Sometimes you feel like trying to figure out what to get a person who is getting their first home or apartment or moving out on their own is a gamble … or maybe you should just them a gift certificate to Everygame casino login … who knows, maybe they will win the mega jackpot and will always be thankful to you for your thoughtfulness … or maybe not … as Grandma would say, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” … or in this case ticket.
Should I register at STORE X or store my list someplace else?
It is not so much which store you should register at, but more about making a list. Sometimes you might want a specific brand in a specific size of something. But other times, it is more “I need X number of Y items”. The specific one is not what matters.
If you have a family webspace, this might be a good place to put such a list.
- Get a top-level domain name of “.family” or “.me”. Then you have it for future uses.
- Use DropBox or Microsoft or Google. Advantage of Microsoft or Google is that you can create a family shared contact list for things like family members, “friends of family (emergency contact people)”, doctors, school contact info, etc.)
As long as we are on the topic of “shared digital space”, I would personally recommend setting up a “family Whatsapp Group” for your immediate family. Right now it might just be you and your spouse, but when you start to have kids (who are ready for phones), it is nice to have a quick way to send messages to each other. “Going to the store. Anybody need anything?”
Back to our topic of gift ideas.
Key holder for the wall
Everybody has some keys that are important, but you do not want (or need) to keep on your daily key chain. This is a good place to centrally store them, so they do not get lost.
They can range from a very simple one that just holds keys to ones that are “cute” (kittens with their tails being the key hooks) to more elaborate ones that can have shelves to hold mail, plants, and even magazines.
The simpler ones have a small weight capacity (because they are designed to hold just keys). These would probably be around the $10 range.
But there are higher quality ones that have a 50 LB weight capacity. The hooks look like coat hooks, so you can hold things like headphones and small bags. But watch out you do not overweight it.
There are even designs that are mail/magazine holders and have a blackboard on the front or you can get ones with a whiteboard.
If you find a specific one, you can put that specific one down, but if it is more “I need something to hold my keys and maybe put the mail”, just list the general item and let the gift giver find the exact one.
Fireproof Box for important documents (passports, etc.)
What you put in this box is the stuff that if your house catches on fire, it would be a real pain in the you-know-what to replace. Not to mention, when you need to find these documents, you really need to find these documents, so having them in a box that does not look like any other box in the house, is a good thing.
For this, simpler is better. Its main intention is to store your passport, birth certificate, social security cards, emergency credit cards, maybe some emergency cash — aka, the small, important stuff.
Fireproof document box
This type of box would be more around the size that you could fit 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper without folding them. This is the box where you would put things like life insurance policies, rental agreements, mortgage papers, car loan papers, college saving account papers, bank account numbers, etc.
This is not intended for the monthly bank statements and credit card statements. It is more designed for the information that says “You have a bank account at MYBANK, mybank.com (website), account number 12345567890-A. Even the final copy of your tax return should be put into this box.
3 or 4 drawer file cabinet
At first it may seem like that is too much, but …
- Drawer 1 — Your important documents.
- Drawer 2 — Spouse’s important documents.
- Drawer 3 — Shared important documents (a folder for each child).
- Drawer 4 — Safe place to stash the Fireproof box that holds the passports, etc.
If you have a multidrawer file cabinet, you might find that having a fireproof document box is not needed. Just figure out a way to separate out those documents from everything else (monthly statements, etc.) Maybe you can use separate colors for hanging folders or just use an expanding hanging folder or an accordion folder that you can fit inside the file cabinet.
Spend the extra money and do not get plastic. This is something that you want to last your for the next 20 to 30 years. So invest in a wood or metal version. If you get a metal one, you can usually choose from white, black, and in some stores, blue. They also come in beige, but that looks too “formal” for a home.
“In box” for day to day stuff
You are going to need something to put the daily papers that you accumulate. I do not know about anybody else, but usually I deal with paperwork once a month or once every 3 months. I go through the bin. Throw out the stuff that definitely does not need to be saved (grocery store sales receipt from 2 months ago), and the stuff that definitely should be saved for at least a year (monthly credit card statements).
Oh, and since I did not say it before, you should plan to go through your papers in your file cabinet once a year. You can get rid of all of the stuff from the previous year. If you want (or need) to keep 3 years of history, stick 2 years in a box (and put it on a shelf), and then just keep the current year in the file cabinet. that way the paperwork does not become too much that you never look at it (and you have no idea of what is really important and what can be thrown out).
Plastic 4 drawer storage cart
This is where you would put “extra white paper”, pens, pencils, permanent markers, tape, scissors, stapler, etc.
I have never been one to keep a desk “neat” (looking like a magazine picture of a desk. So I like to put the small things that you need easy access to in a drawer. And if your printer is not large enough to hold a full ream of paper, you are going to need some place to hold the extra paper or that extra paper will quickly turn into a pile of garbage.
Brannock Device Shoe Measuring
When I was growing up, every shoe store had a foot-measuring device. But today, a lot of stores no longer have this. Not to mention, if you plan to buy shoes online, you are going to need to know your proper shoe size. There are adult and kids versions. There are also versions for US measurements, UK measurements, EU measurements, and centimeter measurements.