This time of year I am hit with a group of birthdays including my own. When giving or getting gifts I always tend to veer towards the practical. At a certain point in life, you just don’t want anymore unnecessary stuff. At least I know I don’t.
I started thinking about gifts when I was asked what I would like. I didn’t really have an answer except nothing that sits on a shelf and gathers dust. I could not say what I really want is some new boring white plates, or towels or some of those cool rubberized kitchen utensils in red. These are just not the type of things that you can ask for without getting a strange, ‘my, you are no fun look.’
If I was getting married, which I am not at the moment, I would have a wedding list. On a wedding list all the boring, practical, necessities in life are acceptable. This made me decide that I want a Life List. Where I can randomly list the items that I need or just ones that take my fancy.
After researching a few different list services, the one I was most impressed with was The Things I want. With this site you can make different lists for different occasions such as anniversary vs. Christmas. It is very easy to get started, just register, add TheThingsIWant special browser button to your Links, Favuorites or Bookmarks and away you go. Every time you see something you like just pop in on your list.
I did look at one based in the UK, Giftslists, which you can list the name, price and where to get the item as well as 1-3 desirability rating. I really like the desirability rating so if you want one item more passionately than another you can state your request in a nice way.
In the US, there seems to be a better assortment of this type of thing. I found My Gift List, which would actually suggest gifts and their suggestions were not half bad.
Has anyone out there ever used or even better, still uses a Gift List Service? I would love for people to tell me what they want for gift giving occasions. Think how easy it would make Christmas shopping in the summer sales if you knew what people wanted or needed. How relieved would you be not to make that ‘oh my goodness, what is this thing’ look, when you open a gift? Discuss.