Do you have anyone in your family who’s hard to buy for?

The holidays are fast approaching which means it’s time to give gifts again. I love shopping for gifts, puting them in gift bags and dishing them out at family gatherings. As a kid the holidays were all about gifts for me, now I much prefer to give rather than receive. The more interesting the better, unfortunately I’m not always the best at being clever. Some members of the family are just hard to buy for.

Admittedly this is not the perfect solution, but it does get the creative juices flowing and makes the task a bit easier.

I like to browse through the Amazon wishlists and Listmania at Amazon. This is probably an unused resource for many, but it’s actually quite the goldmine of information. If you can find a list related to a product your mother-in-law already has, and that list includes all the necessary accessory “must-haves” that go with it, then you now have a premade list of possible things you can buy her as a gift.

Think about how helpful that is. Print the list and secretly try to figure out which accessory item she either already has or may not need. Cross those off. What’s left are ripe for the buying.

For instance, I search professional garment steamer in listmania and get back several lists that relate to caring for clothes. Now I have an instant set of products I probably never would have thought of that I could by someone who either has or wants this product.

Give it a try. You’ll be amazed at the results.