Tiny future win: my birthday is coming up. Some friends asked me what I wanted to get. I said that I wanted nothing and that I was absolutely positive about that - also, if they do get me anything it'll most probably end up in the donation box during my next declutter. There was some hemming and hawing but I think I'll be okay!
Why don't you ask for something consumable like movie tickets, a home cooked meal, a gift certificate to Red Lobster, ingredients to a recipe such as 7 can taco soup, a batch of home made chicken noodle soup, a pan of cookies, a bottle of wine or booze, flower bulbs or flower seeds for outdoors, an outdoor plant such as a Hosta, an American Flag to hang outside, a first aid kit for your car, a fire extinguisher. This might sound dumb but a family pack of toilet paper and Kleenex. Useful! Some new spices to replace old ones. Your favorite coffee or tea. A box of chocolates! A weeks worth of Mason Jar salads or refrigerated overnight oats. A pan of lasagna. A weekly planner, a journal or a nice pen you wouldn't buy yourself.
+1Every time I have ever requested "No Gifts" I have still received gifts... people can't seem to help it.
Fast forward to now- every single x-mas one of my clients gives me the biggest jumbo one-ply (
they know my style) supply of Toilet Paper they can get as Costco.
It's become sort of a running joke, but I absolutely LOVE IT!
It lasted me 6 months last year, It lasted me 7.5 months this year!!
I had a roommate for part of last year, so I am curious to see if the pack can last me the whole year this year.
It's so big it blocked my view in the passenger seat and I had to put it in my trunk.
YAY!My parents also had a hard time with this for a while, so I caved and let them mail care packages for birthdays for a few years... eventually they realized that it wasn't cost efficient, so now they usually send me a small gift card (
$20 to the dollar store or Amazon or something).
My best friend makes really beautiful handmade cards every year... I don't know how she does it... she has two kids, she's a practicing midwife and she's very involved in local politics in her area. But every year, here comes her card in the mail. I love it.
These are the only gifts that I receive, but I've slowly curated them to be meaningful and useful while keeping everyone happy.
Every now and then I'll get a "typical" gift (
a box of chocolate or a gift set of smelly lotions or whatever) from a client or from a vendor at work and I always express gratefulness and then immediately re-gift in some way- one year that meant breaking apart the gift set and giving one lotion/smelly stuff item to each of the women that I see with signs asking for help at the intersections. I never have cash to give them, but I do know that I used to use smelly stuffs to get through only showering once a week when I lived in a camper (
about a decade ago- harder times) and didn't have shower access besides at a gym.
Another year I took the chocolates to the day job and plopped them down at the front desk.
They were gone within an hour.
Outdoor plants are a great gift!