So 2020…
This is a year that I have been looking forward to for many reasons. My oldest son is in 8th grade and will be graduating, then moving on to high school (so difficult to believe since it feels like he was just a little tot not that long ago). Our family has a HUGE family vacation planned, which hasn’t been possible for a while due to a lot of life hitting us at once. My younger son, as well as my daughter, will be celebrating birthdays 12 and 3 respectively. My parents will be celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary. I have many exciting professional events that I’ve been looking forward to attending as well.
But now, things have changed, and not just for me but for us all.
We’re a rather joyful group here at Giftster, and we love helping our members enhance their celebrations by taking the stress out of gift giving. But right now, things are a bit more somber and less celebratory. Several events have been canceled or postponed with the hope of having them later in the year. Children are doing their school work at home while many parents work from home, all the while practicing social distancing. Gatherings of all types are being discouraged, so people aren’t getting together as they typically would for birthdays and other events.
So what does a group of gift loving people to do at a time like this? We look for ways to use what we have to help. It’s what we’re all doing right now.
While Giftster focuses on creating and sharing gift wish lists, it can really be used for sharing lists of any type for just about any need. And right now, there are many of us who are in greater need of a needed, essential items list more than a “it would be great to have” wish list. There are charitable organizations who have been utilizing Giftster for this purpose for years now, and it’s something we can all use.
And, as always, Giftster is free to use, so it is a tool for everyone.
No matter what your needs, if they’re great or if they’re few, and you have those in your life that you need to lean on a bit or those in your life you know could use a hand during this trying time, we’re here to help you communicate, organize, and share those needs.
How to Create a Free List for Essential Items You Need
- If you’re new to Giftster, create a free account. If you’re already a Giftster member, log on to your account.
- Go to My Lists and click on New List.
- Name your list anything you’d like.
- Set the privacy level for your list. Private makes it so only you see it. Shared allows you to share it with your group of family and friends. Public makes it so anyone can shop the list (whether they have a Giftster account or not). If you choose the public option, there are some additional privacy settings you can also choose. Press Save List when you’re finished.
- Build your list. If you’re adding items that can be ordered online, copy the URL and use our Fetch function to pull in all the item details. If the items are not online, simply add all the details about the items you need. These can be food items, gift cards or gift certificates, household items, toiletries, school supplies, virtual subscriptions or needs (think entertainment like Netflix, Hulu, etc.), anything you may need. Literally anything at all.
- Share your list. If you have a group of family or friends that you’d like to share these lists with, create a group and invite those people to join your group. If you prefer to share a public list, copy and share the URL for your list and share by whatever means you prefer (email, text, Facebook, etc.).
For more details, please go to our Essential Lists page.
Create Essential Items Lists for Older Family Members
This is also a great way to help older family members who may not be able to get out for the items they need. You can follow these same steps and share a needs list with family who are pitching in to help out. For more details, please visit our Essential Lists page.
I will echo the sentiments so many other companies have: we are all in this together. And, we will get through this. For now, we hope Giftster can help by being a tool you can utilize to help ease the stress of organizing and sharing lists for the things we need to get us through these days.
Wishing everyone good health and wellness. Day by day, we’ll get through this.
