Thanksgiving has passed and if you’re like me you love Black Friday not for the sales and endless shopping, but because it marks the beginning of everything Christmas until December 25th. I LOOOVE Christmas!! I love that Christmas is a time to celebrate our Savior that came to save us and continues to love us no matter what. I also love that I get to love my people… showering them with gifts, baking yummy food for them, spending time creating traditions and making memories.
However, as an organizer I have a love/hate relationship with Black Friday. While I’m all for a good sale, I also know it encourages us to buy things we don’t need or wouldn’t otherwise buy if they weren’t “so cheap”. This creates excess in our homes and in the homes of those we love. But we want to buy gifts, right? But why, because we love our family and friends, right?
I would encourage you to evaluate two things when shopping this year. First, why are you buying the gift? Is it because you want to shop? It’s so fun, especially at Christmas, isn’t it? Make sure you aren’t shopping to shop, or shopping because it’s on sale – those are dangerous habits!
I would also consider… this person that you love, that you are gifting to… how do they feel loved? Have you ever read the book “The Five Languages of Love”? It is such a great book about how we all feel loved in different ways and tend to love others in the way we feel loved. But what if they are different, what if the people we love feel loved differently than me? The five languages of love identified in this book are quality time, acts of service, gifts, physical touch and words of affirmation.
What if your gifts this year aren’t just about how you love others, but what makes them feel loved. The awesome thing is that gifting like this often eliminates the clutter of “things”. Gifting to someone whose love language is gifts… well yes, buy them gifts! How about quality time – plan a date night, a girls day or a day of family time. Buy tickets to an event, a gift card for dinner together… For someone that is loved through acts of service… a coupon book of things you will do for them is a great idea… we’ve all seen these. And words of affirmation… create a gift that encourages them, shares all the good things you see in them and tells them why you love them.
Over the next week we will be sharing very specific gift ideas that don’t create clutter on our Organized Housewife Instagram page. Follow us on Instagram to see the “clutter-free gifts” series.