Selecting the perfect practical housewarming gift can be a challenge of algebraic complexity. First, you must negotiate cost – and this goes beyond the size of your budget. Plastic cups may seem a practical choice but are not good for the gift-giver’s image, while a full Le Creuset kitchen set looks generous to the point of creepy.
Second, it has to fit with the domestic tastes of the new householders. That risqué wall-hanging could lose some of its hilarity when the in-laws come calling, and the Picasso-inspired tablecloth almost certainly won’t match the curtains.
Misfiring here can be particularly awkward, as it comes with unspoken peer pressure for them to actually use your dreadfully mismatched gift, or risk causing offence. Finally, it helps if your present bears some relation to the new house, if just to allow the occasion to retain some identity.
15 practical housewarming gifts
Before you lose your nerve and cop out with a Homebase gift card, here’s a few domestic doozies to help give a new dwelling its due…
1. Postcode coasters
Exactly the kind of important-but-not-essential item that might pass new householders by. These Personalised Location UK Postcode Map Drinks Coasters by Pushka Home (notonthehighstreet.com) come printed with a map of an area of your choosing.
Fun, practical and perfectly themed for the occasion, you can save the recipients from the horrors of coffee rings while introducing them to their new area’s geography.
2. Tile Mate
This miniature plastic square won’t revolutionise the living room, but it’s a godsend for that vast proportion of people prone to losing their keys. Fasten the Tile Mate to your key ring, sync it up with an app on your smartphone, and it’ll ‘ping’ loudly every time you ring it.
By helping you navigate your own front door, the Tile Mate is as intrinsically linked to home-owning as any gift you’ll find – except perhaps paying off the mortgage…
3. Designer fire extinguishers
If you ever needed proof that nothing is safe from the designer makeover, these boutique, artisan fire extinguishers are it. That said, fire safety is non-optional, and these vibrant units will leave no one in any doubt about where to turn in an emergency.
Extinguisher specialists Safe-T stock a wide selection of designs, from ocean seascapes and LGBT rainbows, to snazzy animal print designs (safe-t.eu).
4. Personalised booze
A classic method for overcoming the ‘peer pressure problem’ – leaving a loved one saddled with a thoughtful but misjudged gift – is to purchase perishables. Chocolates and wine are understandable go-tos, but lack the personal touch to mark you out from the crowd.
Fortunately, you can quite easily personalise your booze for recipient and occasion, like with this personalised wine bottle. What better way to baptise a new dwelling than with bottles bearing the householders themselves?
5. Toolkit
We know – it’s hardly the latest ergonomically-designed, voice-activated piece of domestic tech – and on first unwrapping, a 100-piece toolkit might not earn the gratitude you’re due.
But this one’s about the slow burn. Don’t look for immediate thanks. Wait for the pathetically grateful phone call a fortnight down the line, when your friends need to fix a blown fuse, and can only do so because you bought them a multi-bit screwdriver.
6. Shower speaker
No longer must your friends sing obnoxiously in the shower – with a TaoTronics Bluetooth Shower Speaker, someone else can do it for them. This waterproof gadget syncs up to your phone and queues songs of your choosing, perfect for music-lovers and long-showerers alike.
There is also no chance they’ll feel pressured into using it if they don’t want to. Unless you conduct an unusually communal showering routine, there’s no way you could ever know.
7. A QR code for the Wi-Fi
Imagine you’re having 10 friends round to stay for the weekend. As they file in one by one, smartphones in hand, what’s the one question that they’re each guaranteed to ask?
Rather than running to the kitchen in search of the post-it that should be, but probably isn’t, stuck on the fridge, a QR code for your Wi-Fi can get any device with a scanner online within seconds. All you need do is enter their network details into an online generator, print out the resulting code, and slap it on their modem.
8. An extremely furry blanket
If your friends have just bought a house, they’ve probably spent rather a lot of money doing it. And if they’ve just spent rather a lot of money, they probably don’t want to spend any more on their heating bills.
A proper, high-quality furry blanket is an investment for life, a must for those long winter evenings, and potentially a major money-saver.
9. A slow cooker
Cooking can be one of the first things to go out of the window when moving house. A crock-pot slow cooker will help them cook perfect meals without taking up precious unpacking or decorating time.
A slam dunk time-saving device that even the most food-illiterate can master with ease. Give your friends the greatest gift of all – the ability to enjoy a home-cooked meal after a long day.
10. Some lovely incense or a diffuser
It’s a rare commodity in the gift-giving world – a present with universal appeal – and this is mostly for its practical uses as a housewarming gift.
Visual tastes differ wildly, and just turning on the radio shows not everyone shares you taste in sound. But you’d be hard pressed to find a single individual that would turn their nose up at the soothing scents of a diffuser.
A lavender scented reed diffuser could help them relieve stress after their big move.
Alternatively, go more classic with a large Yankee Candle ‘A Calm and Quiet Place’ jar.
11. A standing plant pot
Whether you include a plant or not, a nice standing plant pot will look great in any room of their new house.
We like this white adjustable plant stand that can be used either way up so they can get the height they require.
If you’re looking for a cheap-ish plant to go inside, pop down to your local (large) supermarket. They’ve been dipping their toes into the plant market, and you can often get a large, established plant at a great price!
12. A new home keyring
What could be more practical than something to keep all those new keys together? They don’t even know what half of them do yet, so to stop them despairing and throwing half of them over the fence, get them a new home keyring.
Yes it’s a little cheesey, but it’s also practical and in 10 years when they forget exactly when they moved in, this will be here to remind them.
13. A cleaning storage caddy
When they first move in, there will be a lot of cleaning to do. Fill up a storage caddy with cleaning products and pop a bow on top.
They’ll be grateful when they run out of bleach half way through the bathroom and find all your cleaning products placed neatly in a transportable basket.
14. A personalised doormat
It can say anything you want, but this personalised doormat makes a lovely practical housewarming gift. Not only will it protect their new carpets, but it’ll give them a sense of accomplishment every time they walk in the door.
15. Stacking mugs
A set of stacking mugs is great because they don’t take up much space, but add some colour to the worktops.
They might appreciate it when they find their old mugs haven’t survived the move so well.
All products available on Amazon unless stated otherwise.
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