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What? Another post on clutter-free gifts? Yes!

First, Paper Doll gave you Clutter-Free Holiday Gifts for the Weird Year of 2020 (Part 1): New Twists on Old Favorites so you could give more memorable gifts of experiences. Then, I shared Clutter-Free Holiday Gifts for the Weird Year of 2020 (Part 2): Giving Well, Giving Back, to help you give gifts that give back to those less fortunate while still showing love to your friends and family (and acknowledging that they made it through this wackadoodle year).

Today’s post is different. While you can give these gifts, both tangible items and services, to the people on your list, they are (or can be) primarily for you, to help you make your life more organized.

Maybe Grandma sent you a check? Perhaps you got gift cards to order things online and avoid the stores? It’s possible one advantage of quarantining was that you didn’t have to lay in a supply of small, impersonal gifts to give acquaintances at the office in case they popped by your desk with small, impersonal gifts for you! If you have a little money left over, or if you’re good about budgeting for things that make your life better, then here’s a gift list to make your 2021 more productive and less stressed.

ORGANIZE YOUR PAPER

“Stuff” doesn’t automatically mean clutter. For example, paper shredders help you eliminate unnecessary paper while protecting your identity. How overflowing are your file folders? When was the last time you purged your files? 

AmazonBasics 12-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper and Credit Card Home Office Shredder

Fireproof safes and bank safe deposit boxes allow you to safeguard your VIPs (very important papers, like birth certificates and passports) so they are protected and available when you need them.

SentrySafe 1170 Fireproof Box with Key Lock

Label makers prompt you to decide how you will categorize your papers, and then give you clear, bold labels to encourage you to put papers where they belong.

 

Brother P-Touch D210

And tickler files? They ensure that your action paperwork, the tiny pieces of paper that reflect tasks you have to perform, actually awaits you until the day you need to access it.

Smead Desk File/Sorter Daily (1-31) and Monthly (Jan-Dec)

For some patented Paper Doll advice on selecting these gifts for yourself (or others), start here:

Shredding the Documents: Finding Your Shredding Solution – This classic post tells you everything you need to know about safely turning personal information into confetti.

Safeguard Your Very Important Papers: Safe Deposit Box Basics – Another post from the vault, this walks you through the basics of keeping your personal documents as safe as Fort Knox.

Wirecutter: The Best Fireproof Document Safe – The Wirecutter, an arm of The New York Times, reviews all sorts of home and office products, from toasters to luggage to, yes, safes.

How To Avoid Paper Management Mistakes–Part 3: Libel of Labels – It should be no surprise that Paper Doll has a lot to say about labeling your files to keep everything organized.

Tickle Yourself Organized – This is my best-selling ebook. It tells you how to use a tickler file, but it’s really a primer on keeping your action-related paperwork straight.

Do I Have To Keep This Piece of Paper? – The biggest reason people hold onto papers long after they’ve served their purpose is fear, primarily fear of not having a receipt or document when it’s needed. This ebook gives you the straight dope so that you can confidently maintain what you need and safely shred or discard the rest.

Although Paper Doll loves organizing paper, I know you need other resources to keep your “stuff” in place. Here’s a sampling of other gifts (for yourself or loved ones) to make life more organized.

ORGANIZING YOUR STUFF

Every holiday season, every birthday, every shopping trip brings more stuff (especially the expensive stuff) into your home. As much as you may work to develop systems to keep everything in order, sometimes little things wander away. (Sometimes, little people and little creatures help them wander away!) A little over a year ago, I wrote about bluetooth tracker solutions for keeping track of all your goodies.

Paper Doll Finds Your Lost Keys, Wallets, and Phones: Bluetooth Trackers 2019

Paper Doll Finds Your Lost Eyeglasses: Technology Beyond Checking the Top of Your Head (This has been my most popular blog cover, ever!)

Avoid the Lost & Found: Keep Track of Your New Goodies with Tile

The most popular of all of the Bluetooth trackers I’ve covered has been Tile, and the company is offering 20% off all Limited Edition Tile products (Pros, Mates, Slims, and combo packs) through December 22, 2020. (Reading this later in the week? Check back next week for a discount link that will carry into the New Year.) My favorite of the Limited Edition items is the Holiday Luxe, below.

You’re probably not traveling on planes, heading to campus, or dragging your backpack to the local coffee shop to get work done. Sigh. It’s been that kind of year. But, with hope, 2021 will be a year when we’ll all get back to going places and schlepping our stuff with us. When that happens, my favorite tool for keeping cables, chargers, pens, ear pods, and other fiddly items in check is Cocoon’s Grid-It!

As much as I’ve always been a fan of the Grid-It in various sizes, and as often as I’d used it for work and conferences, I wasn’t prepared for how much it could simplify my traveling life until I used it in Italy in 2018 and the UK in 2019. I never had to search for a pen, a charger, or the right cable, and I never left anything behind in the hotel.

From little 7″ x 5″ Grid-Its to medium and large sizes, some with pockets designed to also accommodate tablets or laptops, to the extra-large 11″ x 15″ luggage accessory versions to the Grid-Its built into backpacks, you should be able to find something to lock down your essentials.

Expert tip: Pretend-pack for an imaginary “trip,” either a for a day on campus or a week on the road, and lay out your resources on a flat surface with just a little space around each item. Measure the real estate to help you figure out the size(s) of the Grid-It(s) you might want. 

ORGANIZE YOUR TIME

You need a place to keep track of your appointments, tasks, and goals. Those of us who prefer paper planners to map out our lives need to consider the features we need. I was recently a guest on Penny Zenker’s Take Back Time podcast. You can listen to Boosting Productivity with Paper Planners (Part 1) now, and I’ll be back here to put up the link to the second part once it goes live. [Editor’s note: Part 2 went live in February 2021.]

While these interviews won’t tell you which planner to pick, it will give you some ideas to guide you toward the elements that will help you overcome your time-planning challenges. Part 2 will help you narrow down which specific planners are more your style.

Speaking of planning your time, I can’t talk enough about Time Timer. (But you’ve probably noticed that!) Last month, in Organize Your Health: Parental Wisdom, Innovation, and the New Time Timer® Wash, we talked about their nifty new device, perfect for guiding any tiny humans (or adults who have trouble perceiving the passage of time) with healthy hand-washing habits.

At this point, Time Timer has so many new products, it can be hard to keep them straight. But if you’d like to brighten up your winter while visualizing the passage of time, the colorful, new Time Timer MOD – Home Edition collection might be up your alley. (Oh, and 1% of the proceeds from this product go toward supporting inclusive education initiatives.) 

The MODs are the first of the non-electronic versions to stray from the original “red disk” concept, but it’s not merely a stylistic decision. Research shows that color can have a big impact on our moods; you can select more calming or energizing color schemes, depending on your needs. (This can be especially beneficial for those with attention differences or anxiety.) Available colors include Lake Day Blue, Dreamsicle Orange, Cotton Ball White, Pale Shale, and you can mix and match the removable silicone cases (sold separately in neutral or color value packs).

ORGANIZE YOUR COMPUTER

Are you a Mac or a PC? (Yes, I’m sure there’s even one Linux user among you.) Do you use your computer to Zoom with friends and colleagues or to keep your business running? Maybe you (or your kids) are focused on homework, or perhaps you’re an author trying to write a masterpiece. Your computer may be for bookkeeping, or photos, emailing, or gaming. There are thousands of apps and software to help you organize your information, your tasks, and your thoughts, and experts to guide you.

But no matter why you use your computer, there are two resources that you should consider for keeping everything safe and secure: a password manager and a back-up program. I’m product-agnostic, for the most part, but for both, I have a belt-and-suspenders approach, using at least two methods to protect my tech.

For generating strong passwords and keeping them organized, I use both Mac’s built-in Keychain system and LastPass. Other popular alternatives are 1-Password, Dashlane, and RoboForm. Wikipedia has a great chart comparing the features of about twenty password managers.

Whatever you pick should allow you to maintain all the passwords from all of your devices with minimal strain and maximum confidence. The kinds of features you want include strong data encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA), the ability to sync across multiple devices, secure sharing of passwords, and auto-filing of your passwords.

The key to backing up is automation; if you have to remember to back up, someday you’ll forget.

The key to backing up is automation; if you have to remember to back up, someday you'll forget. Share on X

To back up my hard drive, I use Mac’s Time Machine (backed up to a local hard drive) and Backblaze (to back up all my data in the cloud).

A few years ago, I wrote 9 Ways To Keep Your Writing Safe for Alexa Bigwarfe’s Write Publish Sell website. Although it’s focused on helping authors develop a digital back-up plan, it’ll get you thinking about what kind of back-up solutions you need.

ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS

After a year like 2020, it seems like we’ve all spent a little too much time at home with our thoughts. However, some of you may be surrounded by children and/or life partners who may act like children – and for you, it might be hard to get a moment alone with your thoughts. Going into a new year, we could all use a place to write down our ideas and dreams so we can organize them into an action plan.

Whether you open up a blank note in Evernote, Google Docs, or Word, or send emails to yourself, or keep a diary like the one you had in sixth grade (though perhaps without the lock and the “Keep Out: This Means You!” on the cover), give yourself a place to write.

Next, schedule writing and planning time in your calendar, like artist Julia Cameron’s famed morning pages, or block off time as a day-closing ritual, but make sure to honor your need for a “brain dump.” Add tasks to your To Do list, map out when and how you’re going to accomplish various goals, and log “big ideas,” whether in a blog post draft screen or in a journal. Speaking of which…

You may remember friend-of-the-blog Kara Cutruzzella, a kindred productivity spirit and an expert on creativity. (She interviewed me last year for Now Is the Right Time to Declare Bankruptcy on Your Projects.)

Well, this year, Kara published Do It For Yourself: A Motivational Journal with Abrams Books. It’s filled with 75 thought-provoking prompts; as Kara tells it – choose any goal and work through the five stages of the journal—getting going, building momentum, overcoming setbacks, following through, and seeking closure—or just open it to the phase you’re in now. Each exercise is designed to help reorient your outlook, overcome roadblocks, and encourage mindfulness, with powerful typographic quotes to inspire you along the way.

(Oh, and hey, if you enjoy a little free prompting to be both creative and productive, and especially if you like Broadway, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, or The Gilmore Girls, or you’ll love Kara’s newsletter, the Brass Ring Daily.)

PEOPLE TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE

Finally, I can attest that one clutter-free category – support from an organizing or productivity professional professional – can be the best gift you give yourself (or those seeking to make improvements in those areas). When you work with a professional organizer or productivity specialist who is a member of one or more of the following associations, you are putting yourself in the hands of a non-judgmental, trained, ethical expert ready to teach you how to achieve your goals.

To find a professional organizer near you (or your recipient), use the free referral services of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO); for those with chronic or challenging disorganization or anyone working to overcome hoarding disorders, the Institute for Challenging Disorganization is a wonderful resource. If you’re reading  from Canada, call on the Professional Organizers In Canada; in the UK, it’s the Association of Professional Declutterers & Organisers (APDO). We also have colleagues in Japan, The Netherlands, various locales in South America, and around the world. Help is available in person and virtually.

There are specialists in dozens of categories of organizing and productivity, for spaces (e.g., kitchens, garages, closets), client types (e.g., students, office workers, attorneys), and needs (like help with senior move management). If you’ve spent the past few months wishing you could get your photos in order, The Photo Managers (previously the Association of Personal Photo Organizers) can help. There are even professionals who can help you organize your genealogy, and yes, I’ve got a blog post coming up soon to tell you all about them! 

Not sure what a professional organizer can do for you? I encourage you to read:

What Professional Organizers Really Do and How They Can Help – It’s an older post from Lifehacker for which I was interviewed, but I think it explains a lot. 

In Checkbooks And Underwear Drawers: What Certified Professional Organizers Offer Our Clients

A HOLIDAY MESSAGE

As I write this, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah have already passed; Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve are still on the horizon. I hope you are enjoying, and will continue to enjoy a healthy, safe,  joyous, and organized holiday season. Whatever you give or receive, whether they are cluttery delights or clutter-free, please know that your readership is always a gift to me. Thank you!

 

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You don’t need anyone to tell you that 2020 was a year like no other. And as we zoom (and Zoom) into the holiday season, some aspects of the gift-giving experience are as fraught as the living-through-this-year experience has been.

In normal times, we professional organizers encourage clutter-free gifts, particularly gifts of experiences. But these are not normal times. Perhaps you’re finding that approach to be a challenge this year? Maybe you’d like someone to tell you how you can make the holidays feel special given that so many gift options are not available for those trying to lead as safe a life as possible.

To that end, today’s post looks at options all across the spectrum and offers virtual alternatives to in-person experiences whenever possible. Consider these clutter-free gift suggestions:

EDUCATION

Advice for a normal year: Once learned, knowledge and skills are forever. Usually, my advice is that you consider lessons in cooking, music, or self-defense. Pre-pay for classes in ballroom dance, quilting, horseback riding, driver’s education, scrapbooking or whatever delights your recipient. The options are practically endless, bounded only by the offerings in your recipient’s community.

But in 2020? Well, educational opportunities still abound, but the best educational options are going to be virtual. Let’s say your recipient loves to cook (or, conversely, hates to cook, but likes the idea of becoming more adept in the kitchen). A virtual course, completely online, is going to be safer (and likely, more accessible) than in-person cooking classes. 

For example, consider signing your recipient up a gift subscription for live or on-demand courses from chefs like Serena Wolf of Domesticate.Me. For $29.99/month (and there are also 3-, 6-, and 12-month options), membership in Serena’s cooking club gives you an all-access pass to her live and on-demand courses. (Note: All of Serena’s classes are free to healthcare workers.)

Ali Stafford, author of Bread Toast Crumbs, the Alexandra’s Kitchen blogger, offers similar $29/month memberships with multi-month packages for twice-monthly live cooking classes plus on-demand classes, as well as a $50 package for her book plus one live class. Portion of the proceeds from her classes goes to charity, including $4,000 each to Food Corps, The Okra Project, and Matahari Justice, as well as $1250 to the Hopewell Fund.

Want more variety in instructors? How about online classes from the League of Kitchens, Goldbelly Live! Cook-Alongs, or Sur La Table?

To support local venues, enter the type of class you’re seeking, your locale, and the word “virtual” to see who is offering classes or course memberships in your area.

Perhaps your giftee would like to learn a new language? Options range in price and style from Duolingo Plus (via an Apple or Google Play gift card) to 3 or 12 months or a lifetime of Rosetta Stone to Plimseur e-Gift certificates.

Not sure what kind of classes your BFF or M-I-L would like? MasterClass has you covered with a wide variety of options in the arts, sciences, business, and more. You can purchase a gift of one class or an annual membership pass, granting your recipient access to any/all of MasterClass’s 90+ instructors.

Joyce Carol Oates, Aaron Sorkin, Judy Blume, and James Patterson teach writing. Got some STEM learners on your list? Dr. Jane Goodall, astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson teach science conservation, space exploration, and scientific thinking and communication, respectively. Would your giftee appreciate learning acting from Helen Mirren and Natalie Portman, or perhaps they’d want more cooking advice, perhaps from Gordon Ramsay or Alice Waters? 

FYI, for a limited time only (through December 28, 2020), there are two special deals. First, there’s a Holiday 2020 “Give One Annual Membership, Get One Free” deal. Also, current/active MasterClass members can give the gift of a MasterClass Annual Membership for 30% off the current rate. 
 

ENTERTAINMENT

Advice for a normal year? We professional organizers always encourage experiential gifts over tangible ones because research shows that experiences are more memorable than possessions. Compare what you remember about your last vacation vs. what you received for your last birthday or holiday, and you’ll see why. Experiences are personal and vivid in ways that tangible gifts often are not. So, my traditonal advice for gifts of entertainment runs along these lines:

Buy your loved ones tickets to sporting events, concerts, or comedy clubs; take them to the symphony, a lecture series, or a theater event. Check out local community theaters, universities, and even high school schedules for their music and entertainment offerings. From a booklet of movie tickets to a Broadway show, their memories will live onafter the big holiday night or Christmas morning.

But in 2020? To stay safe and protect our loved ones, most of us are not attending sporting events, concerts, or comedy clubs. We’re not going to movies or theaters. Luckily, technology still gives us plenty of gift options.

Buying for TV and movie fans? Gift someone three months or a year of Amazon Prime, buy them a gift card for Netflix, or a monthly or yearly subscription to Hulu if you want to stick with the big guns. Or you could buy gifts of individual channels like Disney+ (for friends with kids or fans of Marvel movies), CBS All-Access (for those who love Star Trek), or Acorn or BritBox for fans of shows from the UK. Almost any streaming service offers a gift option, so a little searching may find you programming your recipient didn’t even know existed!

For serious cinephiles, The Criterion Channel might be your best bet, with gift subscriptions ranging from one to nine months or for a full year. Criterion brings your movie buff one thousand “important” classic and contemporary films, plus a constantly updated selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films from major studios and independent distributors.

Maybe your recipients prefer stage performances to cinemas? To keep them entertained, from Shakespeare to Hamilton, comedies to dramas, Ibsen to Spongebob (the musical), consider a monthly or annual gift subscription to BroadwayHD, ranging from $8.99/month to $99.99/year. 

For music-oriented recipients, 2020 has little in the way of safe live events, but streaming music services abound. Consider gifting your loved ones premium levels of something like Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer (yeah, I’ve never heard of it either, but apparently it covers the globe and has 35 million songs), or Tidal.

PRACTICALITY

Advice for a normal year? Any drivers on your “nice” list would benefit from gift certificates for oil changes, car washes or detailing, and even annual memberships in AAA or their favorite auto club. Unlike the streaming services mentioned above, you can’t usually get a gift certificate for multiple months of internet, cable, satellite, or cellular service but you could gift your recipient cash earmarked for pre-paying those services. It’s practical, because it means your giftees will have extra pocket money to spend something fun that just pops up during the year. So, in the practical realm, the usual advice holds.
 
Special tip for 2020:  In a year where many of our friends and family members, especially those with more delicate constitutions, are staying close to home, grocery delivery has become an important service. Depending on the availability in your giftees’ areas, consider gift cards for Instacart or Shipt (which is currently offering 50% off an annual membership for unlimited same-day deliveries, available through 12/27/20). Individual national and regional grocery stores, like Walmart, Aldi, Safeway, Publix, and Wegmans have their own services with gift options.

Iangelidaki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 

ADVENTURE

Advice for a normal year? In past years, I’ve advised: For the thrill-lovers on your list, choose certificates for hot-air balloon or zip lines. For racing lovers, try a ride-along at the NASCAR Racing Experience program or Daytona Speedway course. Athletes appreciate a week of baseball fantasy camp, pre-paid rounds of golf, and time in the batting cages. 

But in 2020? I’m not sure what “adventure” really means to us in 2020, as even adventures that don’t require close contact with others usually require travel to get where you’re adventuring. Note that many of the usual adventure venues currently have “COVID guarantees” promising refunds if the activity isn’t available due to regulations or restrictions for 12 months from the date of purchase, so be sure to check. Consider gifts that allow for adventures with a social distancing component, like an annual National Parks Pass to explore the country’s great natural beauty and experience some elbow room. 

PAMPERING

Advice for a normal year? In past years, to gift anyone with too much stress, I’ve advised: gift certificates for haircuts and styling, spa facials, or a massage. Many day spas have special packages for sportsmen and for teenagers (boys, as well as girls), gifts that most people are unlikely to purchase for themselves. For a friend struggling to quit smoking or lose weight, pre-paid sessions with a hypnotherapist or acupuncturist might be the offbeat support that helps them conquer their troubles. For a more lavish gift, consider a 3-month gym memberships or a night at a cozy bed & breakfast. 

But in 2020? Yeah, gym memberships, nights at B&Bs, and spa days are on hold for most of us for a little longer. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give the gift of self-care without clutter. In addition to consumables (like spa and bath products), consider items that help your loved ones be their best selves. Fitness trackers, like Fitbit, make a good “big” gift for the outer self, and apps like Calm and Shine are good virtual stocking stuffers to nurture the inner self. 

 
CONSUMABLES

Advice for a normal year? Let’s face it — dining is the ultimate clutter-free experience. By the end, the only clutter is the wrapping (and perhaps the extra calories). You can send one-time or subscription gifts for almost every food type you can imagine: cheese, fruit, vegetables, steaks, cookies, and more.

A few great options are Harry & David, Russ & Daughters, Goldbelly (shipping local restaurant delights nationwide), Mouth, and my personal favorite, Zingerman’s. (Editor’s note: Friend of the blog Linda Samuels recommends the artisanal fruits and preserves from American Spoon, so I’ve added that link, too.) If you don’t know what someone likes to eat, there are always gifts of ingredients, like spices from Penzeys, or hot sauce gift boxes from Fuegobox. 

But for 2020? Let’s be real. We’ve been eating all year. We’ll be eating next year. Nobody is going to complain if you gift them with something they find delicious. As Paper Mommy would say, “Eat and be well!” 

While gifts of experiences are key to having memorable holidays, we know that there are people on your list who want something they can hold in their hands. We have two more installments of Clutter-Free Holiday Gifts for the Weird Year of 2020. We’re going to look at gifts you can give to loved ones that also give back to others, and gifts that can make life more organized.

Welcome to the home stretch of the holiday season.

Maybe you’re reading this while standing in a long line because this is the first chance you’ve had to shop and you were shocked to find that your favorite online store sold out of the only thing on your special person’s list.

Perhaps you bought all your presents last summer, wrapped and labeled them, and stored them in your secret hiding place months ago.

Either way, how are you going to keep the gifts a surprise until unwrapping time?

HIDING PLACES

I think the best place to keep gifts, wrapped or otherwise, from the prying eyes of tiny humans and others with insatiable curiosity is in an old suitcase. People will check under beds and in closets, but nobody looks in those cheerless valises in the basement, the ones that are faux leather and lack wheels and haven’t been used in 40+ years.

Yes, as a professional organizer, I encourage people to donate or recycle things that they don’t use, but quietly repurposing that blue suitcase circa 1978 counts as recycling!

Other options worth considering:

• Hidden in plain site — Would your kids (or your spouse) show any interest in prying up the lid of a Bankers Box labeled “2015 Tax Receipts,” “college textbooks,” or something similarly boring? Probably not. (Piling other stuff on top couldn’t hurt.) If you’re the only one in your house who cooks, a small wrapped gift or two hidden in the back of a kitchen cabinet, inside a rarely-used fondue pot, may be just what you need to stymie the sneaky searchers.
• Your friends’ & neighbors’ houses — One solution is just to trade storage. Take your wrapped gifts in boxes or lidded tubs to your cousin’s, co-worker’s, or BFF’s place, and return with hers. You can even tell your family not to bother snooping because you’ve made this trade. (Note: if your kids and their kids are friends, one may spy on the other’s behalf.)
• The trunk of your car — Obviously, this works in only two situations, when you normally have an incredibly tidy trunk (with ample room to store a gift-filled box labeled “work project”) or if you normally have a predictably packed and untidy trunk (in which case you need to hollow it out and hide gifts underneath the faux facade of mess. (Do not mark any boxes as “donations” or someone may unhelpfully deliver all your holiday gifts to charity!)
• Attics — The upside is that children and pets generally can’t get up to the attic on their own. The downside? It’s probably not that easy for you to get up there, either. Also, it’s probably dusty, there may be “critters” and there’s almost certainly temperature and humidity variations throughout the year. Keep that in mind if you’re storing any gifts that are sensitive to those kinds of changes, and store the gifts in a tightly lidded tub.
• Laundry hamper — Let’s face it; nobody is enthusiastic about doing laundry. Your kids aren’t about to suddenly volunteer to take the laundry from your room, even to please Santa. 
• Trash bags — Big, black trash bags or leaf bags, especially if you have an attic, or garage, or basement with a variety of things already obscured by bags, may be the ticket. The problem? If there’s anyone who ever visits your house trying to be “helpful,” they may assume it’s trash and toss it out.

If your storage is at a premium and you have to keep wrapped gifts out and on display — and this trick works once you’re ready to put the gifts under the tree — fake the name tags. Instead of Mom, Dad, Aunt Jen, etc., make yourself a cheat sheet matching real names to “gift” names and put presents out for Lizzo, Daenerys, Baby Yoda, and so on.

WRAPPING SAVVY

Paper Doll is terrible at wrapping any gifts that don’t come in perfectly rectangular shapes. Back in NAPO2014: It’s a Wrap! Organizing Your Wrapping Supplies with Wrap It!, I told a story of my wrapping failures (and shared this adorable photo of a now-late-20s young man).

Many years ago, I offered up some alternatives for people with wrapping skill deficits:

It’s a Wrap! Wrapping Paper Alternatives, Furoshiki & Frogs (2008)

Paper Doll Wraps Up the Holidays and Makes It All Stick (Part 1) (2011)

Paper Doll Wraps Up Some Alternatives to Wrapping Paper (Part 2) (2011)

I’m obviously not the only person who has trouble wrapping presents, because the hottest video on the internet in the past few weeks has been one that went viral with ways to wrap gifts in unusual ways, and especially spotlighting wrapping gifts diagonally.

In case you haven’t seen it, be sure to press PLAY below and crank the volume. Oh, and stop by @BlossomHacks to give them some love. As often happens on the internet, credit got lost along the way, and most people were not aware that Blossom DIY created the video (which UK bookseller Waterstones made viral).

Wrapping gifts got a whole lot easier with these clever ideas! pic.twitter.com/sP4MXhpBBu

— Blossom (@BlossomHacks) December 14, 2019

By the way, if you care, Popular Mechanics has a feature on the math behind the diagonal wrapping hack. 

WRAPPING and PACKING and SHIPPING, OH MY!

Finally, I’m an organizing and productivity expert, not a wrapping, packing, and shipping expert (my recent post, This “Magic” Product Makes Shipping Packages as Easy as Wrapping Leftovers, notwithstanding).

Luckily, our friends at Quill have more expertise on these issues and have been kind enough to share their infographic to take you through each of these holiday headaches with aplomb.

Gift wrapping, packing, and shipping hacks to save money and make your life easierInfographic by Quill

A FINAL WORD

Of course, the best gifts don’t necessarily need to be wrapped or shipped. As we’ve talked about many times, gifts don’t need to be things at all.

We’ve spoken many times about how you can give gifts of experiences. Consider adventures (like the NASCAR Racing Experience or an afternoon in an escape room), entertainment (tickets to sporting events, museum exhibits, concerts, theater events, six months of Netflix or Hulu, or a year of Amazon Prime), practicality (gift certificates for car washes or an auto club membership like AAA), or consumables (homemade or subscription-based, or gift certificates to restaurants or coffee houses). And, of course, gifts of organization and productivity never go amiss.

Happy holidays, and I hope whatever you give (and receive) gifts makes life a little (or a lot) more joyous.