25 Clutter Free Gift Ideas for Homemakers

“It was a nice thought, but I really don't need this.  I don't want to get rid of a gift someone just gave me, but it's honestly just going to clutter up my house.”

Isn't that such a bad feeling?

I don't want you to have to feel that way this Christmas, so I came up with a list of  25 clutter free gifts for homemakers (things you'll actually use and love!) Now you'll have a go-to idea bank when your sister or husband asks what you want for Christmas.

You won't have to worry about any more unwanted gifts cluttering your house if your gift-giver gets wind of these ideas!

1. Restaurant Gift Cards – great for date nights or errand days

2. Etsy Gift Card – if you're wanting a specific accessory or home accent you'll be able to shop for exactly what you like.

3. Music/Audio- A voucher for some new music downloads, audiobooks, or dramatized stories to play as she does her housework is practical and clutter-free.

4. Weekend Away – A couple nights at a bed and breakfast with babysitting lined up would be an amazing gift for a husband to give his wife.  (Find fabulous deals on weekend getaways on Groupon.)

5. Tickets to concerts, events, museums, etc. are great for date nights

6. Gift certificates – perhaps for a massage, manicure, or hair salon

7. A Kindle or some real books if she likes real books better

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8. Digitizing old photos and videos- this is something many women would like to have done but hesitate to do it on their own due to the price. Legacybox is a company I've seen highly recommended.

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9. Something needed – New vacuum, replace old kitchen or bath towels, etc.

10. Outside plants – shrubs, trees, blueberry bushes, etc.

11. Home improvement or home décor gift cards

12. Food gifts –  cater to their dietary needs or to their favorite foods (gluten free, tea lover, coffee lover, chocolate lover, etc.) A Love with Food subscription box would be amazing!

13. YMCA/gym membership – only if she's expressed a desire for one! You don't want her to think you're dropping hints!

14. New cell phone – an upgrade would be a fun surprise

15. AAA membership

16. Home-cooked meals for the freezer – this might sound boring but it would be heavenly to a busy homemaker!

17. Maid service gift certificates – need I say more?  You can find deals on Groupon sometimes.

18. Offer your time and services – painting a room, fixing a computer, cleaning out and organizing a garage, etc.

19. Menu planning service – Build a Menu is the one I use and recommend.  You can purchase an entire year's worth of pre-made menus and save her loads of time!

20. Amazon Prime – This is sooo nice to have!  Free 2 day shipping on every day items like groceries and diapers saves tons of time and stress.  It's wonderful not to have to drag a bunch of kids to the store for those things.

21. Online class – If there's something she's been wanting to learn you can find online classes for almost anything. Craftsy is a good place to get classes on all kinds of things like cake decorating, sewing, photography and more.

22. Photo gifts – Women are sentimental creatures.  Photo gifts are perfect.  I have found that Tiny Prints has some very tasteful designs on their photo gifts.

23. Other sentimental gifts – For example, pay someone to make a quilt from sentimental articles of clothing.

24. Cute apron – I promise cooking is more fun when you look cute doing it!  Check out Flirty Aprons for all kinds of cute designs.

24. This one is for you to decide!  Let's put additional ideas in the comments so everyone can benefit!

Creamy Berry Smoothie Recipe

I am not a big breakfast eater. I know it's important to eat a good breakfast, but I'm just not really an eggs and bacon kind of girl.

I went browsing around on my Build a Menu account for some easy but nutritious ideas that I could make for myself and my kids, and this is what I found:

The recipe was actually a Trim Healthy Mama recipe, but I modified it some and ended up with what I call a Creamy Berry Smoothie. I have no idea if it would still be THM approved, if you do THM, I'm sure you'll know right away if it is, and if not you can modify it back. 🙂

Here's what I used: (definitely approximations because I was really just trying to fill up the blender so there was enough for me and all the kids)

1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup milk
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
3 scoops protein powder
1/4 cup coconut oil

This made a ton! I ended up filling up the kids' popsicle molds with the leftovers.

It turned out so good! I'll definitely be building smoothies into our weekly menus a lot more often – we get our protein, our fat, and part of our daily produce all without cooking or cleaning up a bunch of dishes.

If you want more amazing recipes to build into your week, you really must try out Build a Menu.

(And shh…I've got the word the sale they are having right now is the lowest price they ever offerr. I know a lot of you already love their service, but they've made some changes and it's even better!)

Now go make that smoothie! It's amazing!

Free eBook: 470 Crock Pot Recipes!

I was given this collection of 470 crock pot recipes several years ago with complete permission to share.  I let it sit on my computer for the longest time until I finally decided that it wasn't doing any good sitting in a folder.  So I packaged it up all nice and neat to share with you!

Note: I emphasize “real food” eating around here, and many of these recipes contain packaged ingredients that I wouldn't recommend.  However, so many of those things are easy to replace with something else.

For example: I use yogurt in place of cream of ___ soup or mayo.; create my own seasoning mixes instead of using packets, use homemade bread crumbs, etc.  For baking, here is a list of healthy baking substitutions that I put together a while back.

To get your eBook, simply enter your email in the form below and the download link will arrive in your inbox shortly.  (Be sure to check your spam folder if you don't see it right away.)


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Printable Halloween Tract

Someone emailed me the other day asking if I knew where they could get a printable Halloween tract to hand out this weekend.  I didn't.  So I made one!

I know you can order Halloween tracts from various places, but if you're like me, you never think about it until it's too late to order and receive them in time.  Thus, printables to the rescue!

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I am not even going to go into the question of whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween, but just for the record, our family chooses not to.  “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” seems clear enough to me.  Yes, millions of people are celebrating Halloween “just for fun” and are not out to worship the devil.  But many are.  I'd prefer not to associate myself with the evil that is going on behind the scenes.  (A good book that we have for our kids is called “Mommy, Why Don't We Celebrate Halloween?”  It may even help you think things through for yourself.)  I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do; I just hope that you have put thought into why you do or don't participate in certain activities and have evaluated them under the light of God's Word.  Where your decision falls is between you and Him.

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Okay, now that we got that out of the way, regardless of what your family chooses to do, the fact of the matter is that millions of people are taking their children out for a night of trick-or-treating.  Dozens of children and parents will be showing up at your door.  If you are a Christian, you have a responsibility to spread the gospel to every creature.  You may not be able to spend an hour witnessing to every person who comes to your door, but you can send the gospel home with them!

If you're typically a “stay away from home on Halloween so I don't have to pass out candy” type of person, let's change that this year!

Go buy some candy, print some tracts, and be ready to give the Gospel to dozens of people with whom you would otherwise have never crossed paths!

A few thoughts:

1. Please, please, please do not just give a tract without giving some candy!  Do you honestly think a disappointed child who was hoping for some good candy wants to read your tract?  Do you honestly think a parent with a disappointed child wants to read your tract?  (I know most of us around here are trying to be healthy, so if you can't stand the thought of giving candy, get some little prizes – pencils, little plastic animals, superballs, etc. to hand out.  But to be honest, the parents apparently don't care if their kids get candy, and that's probably what they really want anyway, so you might just want to give them the candy!)

2. It would be good if you could attach the tract to the candy or prize in some way.  (Put them in a baggie together or punch a hole in both and tie together with a ribbon.)  If the parents didn't come to the door with their child and they see a tract when they look through their child's candy bucket, they may not know you actually gave them something else.  If you google “Halloween tract”, you would not believe how much of what comes up is people on atheist forums mocking the tracts that their kids get from people who are too stingy to give them candy.  “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” and people who hate God will always find some reason to mock, but let's eliminate as many of their reasons as we can!

3. It would be doubly good to make up 2 candy/tract packets – one that says “For You” and one that says “For Your Parents”.  Put some of the good kind of candy in there – the kind that parents raid their child's stash for – and you will make their night!  They may actually want to hear/read what you have to say when they see that you put effort into doing something thoughtful for them.

4. I tried to leave a little room on the back of the tract so that you can write your personal or church contact info on there.  If someone is truly interested in receiving the gospel, they need a place to find more information!  Don't leave them to figure it out on their own.

Thank you!  Please check your inbox for the download link. Be sure to check your spam if you don't see it in your inbox.

One Easy Way to Strengthen Your Marriage (Imperfect Homemaking Challenge)

Last week I talked about how you can strengthen your marriage by showing your husband that you love him.  It's important to keep the spark of romance alive in your marriage, even (especially!) when life is crazy busy.

One simple way to do that is to flirt with your husband.

Bringing up inside jokes, playing footsie under the table, flicking water at him as you're washing dishes — these are all subtle little ways to say “I love you; you're my best friend; and I enjoy being with you!”

We are a very frugal family, never (or hardly ever!) spending money unnecessarily and considering each purchase very carefully.  Because of that, I don't have a smartphone. (Yes, I confess.  My Instagram photos aren't always “instant”.  I wait until my husband comes home with his smartphone from work.)  For the longest time I did not have unlimited texting on my phone either.  Finally, after much consideration, we decided to pay a little extra each month for unlimited texts on my phone. That was mainly because we hadn't yet caught up to the rest of the world technologically and it was frustrating for people who's primary mode of communication was texting not to be able to text me.

But the unlimited texting came with an unexpected perk.

Now I've got all day access to my husband, and I can “spend time” with him much more often than I used to!

Whereas before I couldn't exactly call him at work, I can send him texts to let him know I'm thinking about him.  And let me tell you, the inside jokes and the flirting roll back and forth all day long!  To be honest, that new phone plan has strengthened our marriage due to our being able to connect with each other more often.

Today's Challenge: Flirt with your husband.  Maybe you'll want to send him a text or write him a love note.  Maybe you'll choose something else.  But do something!

Instagram challenge: Ya'll.  Please.  Let's keep this one private.  😉

If you’re just joining the 31 Days of Imperfect Homemaking series, you can see all the posts here.

Relishing the Ordinary (Imperfect Homemaking Challenge)

It was an ordinary evening.  Nothing special was going on.  The kids were running around the back yard just being themselves.

The baby was playing with a ball.

E. was playing on the swingset with his green rainboots that he wears all day, every day.

K. was playing with her babies and snacking on a carrot stick.

And J. was practicing his soccer skills,

observing a caterpillar,

and taking his energy out on a tree with a stick, seemingly all at the same time.

I stopped to take it all in, and I realized I was having the time of my life!

It wasn’t a special holiday.  Everything that was going on was very ordinary, but I was enjoying myself immensely!

I could have this much joy every day if I would only choose to.

I don’t need to wait for something special to happen to enjoy  life.  I can choose to enjoy every moment.

When I’m cooking an “ordinary” supper, I can stop and thank the Lord that I have food to prepare for my family and a stove on which to prepare it.

When I’m doing an “ordinary” dishwasher unloading, I can be thankful I have the luxury of owning a dishwasher.

When I’m changing an “ordinary” diaper I can be thankful for these little ones God has entrusted to me.

If I stop and think about the blessings God has given me, the ordinary things seem so much more special.

Just since that evening a few days ago, I have tried to stop and think throughout the day about God’s blessings and to make a conscious choice to enjoy what He has given me – not just on the special days.

What will you enjoy today, my friend?  The smell of dinner cooking on the stove?  The sound of good music on the radio?  The love of your family on this ordinary day?  The pretty things God has given you to decorate your home?

Stop.  Look.  Listen.  Enjoy.

Everything we have is a gift from God.  He loves us, and has given us “richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

So let’s enjoy what He’s given.

Today's Challenge: Take some time to observe what's going on around you and just enjoy your life!

 

 

Sometimes we get so busy trying to get everything done that life just passes us by without our even noticing.

Instagram Challenge: Snap a picture of an ordinary moment that you enjoyed today.  Use the hashtag #imperfecthomemaker to encourage other members of this community.  (Follow me here.)

If you’re just joining the 31 Days of Imperfect Homemaking series, you can see all the posts here.