lunch break, kiddos are sleeping, twiddling on your phone, whatever, you can try out giftry for yourself HERE. hooray! 


ummm. ps. my categories are a bit… interesting, I have one titled “grumpy cat, space and other random things”— this could be alternately titled “my brother likes weird things.” But you can make your sections a bit more direct if you’d like πŸ™‚ 
AND hey you guys always asking about my rugs, I decided to make a RUG(!) giftry. Consider this my gift to you. I find about half my rugs when I’m out, but If I see them online, I’m going to include the rugs that I already have in my home as well, so follow me on there πŸ™‚ You’re welcome πŸ˜‰ 
Happy gift-giving!

5 Comments

  1. Just tried it and loved it! I become a fan of DIY gifts, as for me it's hard to find something that adjusts perfectly to the one I'm giving a present to, but I think now it'll be easier πŸ™‚

  2. such a good post… to give presents is one of my favorite thing in the world.. I made it my goal the last years, that I try to just give presents away, that can used totally. And of course, it has to be something, that the presentee also would like to have… But this makes the whole process of "finding the special thing" more complicated…

    So thanks for a lot of new inspirations!

    and love from Germany and the -fatcatconnection-
    these cake would be fun to try in vegan
    http://lasagnolove.blogspot.de/2014/09/something-sweet-raspberry-creme-cake.html

    Bird