Holiday Gift Guide: Most Useful Gifts

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Ahh it’s here! The first gift guide of the holiday season is here! Every Friday for the next month-ish, I’ll be sharing lots of gift ideas with a different theme each week.

Back in October, I asked you guys on Twitter and Facebook what gift guides you wanted to see this year, and someone asked for useful gifts! “Useful” is a very large description, so I went with things for the house. This includes gifts for the kitchen, gifts to use in the house, and more. I hope you enjoy this post, and be sure to send it to whoever might be buying gifts for you!

Oh, and before you shop online for anything, check out Ebates! You can get cash back at many online stores. All you need to do is sign up, get the browser extension, and when you go to any store that partners with Ebates, you’ll get a notification. You can then activate it and get cash back! Sign up here.

All gift guides

Before we get into the actual gifts, let’s talk briefly about how I came up with these items. As someone in their late 20s, I still remember what it felt like to be freshly out of college and having to spend gobs of money (or what felt like it) at a time to get the basics. So I thought about what I wish I had when I was fresh out of college, the sort of things I wish I had/had had, and the sort of things my friends and family have wanted or needed.

Once I had the type of product that I would use in this gift guide, I searched websites for these products based on the best rated and/or best selling products. I also made sure to find cheaper versions of the more expensive products, as sometimes the $40 version is just as good as the $120 version.

That being said, let’s get into it!

Kitchen – Blenders

Nutri Ninja ($65) | Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender ($35) | Cuisinart SmartStick Immersion Blender ($60) | Black+Decker PowerCrush Digital Blender ($49)

Kitchen – Other Food & Coffee

Keurig K-Classic ($80) | Not pictured: Nespresso VertuaPlus ($153) | Crock-Pot 6-Qt 8-in-1 ($69) | Not pictured: Instant Pot Aura 8 Qt ($150) | Cuisinart Waffle Maker ($75 ) | Keurig K-Compact ($60) | Crock-Pot 4-Quart ($25) | Ninja Multi-Cooker 6 qt ($91) | Presto Waffle Maker ($40) | Not pictured: All-Clad Waffle Maker ($130)

If you or the person you’re shopping for have a Keurig, definitely look into getting reusable Keurig pods. So much waste is made from the disposable pods. I know that Nespresso will recycle your used pods for you (as I have one), and Keurig might have a similar service. But you can avoid that altogether by getting this 4-pack Keurig reusable pods, which isn’t even $10.

House – General

Bissell Power Force vacuum ($59) | Cool Mist Humidifier ($40) | Costaway Humidifier ($56) | Frigidaire Air Conditioner ($140) | PREMIUM Dehumidifier ($50) | Whynter Dehumidifier ($140) | Shark Rotator vacuum ($200)

Nothing says adulthood like getting a vacuum cleaner as a holiday gift! If someone on your list is newly living on their own, a vacuum cleaner is a great gift. And depending on where people live, they might like a dehumidifier or a humidifier! For example, a friend of mine is from Florida and she lived in Boston for a few years, and she wasn’t used to the dry winters we have, so she needed a humidifier.

House – Health

Oral-B Electric Toothbrush ($50) | Michael Todd Sonic Cleaning ($130) | Foreo LUNA Play ($45) | Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush ($130)

I know that “health” isn’t the best descriptor, but that’s what I came up with. Electric toothbrushes and sonic face cleaners might not seem that exciting (along with everything else in this post) but they are great gifts. Is someone on your list really into beauty and/or skin care? Get them a sonic cleaner! Is someone on your list into overall wellness? Then get them an electric toothbrush so their mouth can be super clean, too! (As a note: if they have arthritis, electric toothbrushes might bother their jaws. They bother mine, but I have severely messed up TMJs due to arthritis.)

What useful gifts are you hoping for this year?

Like this post? Check out:

All gift guides, How To Make a Gift Guide, Chronic Illness Hacks for the Holidays, Chronic Medical Conditions and Family Discussions over the Holidays