Have Your Own Mini-Gift Shop

It sometimes happens that you are unable to find a nice present when you shop for gifts. Perhaps you have to deal with some unexpected situations and you don't have time to go shopping, or you just can't make up your mind what to buy, or have to mind your expenses. All these can make gift-shopping a problem you won't like to deal with. For such times, it’s always handy to have a "mini gift shop" in your own home.

Let's say it’s your best friend’s birthday party and you have to get to her house in the next half an hour. You had forgotten to buy her a gift. Actually, you kept putting off buying her a gift until the last minute. You had planned to get the gift yesterday but something in the office came up and before you know it, the shops had already closed.

On the way to your friend's house, you think of all the little goodies you passed up on buying on your travels. If only you had bought them and stored them. You could have had a mini-gift shop of your own at your own home and avoided this mess!

You always pick up goods for yourself when you go out, but seldom shop for gifts when there aren't any special occasions. Develop the habit of picking up things when you go out for shopping; things, which you can later used as gift items whenever an occasion comes up or you forget to buy a gift for someone.

Some possible items you can stock up on your mini-gift shop are candles, miniature paintings, flower vases, trinkets, bracelets and stuffed toys. When you travel out of state or go overseas, pick up souvenirs. You don't have to give them away right away. You can store them in a drawer and take them out when gift-giving time arrives.

Store your gift items in a box or drawer. When you need to give a gift to someone, instead of going to the mall, check your box or drawer first. Having gifts in stock can help save you time as well as get you out of sticky situations such as last-minute invitations or uninvited visitors.

Try to stock up on a variety of things so that you will have a wide range of gift items. Have different gifts for different situations. Store them properly so that they don’t break, fade or get spoiled over a period of time.

The main advantage of having a collection of things we could give as presents is that we can add items to it without being under pressure from the point of view of time or money. Whenever you notice something that could make a nice gift, if you can afford it, you can buy it and keep it until it’s time to give it away. When an occasion comes up, instead of having to shop for gifts, you can just check your gift box (or gift corner, or gift room, depending on your sense of proportion) and extract a fitting present.

This is actually quite easy to do. We pass by so many potential gifts every day, but because we’re looking for something else, we fail to notice them. But if, for instance, we paid more attention to every shelf during our regular shopping trips, we could spot a lot of things that could someday be given as a present. The same goes for holidays: souvenir shops are a great place to find gifts, but they're not the only possibility. Just keep your eyes open and be ready to identify the things you could add to your gift collection.

Beware of overdoing, though. Some selection is necessary, otherwise you can end up with a lot of things you can’t give to anyone. Building your mini gift shop should not mean throwing money out the window, so think for a few minutes before you put the potential present in your shopping cart.

Stocking up gift items may look unnecessary to you but you will realize their worth soon. When a time comes that you feel like giving someone a gift to show your love for no other reason, your mini-gift shop will help you immensely. So set up your own mini-gift shop today and see the difference for yourself!