Photo: Kekka / Flickr

Christmas is a little over a month away, which means if you’ve yet to plan gifts, you’d better get on top of that. Buying gifts can be the most demanding task as often it tests just how well you know the recipient. Leaving gift buying to the last minute is unnecessarily stressful, and also doesn’t allow you enough time to get that ‘perfect gift’. Below are a few simple, but highly effective gift solutions for homemakers.

Plan by rooms

Assuming you’ve been in your family members’ homes, you’ll have a good sense of the rooms that could use a bit of a sprucing up. Remember, this affords you the opportunity to impress some of your fashion sensibilities, but it makes no sense if your gifts don’t suit the home’s setup. So plan by room, using the most used room, or the room that desperately needs the most tweaking, as your reference.

Never fail with the kitchen

Giving a great kitchen gift is always a good idea – provided the recipient enjoys time spent in the kitchen. You’ll likely have a chance to get to use the gift together, too, since such an inordinate amount of time is spent in the kitchen around Christmas time. Sometimes a gift that’s used often is far more meaningful than an expensive gift that gets used very rarely.

A shortlist of great gift ideas

Most homes do not have the following items, so they make for fantastic gifts.

For the kitchen, waffle makers and bread makers are particularly elegant gift solutions, since they’re used so rarely that they never become utilities, but are used frequently enough that the recipient will fondly remember you for giving them that gift every time they use it.

As you move away from the kitchen into the living room area, consider getting traditional items that have extravagant designs. For example, a beautiful centrepiece-esque vase will transform any living room area, as will a gorgeous, table-top lamp. These are the kinds of gift solutions you would want to use in areas that are populated, so that your gift makes a material difference, as opposed to just adding clutter.

Remember kitchen gift ideas, or lounge gift ideas, or any of the tools homemaker’s need but would never think to buy gives you an unfair advantage come Christmas time. Ignore the gadgets, and think of what would make a home or kitchen immediately more livable. If you have something in mind, then buy that.

Tags: christmas, gift ideas