When people think about gifts, we primarily think about material items, stuff you can buy. However, with the rise of minimalism, sustainability, even just for the people who already have everything they could want or need, sometimes a gift from the store isn’t the best option. If you can’t think of an item to get someone for an occasion coming up, or if a purchased gift isn’t in the financial budget, consider giving the gift of your time by giving a Gift of Service.
“When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.”
– Rick Warren
Definition of Gift of Service
I consider a gift of service to be the gift of doing a job or service for the recipient of the gift. This can range wildly depending on your relationship with the person, your talents, specialties, and their needs. Ultimately, your goal when giving a gift of service is to do a job for that the person would otherwise have to do themselves or pay someone else to do.
Daily Task Gifts of Service
If you are close and comfortable with the person, you can give a gift of service by taking on one or even a few of their household responsibilities. This is a fantastic gift of service option for anyone who may be struggling with daily tasks, like new parents, the elderly, someone struggling with depression or even someone who is just so busy they have trouble keeping up with it.
These are tasks that are truly never ending, require minimal special skills and are tremendously helpful for your close loved ones. An act of service, especially around the home, is a true act of love. So, get ready to roll up your sleeves and gift your time by tackling some of their to-do list!
Examples of Daily Task Gifts of Service
Tackle their daily to-do list by going over to their house and helping with laundry, dishes, general top to bottom house cleaning and tidying. These are the day-to-day messes that are never ending and seem to always have to be done. You could also tackle the deeper cleaning jobs that might be harder for them to get around to like washing interior and exterior windows, carpet cleaning, or washing walls.
Sometimes half the battle is deciding what to make for dinner. Take the question out of dinner time by helping with meal planning or prepping. Creating a meal plan with step-by-step recipes and a grocery list included. Take it a step further and bring over ready to eat meals, or freezer-to-crockpot ready meals. You could also act as their sous chef, prepping the dinner ingredients. With a plan and ready meals and ingredients, it’s not as big of a job when dinner rolls around.
You could also help around the exterior of the house with yard work, like cutting the grass, planting, weeding and watering flower beds, tending to the garden, even shoveling snow in the winter.
Do their grocery shopping for them. Have them send you a list and do the dirty work of going to the store(s) to get all their household items they need and deliver it to their home. You could even help put the haul away if you know where it goes. Don’t feel like you have to buy the groceries yourself, the act of shopping is the gift.
Baby, Pet or House sit. If the person has kids, offer to watch the kiddos while they enjoy a day, night or even weekend out and about. If the person is going on vacation or out of town for any reason, offer to house sit. Water their plants. Take care of their animals. Gather their mail. Keep the place safe and sound while they are out. Don’t forget the furry members of their families need love too. If they have a dog, offer to walk their dog or help with training!
Specialized Skill Gifts of Service
If you have a special skill, talent or profession, you could also provide your services as a gift of time. Even if you don’t think you have a talent or skill that could be helpful to others, I promise you that you have a talent to share that would be helpful to others.
Examples of Specialized Skill Gifts of Service
If you are an artist, or a crafter, you could make an art piece or craft for that person. This is a great option to showcase your talents and skills, while giving a gift of your time and talents!
If you have construction skills, you could help with a more specialized house project.
If your profession is something they could use help with like doing their taxes, accounting, even social media management, organizing and digitizing paper files or photos.
For our technology-savvy readers, you could help with backing up files, getting photos into the cloud, cleaning up their computer.
If you have a green thumb, you could help with indoor plant care or outdoor garden planning or landscape ideas.
Are you mechanically inclined? You could help with vehicle maintenance or by washing and cleaning out their car.
If you are a parent gifting to a new parent (and they would be open to it), you could share with others your top tips, organizational skills, activity ideas, anything you wish someone else could have helped you with when you were a new parent.
We could all benefit from more organization and decluttering. Offer to help with their doom room or their latest organization project.
The possibilities for Gifts of Service are endless based on your time available, your skills and talents. To find the right gift of time for you, think about what you can do for that person to help. Find the option that fits with your relationship, skill set, and their needs and they are sure to be appreciative. A gift of service is not only a gift of your time. It also gives them the gift of freeing up some of their time!