A lot of these are less helpful suggestions once you’re in your mid 30s and you already have too many of several of these things. So I’ll add:
- flavored syrups/mixers: most of these include non-alcoholic recipes anymore even if they were originally meant as cocktail ingredients, and you can make all kinds of incredible things with them. My best friend got me a watermelon-cucumber syrup that I made sodas out of all last winter when I forgot about the existence of summer
- little trays to collect stray objects. You know what I mean. You can never have too many little trays.
- odd silverware: this one’s tricky if you’re committed to having a matching set, but if you’re not, the right kind of person will have a blast finding you iced tea spoons, pie servers, dessert forks, any of those things you don’t need often enough to justify buying for yourself but really wish you had when you needed them
- a spare x, where x is something you use often and really like and would be devastated to lose or break. Good scissors, nice earbuds, chapstick in your favorite flavor, the water bottle in the size you’ve finally determined is perfect for your needs. Something you notice you’ll get up to find the Good One even if a different option is close by
- a more interesting/unique version of something you already have: I do not need or want another lamp, but a few years ago one of my friends got me a lamp hand painted by a local artist with Van Gogh’s sunflowers. I adore Van Gogh, I never shut up about it, and this is just a stunning and spectacular thing that is also useful! I was thrilled to get rid of a cheap Target lamp and replace it with this. Other good options for Artsy Versions of things you already own: 8x10 picture frames, mugs, hooks/knobs/fan pulls (you can swap these out easily even if you rent)
And may I also recommend pairing this with Hobbit Birthday, that is, celebrating by taking some of the functional but suboptimal stuff you just got replacements for to the thrift store. You get to feel good knowing you’ve donated something actually useful that somebody will want to buy, and you get rid of something cluttering up your space, win/win. Knowing you’re going to do this can make it much easier to ask for upgrades to things you already have, which gives you lots of ideas.
