Happy Friday! Ready for another organizing idea for your weekend?
Today I'm sharing some great clutter free gift ideas. Many of us struggle with clutter all year, but are most overwhelmed after Christmas when we need to find places for all the influx of "stuff" in our homes. And in our consumer-driven society, we worry what messages we're sending our children.
I've been reading a lot about this lately and want to share some great insights from other bloggers on clutter-free gift giving.
Note: this post is not intended to offend those of you who love shopping and giving gifts. It's simply something I'm learning about and wanted to share with you! And for those of you, like me, who have already finished your shopping for this Christmas, you can keep these ideas in mind for next year.
- Clutter-free stocking stuffers from Life As Mom
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| Life As Mom |
- More creative and clutter-free gift ideas from Andrea Dekker (plus a link to her series of clutter-free gift ideas from last year!)
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| Andrea Dekker |
These are all fabulous ideas to consider when giving gifts. But what about receiving gifts?
If you'd like to ask friends and family to change the kinds of gifts they give your family, you need to tread lightly and be careful not to offend. Again, this may be something to talk about for next Christmas rather than this one, as some people will have already started or finished their shopping, or at least spent time thinking about what gifts they want to buy.
Here are a few ideas to help you share your feelings about clutter-free gifts with others:
- If you want to discuss clutter-free gift giving with your spouse, you could give this "One Less Gift" certificate to start the conversation.
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| Miss Minimalist |
- And if you want to discuss clutter-free gift giving with other friends or family members, this letter from Andrea Dekker is wonderful. It gracefully shares 5 things that generous, well-meaning gift givers may not have considered for why kids don't need more "stuff". It really resonated with me and a lot of other people, based on the comments on the post and on her Facebook page.
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| Andrea Dekker |
Here are 2 more links you can check out on this subject:
The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents
1 Simple Strategy to Save $2000 this Holiday and Make Everyone Love You Forever
Changing your giving habits (or those of people giving to you) doesn't have to happen overnight. You can make small changes each year or each occasion and over time those will add up.
As I said, in some cases, it may be too late to apply these ideas this Christmas, but you can start the conversations in the new year and work towards the changes you want.
I shared other Christmas related Organizing Ideas for the Weekend posts last year. You can see those on my Weekend Ideas tab.
If you missed any of the Christmas posts I've shared this month, here are links to all of them.
You can also find more Christmas organizing ideas on my Christmas Organizing board on Pinterest.
And of course you can always find decluttering ideas on my Decluttering / Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
This weekend, if you haven't finished your shopping, spend some time thinking about clutter-free gifts you can give this Christmas. If you're already done, share these ideas with others who may still be shopping or your spouse to get the conversation going for next year.
What clutter-free gifts have you given or received? How have you approached the subject of clutter-free gifts for your kids?
Happy organizing and have a great weekend!
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