Housewarming Gift - 30-ish Single Woman
9 years ago
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How to host a 'house warming' without gifts???
Comments (15)Thank you everyone for your thoughtful insights, I really appreciate it. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure there is no way to avoid "gifts" even though I would prefer to just share our hospitality. Gellchom, when I posted I just put my thoughts in random order and realized how awful #1 sounded after I re-read it. I didn't mean that as harsh as it sounded, I was being overly blunt, and certainly would appreciate the thoughtfulness any guest of ours put into a gift for us. Kitties will be ok too, they have their own bedroom and they'll go in there, best for our guests, and best for them since one of them is scared of his own shadow lol. DH has a very large extended family that we are very close to. In addition to living on the same street with 2 families, we also spend time at the lake every weekend with the rest of them as we all have cottages at the family island. Needless to say, they have all been following our long saga with great interest and now that we are home are relentless about when we are having our "housewarming" lol (and we've only been home a week!). I like the idea of a "cocktail party", that may at least minimize any feeling that they should bring a gift. I do have another question that I should have asked. Because DH's family is large (at our wedding 4 years ago, we had 108 people....and 10 were from my side lol), there is no way logistically that we can have that many people at our house at one time. We are planning the party for end of November and outdoors will not be an option due to temperature as well as the fact our landscaping is not done (think mud & rocks, but by then snow and cold). I'm thinking of doing it over 2 nights from 7pm-10pm (ie: Fri & Sat evenings) and let the guests RSVP for which night they prefer - this way I could avoid stepping on any feelings if people were not on the "A-List" (ie: first night). Do you think this would be ok? Adding up all the furniture seats I have, we have 28 seating spots. Thanks again for your really great advice....See MoreHousewarming Gifts
Comments (31)Love the welcome mat idea. Someone gave us a luxury shower head as a gift, which was a very nice out-of-the-box idea. If it were me I would up the home improvement store gift certificate amount and as my personalized gift I would give a great, funny kitchen towel that is unique to their interests. If it doesn't match their decor then at least you all will get an inexpensive laugh. Maybe I would wrap a tool or kitchen utensil in a funny kitchen towel. Or wrap the gift certificate in it. For the couple with kids I would look at the ikea web site and order some kind of toy storage thing or cool lights for their room or something. Or if they live near the beach maybe I would get some great kites for the family. My oldest just moved into his first house. My most popular gifts have been bed pillows (they went from one bedroom to three) and tools. A lot of the young people I know are pretty minimalist compared to people my age and they want to pick their own decor related things. If your friends have moved from a small space like a one bedroom apartment into a bigger house then there may be things they'd like that they don't own just because they didn't have the storage space before. If they live near the coast they may be interested in having more beach chairs, beach umbrellas, beach towels, etc. Or you could give them the gift certificate wrapped up cute when you get there and then while you're out there visiting buy something you see they need. Or buy something when you get back and ship it. There's just not a universally popular gift that works for everybody. I, myself, would hate decor items, picnic baskets, wine, beer, candles, trays, throws, fresh flowers, etc. But I always love the fact that my friends loved me and thought about me enough to bring me a gift, preferably an inexpensive gift. A sweet, kind note or a funny note ratchets a gift into the stratosphere. It truly is the thought that counts....See MoreCreative Folks - Housewarming Favors?
Comments (70)These are great ideas - I should write them down so I remember them. Yesterday my adult kids came over for Father's Day and I can always count on my DD to bring something meaningful and heartfelt and usually on a budget. She had saved several empty spice bottles and made little flower arrangements in each and then tied them with a ribbon. She gave cornflowers to DH - they're one of his favorite flowers and then she made one with various colors of astilbe for me and my DIL got drift roses. I really liked this so for my luncheon I may copy her idea. I don't want to empty spice bottles at the moment but I have a Michael's, ACMoore, JoAnn fabrics etc. near so I think I'll pick up bud vases or something similar and use them....See MoreFloof-ish: Buyers Remorse: The perils of shopping hungry
Comments (47)When I was working in an office, the company provided plastic cutlery and paper plates, plus there was pizza day the first Friday of every month, and there were tons of pizzas for everyone to have for lunch that the owner provided. Those were the only days I ate in the company lunchroom. I lived 1.3 miles from work, and my commute was four minutes, which meant that I could go home for lunch. I used to take excess food to work to give away, but it was generally something I grew and had too much of, such as figs, when they were in season. One woman from Israel particularly liked my figs, and so I invited her to come to my house one week-end and pick some for herself. She brought her husband, and they picked quite a few figs. I was getting about 40 figs a day and needed to get rid of them. She made some fig jam with some of the figs and gave me some of the jam, which was very nice. Sometimes we would have potluck lunches at work (for special occasions), and people would bring all kinds of homemade exotic dishes that they had made at home, although one woman would bring a bucket of fried chicken that she had bought, and a few people would bring chips and drinks that they had bought. There were always massive amounts of leftovers. The main time that I overbuy is when I go to a farmers' market, and the reason for this is that I do not go more than once a week, as a rule, and that is on week-ends. I often buy more vegetables and fruit than I can eat. I know this is an old thread, but I saw a link to it at the side of the page....See More
PRO9 years agoSince it is a condo, would confirm usefulness of any outdoor things. By time I "bought," I rented and had already acquired the usual "new home" type gifts.
Agree gift card to Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards would be good.
This website has many personalized items, including nice address labels, even ones you can personalize with drawings of people and their pets.
http://www.personalizationmall.com/Address-Labels-c127.lp
LL Bean has nice welcome mats that can be personalized.
9 years ago
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