Easy (and clutter-free) gift giving

6 December 2011

I shot a segment this morning on Great Day St. Louis about clutter-free gift giving, one of my favorite holiday topics.

If you saw the segment, thanks for stopping by my blog. I wanted to elaborate on a couple of the points I made in the segment.

I was really hoping to be able to recommend an Amazon Prime membership as a great clutter-free gift. (With Amazon Prime, you get free two-day shipping, you can borrow Kindle books, and you can instantly watch TV shows and movies free.) However, I just learned from Amazon that you cannot give a Prime membership as a gift. (You can, however, share your own membership with a household member, by inviting them.) Not only can you not give it as a gift, one can’t apply a gift card toward an Amazon Prime membership.

I do know that you can give a Netflix subscription as a gift. Netflix offers both instant viewing over the Internet and DVDs. (They’re now separate subscriptions.) You can watch movies and TV shows via Netflix Watch Instantly on your computer or on your TV through various devices, like Tivo, Roku, and some game consoles, Blu-ray players or HDTVs.

You can also purchase a Hulu Plus gift subscription. The free version of Hulu allows you to watch a variety of TV shows and movies on your computer, free of charge. With Hulu Plus, which costs $7.99 a month, you can watch full seasons of some TV shows (rather than just five episodes) and, most importantly as far as I’m concerned, you can watch Hulu Plus on your TV (via Roku or other devices) and on your mobile devices. I watched several episodes of Parenthood (love that show!) on my iPad while visiting my parents last week.

If you didn’t see the segment, here it is. Since I’m the first guest on the show, the video starts with the hosts’ show-opening banter. My segment starts at 2 minutes, 55 seconds into the clip:

Giving clutter-free gifts can be really easy. Often you can do it right from your computer!

Tagged with: gift giving, great day st. louis, holidays

Comments

Loved it! Great tips!

Mark A. Morales December 6, 2011 06:41 PM

DO NOT give a Netflix gift subscription. Your recipient will be required to enter THEIR credit card information (a prepaid credit card won’t work) which will authorize Netflix to charge for the subscription after the gift subscription runs out unless they remember to cancel first.

ben December 10, 2011 06:50 PM

Thanks for the compliment, Mark!

And thanks for the comment, Ben. I appreciate your perspective, though I have to admit that I gave Netflix my credit card number years ago (I’m a happy subscriber) so that doesn’t feel so horrible to me. But, I can understand that not all gift recipients might appreciate that!

Janine Adams December 11, 2011 06:02 PM

Hello! I’m Janine Adams — a certified professional organizer based in St. Louis, and the creator of Peace of Mind Organizing®.

I love order, harmony + beauty, but I believe that the way that you feel about yourself and your home is what truly matters.

If you’re ready to declutter with a purpose and add more ease to your life, you’ve found the right blog — and you’ve found the right company.

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