When we get invited to a friend’s housewarming party, we find ourselves scrambling for a special gift. We usually wait until the last minute to pick up something and then we resort to a bottle of wine of a bouquet of flowers. Even though any gift is a thoughtful gesture, we are left feeling disappointed when we see other house guests walking in the door with another bottle of wine or flowers.
We promise ourselves that for the next housewarming party, we will plan ahead and purchase a gift that is unique and very special. In preparation for the next party, we prepared a list of thoughtful, gift suggestions that will stand out from the rest.
Housewarming Gifts:
-
Cooking Class Gift Certificate: Even if the new homeowner is a skilled chef, there is always a benefit to be gained at a cooking class and not to mention the classes are a lot of fun. Personally, we would much rather spend the night preparing our meal with other couples, than overpaying at a 5-star restaurant.
-
Maid Service Gift Certificate: With the new responsibilites and to-do lists that go along with homeownership and moving, it would be nice to be able to take a break and have someone clean your house for a day.
-
Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions Book: Ok, this may seem like a self-promotion for our own book. However, when your friends move into their new home they will need ideas for how to decorate and make their space their own. We find that some design books have beautiful inspirational photos, but the design ideas are not attainable to incorporate into our own homes.
-
Gift certificate to a Florist: We love the life and color that fresh flowers bring into the home. With a gift certificate to a favorite florist, your friend can chose from a selection of flowers.
-
Fun Theme Cookbook (i.e. 500 Cupcakes): If you are like us, we have a wide collection of cookbooks, some that we rarely reference. We like to make cooking fun and it is aways great to have a new twist on a common recipe.
- Fresh fruit from Farmer’s Market: We really don't think this one needs an explanation, but we will give an explanation anyways. New homeowners are quite busy and most likely don't have the time to make it to the local Farmer's Market, let alone the grocery store. Imagine showing up with fresh, ripe strawberries, cherries, and blueberries. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
- Donation in Their Name to Habitat for Humanity (for those who have everything): While we are busy celebrating the purchase of our friend's new home, it is nice to remember, as our mother would always say, how lucky we are and there are those that are less fortunate than us. It would be special and rewarding to make a donation to Habitat for Humanity in our friend's name.
One of our other editors, Beth, also wrote a post listing great ideas for housewarming gifts, including a custom housewarming bucket.
(Images: Flickr member ramsey everydaypants' via Creative Commons)
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Four-P...
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
These would all be appreciated I am sure.
My friend recently moved and I made three cds full of great music for hanging out and party music, since we have similar taste it was appreciated.
Well, there's always a Lowe's gift card if the house is a fixer-upper . . . I'm planning on getting my sister a gift certificate for chimney-sweeping for her housewarming gift, though the housecleaning gift certificate is something to consider as well.
I second Lowes or Home Depot gift card idea. Those always come in handy.
Another nice gift which I may have read about in Martha Stewart originally and which I gave to my sister is a stamp with her new address. Cost about $20 at local stationary store and so useful for addressing envelopes.
I'm a fan of the Target gift card, assuming that there's a Target nearby.
My parents put together a basket of the things that the main characters in "It's A Wonderful Life" gave someone in a new house: bread that no one in the house may go hungry, salt that life may always be filled with flavor, and wine that joy and prosperity may reign forever in the home. You can make a super cute little dinner basket out of it all.
I am never disappointed with a guest bearing wine. I have a large wine rack and 1, 10, or 100 bottles would always be welcome!
This is a tricky one because one thing apartment dwellers don't need is to accumulate stuff (especially stuff they didn't choose themselves for their limited spaces). That's why you can't lose with wine (unless your friends are in AA) or flowers (unless they receive all the flowers on the same day from all their friends...a waste!). Gift cards to home related retailers like you mentioned are always welcome. A personal gift I love giving and people seem to like receiving is some really high end baking sheets with one or two favorite cookie recipes so they can recreate your cookies---and be sure to include a tin of freshly baked cookies so they can see what the recipe is supposed to look and taste like when they attempt to make it themselves!
My friends and I are in the habit of making something for the party and transporting it in/on a cute container that is for the host to keep. I've received beautiful carafes full of sangria, and given platters of crab puffs. I always make sure to include the recipe.
But, I'm always grateful to receive wine or flowers! ...especially wine :)
STH, you should make sure to include a picture or copy of a chimney sweep from Mary Poppins as well! Wow, that really calls for making your own card!
When my friends buy a house with a yard in the Bay Area, I give them either a lemon tree or bougainvillea plant for their yard. It's unusual, but can last for years...
Luxury dish soap (like Caldrea) wrapped in a pretty dish towel.
One of my favorite housewarming presents to give (and receive) is to buy a pretty cookie jar and fill it with a double batch of homemade cookies. Yum!
Why do you feel disappointed when someone else also brings flowers and wine to a guests house.
It must mean that you are comparing yourself with someone else and that never brings true joy or happiness.
Does it really matter what other people bring to the party? I wouldn't care what someone brought or didn't bring as long as they come (I'd be okay if they didn't come as well).
I love giving wine and flowers mainly because that is what I prefer to receive. I would be offended if someone gave me a certificate for maid service or a cooking class, like I'm not clean enough or that I cook badly. A cookbook can be nice though. But overall, bring me wine and flowers and I'm a happy camper. Never enough wine or flowers! Plus because they are both perishable (in a way) neither is going to end up as clutter in my home or someone else'.
There's no more passive-aggressive seeming gift than giving to a charity in someone's name. I'd keep that sort of thing to an educational opportunity for kids with charities like Heifer International. If you want to give to a charity, do it for yourself.
The other gift ideas are good, especially the ephemeral ones that do not add clutter.
Can't say I'd be disappointed with wine or flowers (or, preferably, a living plant). Though I know someone who got a few months' worth of a cleaning service as a housewarming gift. Expensive, but pretty unbeatable.
What about a good gift for a just a dinner party... doing wine or flowers seems so "expected"... is there something more interesting and original that I could bring without seeming over the top??
www.mydesigndreams.com
A personalized cookbook from Tastebook.com is one of my favorite gift to give!
My friends have told me that a fern was a traditional house warming gift, but after having moved several times, we've collected a few ferns.
Wine, beer, cakes or brownies always seems to be a welcomed housewarming gift.
Thanks everyone for posting your own gift ideas. I always love to hear what other ideas readers have.
sfgirl - What a great idea to give a lemon tree. It really is the gift that just keeps on giving. Every time your friends enjoys a fresh lemon, they will think of you.
I like to grow extra basil or parsley in cute herb pots on my balcony to give as hostess gifts. I also picked up several decorative tins at Ikea for giving baked goods.
I like to give a cleaning caddy with green cleaning supplies and a book and how to clean everything along with cleaning gloves and a rockin' CD to clean to.
What great ideas. Kendall, I'm like your parents...I love to make up personalized gift baskets. If they're busy with their new house, maybe they need time to relax. How about some popcorn, a special popcorn bowl, sparkling water and a movie. The key here, is to plan ahead. Wonderful gift ideas, Marcia.
Kendall, that's what my dh and I give at every housewarming! I love the sentiment in 'It's a Wonderful Life'!
Judging from the pictures, I assumed that the perfect housewarming gifts were either dogs or hipsters.
Personally I think you can't go wrong with booze. I love booze.
A gift certificate to a restaurant in their new neighborhood.
I agree with the local gifts idea - maybe coffee from a local roaster, honey from a local beekeeper, cookies or candies from a local shop. Food gifts are great because the host can either put them out or squirrel them away for later.
if someone has a yard and wants one, I usually buy them a quality tree from a nearby nursery that I work with alot.
or tulip bulbs, etc for outside. When I first got my house the best gifts were someone showiing up with pizza, wine, toilet paper, and papertowels!
When we moved into our first home, our friends arrived with one of those large rubbermaid "buckets" that has rope handles (the kind of multipurpose bucket that you could put ice and beer in, or fill with dirt, or... put laundry in, or anything). They filled it with LOTS Of small but useful things:
- felt pads for sticking to underside of furniture so the floors won't scratch
- miracle gro sticks for houseplants
- small paintbrushes and paint tray for trimwork
- "goo-gone" for removing sticky stuff from windows or picture frames, etc
- a warm fuzzy fleece blanket
- "green" cleaning products - some sprays, kitchen cleaners, etc
- scrubbers and sponges
- packets of nails in various sizes and thicknesses
stuff like that - at the time we couldn't think about using it all but over the course of the year we used EVERY single thing in that bucket. it was truly the most useful gift ever, and we think about them every time we use something from that bucket!
Fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, and carbon monoxide detector are my standard house-warming gifts.
Boring, I know.
I'm known as the handywoman in my group of friends, so I usually give gift cards to the local mom & pop hardware store, along with a coupon for one afternoon of my time to help with fix-it stuff. Once a friend let me crash on his couch for a few weeks while I was jobhunting, so to thank him I repaired a few things around his apartment.
I think ohjodi's idea is excellent too! I did the same thing the first time I was invited to a baby shower. I was a little overwhelmed by the endless aisles of fuzzy pastel stuff in the BabiesRUs, so I just got all the plug covers and safety-related stuff on the registry. It's not like it's something fun to shop for, it's just boring. I'd rather take care of a boring task for my friend, and then let them have the fun of picking out decor for their new place or blankies for their new baby :-)
I'm a safety nut so I always give a set of Flashlights.
amy sedaris' 'i like you' book has great ideas too. one that stuck out for me was gathering the take out menus from several local restaurants and putting them in a folder. cheap, easy, you can decorate the folder, and they might actually use it, esp in the early days of unpacking and cleaning the new place.
Piggybacking on emyrae, friends of mine will go get pamphlets from the local tourism office. It's printed on paper, but it's a cool way to invite someone to the wider community.
I second the cleaning supplies and gift cards to a local hardware shop. Even if the house isn't a fixer-upper, certain things are always needed - paint, safety devices, garden items, etc.
If it is brand new construction or you know they like to garden, a plant that they can incorporate into their landscape is another idea...my husband favors fruit trees to give (limes for coronas and margaritas in the future).
Another idea, similar to some of the ones posted, is a membership to a local Community Supported Agriculture program...they get fruit/veggie/flower boxes regularly for whatever time period you purchase a membership for. A great way to get familiar with a new area, too.
I have given a bowl overflowing with fresh fruit - the bowl being very cute and vintage from a thrift shop, but perfectly suited for the honoree, and they loved it.
Another one that was very much appreciated was a set of organic cotton dish towels from Williams Sonoma.
Oh, and I once received a Diptyque candle, the fig scent, and it was so delicious. I would never have splurged like that, and it was delightful.
I do the "It's A Wonderful Life" bread/wine/salt thing, too. It's such a great moment in the movie (one among many). If your friends are cooks you can get really fancy w/ the salt, and I add a few wonderful cheeses to go w/ the bread. Wrap it all up in a few pretty dish towels and it's all good.
This may be an older post, but these are some really great ideas! I especially like the certificates for cooking class or maid services. Really creative and unique. I am a Realtor so I usually do all of my house warming gifts at once (yes, I am cheating). I'm all for ease and efficiency, so this usually means shopping online. My go to site is LBMgifts.com -- they have a home section as well as other items that are great for house warming gifts. Next time, I think I'll pick up a bunch of certificates too to "spice" things up a bit!