How to Be a Great Gift-Giver

how to be a great gift giver

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Uncommon Goods approached me about writing this post and gave me a few products to compensate me for my time. But I love this company and all opinions are my own.

I used to pride myself on being a really great gift-giver. I never used a wish list, figuring that if I knew a person well enough to be getting them a gift, I should be able to figure out something they’d love on my own.

Now that I’m a mom and don’t have as much time to think about really special gifts, sometimes I do resort to wish lists, but I don’t like to. When I have a little more time and energy, I still love to look for a gift that I think will delight the recipient even if it’s not something they knew they wanted. Here are some tips that might help you be a great gift-giver, too.how to be a great gift giver

Think About Their Interests

That sounds kind of obvious, but if you know that someone on your list loves drinking tea, or is really into his bicycle, or is in love with his or her hometown, that makes gift buying that much easier.gift ideas for women

At Uncommon Goods they have great collections of gift ideas for men and women, which of course overlap depending on the interests of the person. But a quick glance at the gifts for women section, for example, offers ideas for foodies, musical types, those who love travel, reading, nature and much more.

(I would love one of those beach necklaces, by the way. And I’ve previously bought my husband some of the musical scale wine glasses. So much fun.)

Go for Personalization

Some people really love monogrammed and personalized things. Hopefully you know the person you’re buying for well enough to know if that’s the case with them or not.

The personalized gifts at Uncommon Goods are lots of fun and wider ranging than you might expect, from personalized birthday books to engraved whiskey barrels, personalized cutting boards, birth information pillows and scratch-off maps so you can show which states and countries you have visited.

Use Gift Guidesgift ideas for men

I headed to Uncommon Goods recently to scope out some great birthday gifts for husband. He’s kind of hard to shop for because he usually buys things himself when he wants something, but he has a lot of interests, including cooking, music and assorted geekery.

All of these interests are well represented in the men’s gift guide, which you can search by recipient, price, interest or collection. My guy falls into a lot of these so there were a lot of options.

I can tell you this because today is his birthday, but I went with a cheese-making kit (because we made cheese once before and it was a lot of fun, and the girl will love it, too), a stainless steal soap for getting garlic and onion smells out of your hands (he’s the big cook in the house but this gift is also for me because garlic seems to linger on my hands for days) and a thumb piano (another one the girl will also enjoy). That’s an awesome, wide range of gifts, all purchased in one place. I love it.

And without fail I find things I want to get for other people or for myself when I’m browsing looking for one person, so it’s a good thing the holidays are coming and I’m now full of great ideas!

More About Uncommon Goods

This is a website and a company with an eye on the unusual, curating tons of great gifts for everyone on your list and every occasion, serving as a platform for independent designers to get their goods to a wider audience. Most of the company’s products are made in the United States, half are made my hand and about one third incorporate recycled or upcycled materials.

In addition the company donates $1 of every purchase to a variety of charities, including RAINN, American Forests, Women for Women International and Reach Out & Read (you can choose where you want your donation to go when you check out). Over the past 15 years they’ve given more than one million dollars to great causes.

Do you consider yourself a good gift giver or not so great? Do you have a go-to place for gifts for the hard-t0-shop-for? I’d love to hear your thoughts!


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