A Solution to a Problem | Always a Thoughtful Gift

One of the best ways to come up with a thoughtful gift is to find a solution to someone’s problem.

All you have to do is listen closely. Do they complain that something is difficult? Takes too long? Too expensive? Doesn’t work right?

All of these statements are clues to a problem, annoyance or hassle in their life. If you can come up with a solution, you’ve found yourself a thoughtful gift!

Let me give you a simple example.

My husband likes to make his popcorn by microwaving kernels in a brown paper bag. He does it this way because he wants to make healthy popcorn that doesn’t use butter or oil.

Recently, he kept complaining that the new brand of brown paper bags we bought kept getting holes in the bottom. This makes a big mess when kernels and popcorn escape through them. Even with the previous brand of paper brags he had been using, he mentioned how he could only use them twice before needing to throw them away. He felt wasteful.

I decided to solve my husband’s popcorn problem by finding a reusable microwave popcorn popper. He could stop using brown paper bags altogether and feel good that he could wash the container instead of having to throw more bags away.

I found the perfect microwave popcorn popper on Amazon which had a very high star rating and nearly 2,000 reviews.

I gave the microwave popcorn popper to my husband, and he loved it! He appreciated that I found him something he needed, and it was something he didn’t even realize he needed! He said he probably would have just kept complaining about those stupid brown paper bags and never done anything about it.

A gift that solves someone’s problem makes a thoughtful gift for so many reasons:

• it means you listen and pay attention
• the person didn’t even have to ask you for a solution to their problem and, yet, you thought of one anyway
• the person may have not realized they could or should do something about their problem, but you realized it and did something about it
• the gift will most likely surprise them

What problem, big or small, can you solve for someone?