Best Results Organizing

No matter how invested you have (or haven’t) been in the holiday shopping season, you may find you’re still behind schedule and seeking some inspiration. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place, as Paper Doll HQ has corralled some final holiday gift suggestions.

GIFTS OF EXPERIENCES

The best gifts are those that your recipients want, or would want if they knew that such a thing existed. As we’ve discussed previously, I’m hugely in favor of gifts of experiences, those that delight, and those which help us deal with the requirements of life than are less delightful. As I noted last week, a good first start are the experiential presents at my classic Holiday Gift List: Favorite Things Edition. Speaking of which, I’d previously suggested for this category:

Gifts of Adventure — For the thrill-lovers on your list, consider certificates for hot-air balloon rides, rock climbing or zip lines. Race fans might love the NASCAR Racing Experience or the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. Athletes will appreciate a week of baseball fantasy camp, pre-paid rounds of golf, or time in the batting cages. For the more casual (and loosely defined) adventurer, bowling, miniature golf, or paintball work equally well. 

To these gifts of adventure, I add a new experiential form of adventure and entertainment. A friend who recently visited New York City attended Escape the Room, billed as a “fun, interactive game…While it looks like any other ordinary room, it’s actually a mystery puzzle. Find the hidden objects, figure out the clues and solve the puzzles to earn your freedom and “Escape the Room.” You have 60 minutes, so be quick!”

Not in the Big Apple? The puzzle-busting “Real-life Room Escape” concept is spreading across the country is different guises, from Adventure Rooms in New Jersey and Connecticut to the Real Escape Game in Las Vegas to Escape Experience Chattanooga. Most pricing seems to be about $28-$40/person.

Want more experiential ideas? Fellow Certified Professional Organizer® Bonnie Joy Dewkett, the Joyful Organizer, has come up with a free Clutter-Free Gifts Printable to help you and your fellow worn out, listless giftors come up with new gifting solutions. Karate lessons aren’t your giftee’s style? What about magic lessons?

Still not enough? Take a peek at Getting Organized Magazine‘s 72 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas, divided by categories and chock-full of nifty notions!

GIFTS OF CONSUMABLES

Want a different kind of gift that avoids clutter, but still satisfies? How about consumables, whether fresh-baked goods from your own kitchen or from a local eatery, like my pastry-chef friend Jennifer Hooper’s Chattanooga-based Sweet Eats? (Crispy Mini-Gingy? Yes, please!)

Want something that requires a little less physical effort on your end (so, less washing up or schlepping to the bakery) and more pizzazz? Or maybe you’re concerned about making sure your loved ones are getting something good, but also good for them?

Graze is your opportunity to give personalized, healthy (but not icky-healthy), portion-controlled snacks. Buy a gift voucher, and then your giftee gets to set up an account detailing all of his or her likes and dislikes for snack types, and then the boxes start arriving.

The Nibble Box provides maximum variety. Graze staffers review each person’s preference list and then send anything from chocolate-coated nibbles, to nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, to dips and dippers, crackers and snack bars, selected from 90 different options.

The Calorie Counter Box contains options selected from up to 50 ingredient types to create packages of 150-calorie snacks.

Your recipient can choose to send the Graze boxes to home or work.

Interested in this for yourself? Graze boxes are $6.99 each, delivery is free, and come once a week or every other week. For more information, check out Graze’s FAQ.

For something less snack-oriented, consider one of the nationwide upscale meal-in-a-box services, like Blue Apron, Plated or Hello Fresh. (There are also regional services, like Peach Dish in Atlanta and Home Chef in Chicago.) These services deliver correctly proportioned fresh ingredients and instructions for making a magical meal.

Of course, if your giftee isn’t much of a cook (like Paper Doll), a gift certificate for the services of a personal chef can be surprisingly affordable!

GIFTS FROM THE HEART

Sometimes, the best gift isn’t just a thing or an experience. Author Leo Babauta recently put together an amazing blog post detailing gifts that are (generally) low on cost and high on creativity. To do justice, please read The Zen Habits Holiday Gift Guide in its entirety, but I had to share some of my favorite ways Babauta lists to do something truly special for the people in your life:

• Create a personal website for someone, complete with photo montage, if you’re good at web stuff.
• Find a board game at Goodwill and customize it for the person’s personality.
• Make a treasure hunt for them.
• Help them realize their dreams.
• Do a challenge with them.
• Take a class together (community classes are often free or cheap).
• Create a video from family/friends with everyone sharing what they love about the person.

The key to all of Babauta’s gifts? Taking time and thought to consider the person’s hopes, dreams and needs, and using your abilities to help them reach those sparkly stars.

Of course, in an ideal world, not all of our gifts (or our focus) would be spent solely on those we know. Author Laura Vanderkam‘s recent article in Fast Company posited that we should Forget the Gift Cards, Try 12 Days of Microphilanthropy Instead. Vanderkam comes up with ideas that allow you to give of yourself (and your expertise) one-on-one, and give of your wealth (however meager or robust) to those less fortunate. My favorite of her suggestions?

ModestNeeds.org is a twelve-year-old non-profit that aims to “…responsibly provide short-term financial assistance to individuals and families in temporary crisis who, because they are working and live just above the poverty level, are ineligible for most types of conventional social assistance…“

Applicants and the facts of their situations are vetted by ModestNeeds.org before their cases are presented for donors to consider.

GIFTS OF ORGANIZATION & PRODUCTIVITY

The gift of organization is one that keeps on giving. Has someone in your life expressed an interest in getting more organized? Are you feeling magnanimous? Help your loved ones find a professional organizer through the National Association of Professional Organizers‘ searchable online directory and offer to pay for a session to help get them closer to their organizing goals.

For a more modest present, give a gift subscription to Getting Organized Magazine for four quarterly issues full of great advice on developing the skills and systems for getting organized. For print issues, it’s $19.50/year (or $29.50/year, internationally), or $13.50/year for a truly clutter-free digital subscription. (For new subscriptions, use the coupon code GetOrgJan15 for 20% off if you’re ordering by January 31, 2015.) [Editor’s Note: Getting Organized Magazine is now a digital-only resource, but it’s still worth checking out for more clutter-free and decluttering ideas.]

COOL STUFF FOR WRITERS, TINKERERS AND READERS

Have an inveterate letter-writer on your gift list (or are you trying to encourage a child to write thank you notes)? For $14.95 plus shipping, you can help keep the clutter of unevenly-written and scribbled envelopes at bay with The Lettermate.

(Hat tip to blogger Patrick Rhone of The Cramped for finding this nifty option.)

Got a tinkerer on your list, one who is always leaving bits and pieces of repaired eyeglasses or gadgets all over the place? The Magnetic Project Mat from iFixit is an 8″ x 10″ mat with non-slip foam backing and a dry-erase surface for note-taking ($19.95).

If you’ve got readers in your life, you know that it’s OK not to know their preferences: there’s always an Amazon or Barnes & Nobel wish list — or gift card — to help you out. Of course, if you were intrigued by my post, Netflix-esque Subscriptions for Books: Oyster, Scribd and Entitle, earlier this year, you might want to buy a gift subscription for Scribd (three months for $25, six months for $50 or a year for $100) or an Oyster subscription (customizable pricing for up to 24 months, with pre-set gift pricing at $9.95/month, $29.85 for three months, $59.70 for six months and $119.40 for a year). Entitle lets you select your preferred gift amounts, with fixed-month pricing running about the same as Oyster.

Finally, if there’s someone in your life for whom you’re in still doubt about their wants or needs, chances are good that they’ll appreciate the gentle, goofy humor of this collection, The Little World of Liz Climo.
Check out Climo’s work at her Tumblr page, and no matter how harried the holidays have made you, Paper Doll believes Climo will put a smile on your face.

Happy holidays!