10 Must-Have Items that Make for Great Housewarming Gifts

When your best friend for ages buys their first home, you want to celebrate this next chapter with them. The best way to do that is through getting them the perfect housewarming gift – a housewarming gift that will put all other housewarming gifts to shame. Really, isn’t it your job as the best friend to deliver the greatest gift? You know it is.

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Getting the Right Gift

The one problem about getting someone a housewarming gift is that we don’t all have the same tastes. Something that you might use every day at your place (like a pasta maker) will sit alone in dark a corner, forever destined to storage. This happens. Example: My folks got a pasta maker as a wedding gift some twenty years ago. They never used it. The pasta maker now sits proudly unused on my kitchen counter. The point is, you want to get your friend a gift they’re actually going to use, not something you want them to use. You see the difference, right? I know you do!

Below is a list of 10 products that have proven themselves to be essential household goods.

Olive Oil

Perhaps one of the most traditional housewarming gifts, olive oil is symbolic of ritual, fertility and life. Think of olive oil as presenting a blessing of sorts to your friend, such as a blessing of many happy years in the house filled with love, light and warmth.

Tool Box

Unless they already have them, tools aren’t something many new homeowners think to purchase until after they have to deal with fixing a leaky faucet or wonky door handle. A tool box filled with necessary tools like a hammer, screwdriver, pliers, tacks and nails will help them get their toolset started and have a safe and organized place to keep them.

Step Stool

Another thing people don’t think about when they’re buying a house: can they reach all the cupboards? Until they start to unpack and figure out where they’re going to put everything, they won’t even realize that there are some spots out of reach. A stepping stool will make those unreachable (and therefore non-functional) cupboards functional once more!

Bar Collection

Your friends are going to want to host parties at their new place, and if they don’t already have a solid bar collection, help them build one up! Every decent bar collection should have a martini shaker, ice bucket, strainer, tongs, highball glasses, pint glasses, wine glasses, rocks glasses and martini glasses. Top it off with some delicious liqueurs, hard alcohol and garnishes, and they’ll have a solid bar foundation to build on.

Electric Toaster

When I moved into my own place, I bought a cheap toaster. If this is the first home your friend has ever owned, some of their kitchen appliances, like the toaster, might be on the cheaper side too. The sleek, oblong electric toaster from Alessi doesn’t just toast bread, it’ll reheat your toast and even warm up your buns!

Personalized Cutting Board

Usually when someone has bought a house, they have bought it as part of a twosome. What better way to show them how proud you are of their commitment and their new home than to present them with a personalized cutting board where they will cut and break bread?

Personalized Alpaca Blanket

Until you get to understand the way your house regulates its temperature, you’re struggling with lugging the fan down from the attic or you’re curled up under a blanket. Get your friend and their partner an alpaca blanket that they can snuggle under together during their next Netflix and Chill marathon.

Customized Christmas Ornament

Sites like Pinterest and Etsy offer users personalized products for purchase, this includes Christmas ornaments. Get your friend a custom-made Christmas ornament in the likeness of their new home!

Succulents

To brighten up the space and bring some life to it, get the new homeowner a houseplant. Succulents are stunning, inexpensive and very tough to kill. If they’re debating on whether or not to get a new dog, help them out by letting them see if they can at least take care of a plant.

Pulcina Stovetop Espresso Maker

Help them start a morning weekend ritual with a shared cup of caffeine. The Pulcina Stovetop Espresso Maker is lustrous in its design and will make any stovetop look good.

There are a lot of housewarming gift ideas to choose from, but a gift on this list is sure to earn you a spot at the Thanksgiving table!

Anne Lawson is a British writer who keeps her eye on business and trending issues that affect us all. She loves to delve into the real story and give us interesting tidbits we might otherwise miss.