Best Results Organizing

Chances are good that you’ve got three things on your mind right now: shopping for holiday presents, trying to keep your shopping and your budget organized in this most expensive of months, and dealing with the fact that — holy canoli! — the year is almost over! Paper Doll can’t stop time, but I’ve got some ideas for the first two.

EASY-TO-BUY EXPERIENTIAL HOLIDAY GIFTS

Almost every year since I began writing this blog, I’ve sung the praises of experiential gifts rather than tangible ones. The social-psychological research is sound — experiential gifts are both more memorable and more satisfying.

Memorable

With rare exceptions of special surprises and greatly anticipated gifts, we tend not to remember the tangible stuff we get. (This also means we often don’t remember the gifts we’ve bestowed on others; my organizing clients and I have discussed how we’ve received quite a few “repeats” from well-intioned loved ones.)

Tangible gifts rarely take us out of the way we live; they fit into the lives we already lead. We may be changing what we’re wearing or how we’re cooking or what we’re playing with because the new gift varies the activity (as an accessory), but experiential gifts are uniquely different from how we spend our everyday lives. Participating in an experience changes our cognitive and physical lives in a few ways.

Part of the fun is anticipatory. When we get a tangible gift, we unwrap it and then…what? Maybe we’ll use it, maybe we’ll put it away until we think of wearing it or using it (or attempt reading the manual to learn how to use it). But when we get a gift of an experience, from the time we receive the gift card or certificate or gift announcement, we begin anticipating everything it involves. We research and get a sense of what might happen. Our imaginations take the gift we receive and add flourishes to what has been given to us.

Give someone a gift that allows them the excitement of anticipating the experience on top of the experience itself and it will be a gift that delights on the holiday, during the intervening period until the experience, and then later in retrospect in the relived and shared memories of the experience. Whoohoo! Now compare that to a sweater or a gadget (if your recipient hasn’t specifically asked for a sweater or that gadget) and you can see how an experiential gift is more nuanced and layered.

Uniquely Satisfying

Experiential gifts are unique. Human beings are social animals and even when we don’t intend to be, we are competitive. We log onto social media, see what our co-workers or our exes’ new partners got for gifts and we compare. Even if we loved our gifts before we logged on, if they got a fancier upgrade or a snootier brand, our holiday cheer is just a bit tarnished. Even if our tangible thing is somewhat superior, the excitement doesn’t last. 

However, we don’t compare experiences in the same way. Even if we both went to the same escape room or to Las Vegas or on a cruise, the variables — who we’re with, the weather, our moods, etc. — are going to be so different that there’s no valid comparison. Our experiences are unique to us.

Reviewing Experiential Gifts

Over the years, I’ve collected so many examples of experiential gifts in each category that in 2022 I had to split my traditional post into two (also enormous) posts. I’ve checked (and, where necessary, updated) the links, so rather than give you all the options over again, I’ll just point you to the general categories you can find in those two posts (with a teeny bit of commentary).

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Clutter-Free Experiential Gifts: Educational

This set of experiential gifts included a wide variety of classes and lessons, including:

• Learn by doing (like music lessons, performance classes like singing or dancing, physical fitness training, horseback riding, language learning and practice, cooking, and food and wine tours). I’m still engrossed in my learning of Italian, having hit 1975 days straight in practicing.

My colleague Maria White of Enuff With The Stuff in Reston, Virginia asked me on social media, “How does it feel to be in the 1% class?” and I replied, honestly, that “I feel like the smartest 56-year-old in a class of preschoolers.”

I may never learn the future conditional tense well enough to respond aloud quickly, but I can suss out a good smattering of what’s written on the web site for L’Associazione Professional Organizers Italia, aka: The Italian Association of Professional Organizers. Grazie mille, Duolingo!

• Learn for the delight of knowledge — This covered educational opportunities for those on your list who miss school and are charmed by an online academic setting. I loved the Jane Austen class I was gifted from The Great Courses a few years ago, and I’d be delighted if I got a Master Class subscription so I could take James Clear’s just-added Small Habits class. 

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Clutter-Free Experiential Gifts: Adventure, Practicality & Pampering

• Gifts of adventure — Whether your (or your giftee’s) idea of adventure is physical exertion in the great outdoors (of which Paper Doll is not exactly a fan), indoor physical adventures that guarantee you won’t get eaten by wolves (like axe-throwing or trampolining) or something more physically sedate but intellectually adventurous (like an escape room), there are options galore.
• Gifts of practicality — Don’t pooh-pooh practical gifts as ho-hum. Obviously, you have to know your recipient. (For example, gifting Paper Mommy a new spring and mattress for her 40th birthday was not one of my father’s wisest moves.) Giving gifts of home care or car care, or coverage of monthly costs (like internet, cable, streaming, digital backup, or video conferencing) can be a boon that lets your recipients spend their (possibly limited) money on ideal needs and wants. 

(For what it’s worth, I am a longtime user of Backblaze‘s backup services, and just got an email saying that if you sign up via my Backblaze referral link between December 15, 2023 and January 31, 2024, you get a free trial month. (It’s usually two weeks.) That’s kind of like a gift for all you readers. Disclaimer: If you end up buying Backblaze services, I’ll get a free month, too!)

• Gifts of pampering — Modern life is hard. Everyone deserves gifts that make it (or skin or hair) a little softer. The people most in need of pampering are often the least likely to splurge on themselves.
• Gifts of organization — No clutter-free gift advice can go forward without suggesting the services of a professional organizer, whether in-person or virtually. Again, know your recipient if this isn’t something that’s been requested. The magic of a professional organizer’s services is likely to be an appreciated unasked-for gift for a parents-to-be who want to set up a nursery or pals wanting to support a friend setting up a productive office for a new home-based business. The services of a professional organizer as a “gift” from a parent-in-law who tends to harp on the tidiness of adult child’s partner may not be seen in the same light.

So, click on those two Paper Doll posts above and I bet you’ll find perfect clutter-free presents for the harder-to-buy-for folks on your list. 

One more advantage of buying these kinds of clutter free gifts? They’re quick and easy to purchase. In almost every case, you can buy these gifts online. In the rare case where a venue requires a purchase in-person, it’s still easier than wending your way through a big box store; whether it’s a salon, store, or event venue, you can generally go to a desk right inside the front door to purchase gift certificates.

MAKE A (SMALL) MOUNTAIN OF MONEY OUT OF A SERIES OF (GIFT CARD) MOLEHILLS

Do you cringe when you think about giving gift cards? Do leftover gift card balances annoy you?

Get Over Feeling that Gift Cards Are Too Generic

Some people hate gift cards because they’re “generic,” as if a gift card that allows someone to get what they like (or love) is more generic than a random picture frame or candle for a recipient who has shown no interest in such things.

Personally, I think gift cards are fabulous because they are less crass than cash.

As an aside, I have no idea why we in Western society consider giving cash as crass for anyone except adorable octogenarian grandparents. Grandmas gift crisp currency to their grandchildren and we grin at the quaintness. I just worked with a client in his 60s, and in a box of clutter we found a birthday card from his mother containing a crisp bill bearing the likeness of Benjamin Franklin!

Lots of people would love to have a little extra cash at the holidays, when they’ve scrambled to purchase gifts for others, especially versus an ill-fitting gift they can’t return. 

A nice alternative, when you truly don’t know what someone wants is a gift card that gives someone an opportunity to get exactly what they want. A teenager or college student is probably going to prefer an Apple or Amazon gift card to one for a clothing store that doesn’t sell the style of clothing they and their friends wear. And failing that, gift cards can be re-gifted.

If you know someone whom you fear may not have the funds to fully experience a gift you’d like to give, you can pair a gift with a gift card. For example, perhaps you know someone who’d appreciate a popular new cookbook but might not be able to buy all the special groceries.

One of the most popular (and most highly rated) cookbooks right now is Baking Yesterday: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s, based on B. Dylan Hollis’ TikTok account, where he prepares random dishes from the last century, like Depression-era Peanut Butter Bread or 1950s Tomato Soup Cake. His videos are hysterical, and the recipes can be intriguing.

But have you been to the grocery store lately? The average recent college grad probably has a food budget one step up from packets of ramen noodles. Without the funds to make the recipes, this cookbook would just be clutter.

Show your fave wanna-be chefs that you know what’s trendy without bumming them out over their budgets. Pair the cookbook with a gift card for a grocery store near them.

Almost all grocery chains and many local supermarkets offer gift cards, and you can pick them up conveniently when you’re buying you’re own groceries, or purchase them online. If you don’t know which grocery story best serves them, try a gift card for a delivery service like Instacart or Shipt, which covers the cost of the food and store-to-door service.

If your recipient has such a busy life that getting out to buy groceries, let alone having time to prepare and cook meals, is a non-starter, try gift cards for Door Dash or GrubHub. (You can even buy gift cards for these services on Amazon!)

How to Solve the Tiny Denomination Gift Card Conundrum

The one problem with gift cards (for the recipient) is when someone has received a generic cash-like gift card, such as a Visa/Mastercard/American Express gift card. It’s nice to have a gift that can be spent anywhere, but it’s awkward when you have a gift card (or many) with teeny balances. Imagine going to a store, with oodles of people behind you in line, and saying, “I’d like to pay with these seven Visa gift cards, which have balances ranging from $1.43 to $5.87.”

Recently, I received a payout from a class action lawsuit. Usually, the class action funds are sent as small check that you would have felt embarrassed to hand to a bank teller. Nowadays, everyone makes deposits via their phones or at ATMs, sparing us the indignity of having to summon a challenging stare at the teller, telepathically communicating: “Yes, I am going to deposit this check that will barely cover the cost of a soft drink! What of it?!” 

This class action check came in the form of a digital code to get a MasterCard e-gift card. In the process of registering, I was given the option to applying the card to my Apple Wallet on my iPhone. I’ve never actually used my Apple Wallet in-person, but figured I could use the e-gift card to pay toward my tiny monthly Apple card expenses (for iCloud and Apple TV).

But guess what? You can’t pay your Apple Card from a gift card in your wallet unless you’re spending at least $10, and the class action money was less than that! 

How could I spend that teeny bit of class action money? How could my clients get those minuscule amounts off of their Visa gift cards? How can we stop cluttering wallets (digital and tangible) and drawers with mostly-used Visa/MasterCard/AmEx gift cards?

I’m delighted to tell you that I’ve got a solution I hope you’ll share with others. Did you know that you can purchase Amazon e-gift cards in any denomination from one dollar upward? The process takes a multiple (tiny) steps, but is easy to accomplish.

1) Log into your Amazon account.

2) Go to the Amazon gift card page or type “Amazon gift cards” into the search box.

3) Select the option for Amazon.com eGift Card $1.00 – $2,000. (For me, it’s usually the second option. It looks like this:

4) On the next page, make a few selections:

• First, it will ask you for what kind of design you want. You’re buying this for yourself, basically just trading gift card credit for Amazon credit, so skip this step and it’ll just apply the default Amazon design.
• On the amount line, fill in the value on the far right, where it says “$ Enter Amount.”
• Fill in the rest such that you’re sending the “gift” from yourself to yourself. It will automatically fill in your name in the “from” section.
• Click “Add to Cart.”

5) Proceed to the checkout page.

• When you go to pay for the gift card, it will ask you to verify the recipient. (Again, it’s you.)
• Then, it will ask you what method you want to use to pay, just as it normally does when you make an Amazon card purchase. This is where you get to “spend” your random Visa/MasterCard/AmEx gift card money. You do this by ADDING the gift card to your Amazon wallet.
• You probably have one or more credit or debit cards and checking accounts listed in this section. Down at the bottom of the “Your Credit and Debit Cards” section, you’ll see where it says, “Add a credit or debit card>Amazon accepts all major credit cards“ — click on it.
• Add the information on the Visa, MasterCard, or AmEx gift card you’re getting rid of. Fill in the number, the security code, and any other information it requests, just as you do when you enter or update credit card information in your Amazon account.
• Once Amazon accepts this as a payment amount, you’re done with the hardest part.

6) Complete your purchase of the Amazon e-gift card as if you were making any other purchase.

7) Wait a few minutes and then check your email. You’ll have received an email telling you that your purchase went through. Hurray! Then you’ll get another email — surprise! — telling you that someone has sent you a gift card. 

8) Follow the steps in the email to add the new Amazon eGift Card to your Amazon balance. Usually, you’ll just just have to click a redemption link it’ll be done, but you may have to paste a code from the email into the resulting Amazon page.

• If you never run an Amazon gift card balance, know that the next time you make a purchase, this little amount will be automatically applied and used up, with the remainder charged to your preferred card.
• If, like me, you tend to have lots of random Amazon credit (due to gifts, survey rewards, returns, etc.), this will just increase the total amount of your Amazon balance, which you can always check by going to the Accounts tab when you’re logged in to Amazon and clicking on the Gift Card button. You’ll see your gift card (i.e., account) balance as well as a history of gift card transactions.

Once you’ve done it once or twice, you’ll get the whole process down to about two minutes, not counting waiting for the “Hey, someone sent you an Amazon gift card!” email. 

After you’ve completed all of this, and you’ll also get an email telling you that your recipient (again, you!!!) received the gift.

Bonus Tip: How To Delete an Amazon Payment Method

I’ve had clients complain that although they love being able to get rid of dribs and drabs left on generic gift cards using this method, it tends to fill up their Amazon Payments Method section with a mess of random cards that are no longer usable. And it’s not obvious how to remove unnecessary payment methods.

I’ve got a solution for that, too!

If your Amazon Payments Method section is too crowded, you can delete any generic gift carsd you used (to buy the Amazon card): 

• Log into your Amazon account.
• Click on Account from the Account & Lists tab dropdown.
• Select the “Your Payments” button.
• You’ll see your Amazon Wallet with all of your payment methods, both the “real” ones you use with your actual debit and credit cards, and whatever random debit or credit card balances you’ve cashed in for Amazon credit.
• For any item you want to delete, click on the card in the column on the far left.
• A graphic of a card will pop up in the center of the page. Click on “Edit.”
• On the resulting screen, you’ll be able to edit the details of the card (name, expiration date, billing address, etc.) or delete it altogether. Click the red “remove from wallet” at the bottom of the pop-up.

You can use this method to get rid of the one-off cards or update any of your regular credit or debit cards, making your Amazon Wallet more organized.

Happy holiday shopping, and please feel free to share these gift card tips with anyone who suffers from a mountain of gift card clutter.