All that said, I don’t think that all thrift store finds make the best gifts in my opinion.

Goods to avoid for sure include…

• Many toys – be careful about toys. It’s not always safe to give toys because without a warranty card parents won’t know about recalls. Also many thrift store toys are plastic or may contain lead. Although in good news, plenty of thrift stores are now watching out for toxic suspect toys. Before you buy toys used read how to find toxic free toys.
• Baby items. Many baby items are no bargain and can be very dangerious. Before buying used baby items make sure you know what’s safe and what’s not when it comes to reused baby goods.
• Electronics – most newer electronics use less energy and will actually work. I haven’t had great luck with many tech thrift store items. The same goes for appliances.
• Stuffed animals – don’t wash well and are a little too germ ridden for me.

Be very careful when buying…

• DVDs, CDs and records – any you buy should be scratch free and in really great condition.
• Dishes – may contain lead and if cracked can harbor germs. IF you have a pal who collects old dishes or teacups or what have you for visuals not edibles you’re good to go though.

Great thrift store holiday gifts…

• Books! My boyfriend just came home from the thrift store yesterday with the last three Harry Potter books – hardcover, perfect condition, and they look like new. Guess how much he paid for all three? $8. Oh yeah. Books are a super duper gift at the thrift store.
• Puzzles.
• Baskets for holding other gifts.
• Flower vases.
• Picture frames – you can put family photos in these for a great gift.
• Kids costumes (such as dress up clothing, costume jewelry, and so on). See how to make a DIY kid’s dress up kit.
• Wooden toys – which breaks my above toy rule, but wood is much safer. Just make sure toys are smooth, unpainted, and in one piece. Blocks are often a nice thrift store find.
• Kid’s clothing is often very nice because kids outgrow stuff so fast. Holiday dresses are an especially nice find.
• Stocking stuffers like marbles, costume jewelry, and sometimes even art supplies.
• Bikes – IF you look it over.
• Sports equipment.

PS – If you’re having issues about giving used gifts maybe you just need to consider how much happier the planet is when you give a reuse gift OR change your wording – recycled or reclaimed is oh so much nicer and less blunt than used.

Do you give thrift store gifts? What sorts?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Best Thrift Store Gifts

Five Great Green Gifts for Kids

1. $9.35 – The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth: This is an excellent book for kids with few cons. Part of the book was written with help from actual kids and the book is printed on recycled paper with soy inks too! Read my full review.
2. $20.00 – Eco Playdough: All natural art medium for crafty kids made with plant, fruit and veggie extracts. No chemicals, artificial dyes or metals and the containers are made from cornstarch and are 100% compostable. I saw this dough recently at the PDX green fair and it comes in totally brilliant and lovely colors of orange, yellow, green, and pink plus the containers are adorable. Note – the Bamboo Rolling Pin is sold separately.
3. $24.99 – idbids:  These soft toys come in three different styles – Scout the Cloud, Lola the Flower or Waverly the bright blue water drop. Each is handcrafted with 100% organic Egyptian cotton and colored with natural organic dyes. With the purchase of each kit, a child can enter an online code that will help protect the habitats of animal friends through The Nature Conservancy’s Plant A Billion Trees campaign, Adopt an Acre, or Rescue the Reef programs. Each kit comes with an organic cinch sack for the child to wear, a storybook printed on recycled paper with eco-friendly inks and a field guide.
4. $25.00 Wooden Giraffe Block Set: Adorable 16 piece block set in a giraffe drawn wagon. This toy is eco-cute, made with sustainably harvested wood, and finished with non-toxic linseed oil.
5. About $25 or less - Green Toys are made of eco-friendly recycled milk cartons, packaged in recycled cardboard, and provide hours of fun for both boys and girls. Most come in at under $25 a pop too, such as the Eco-Friendly Tea Set (shown above), Tool Kit, Dish Set, Chef Set and Recycling Truck.

Five Lovely Green Gifts for the Ladies

1. $16.00 – Lavender Caramel (6-piece)! Chocolate and lavender; way too girly and neat. Pretty little gift box of organic lavender infused caramels with Fleur du Sel salt.
2. $16.95 - My most favorite lovely reusable water bottles – Earthlust Water Bottles – oh so pretty 20 oz stainless steel bottles that won’t leach chemicals into water and cut down on plastic waste.
3. $24.00 - I’m totally obsessed with the Recycled Glass Pendants by Fanisong. In fact I blog about these often because they’re not only pretty but so unique and eco-friendly. Each handcrafted piece is made from 100% RECYCLED glass and a nature photo. The original photo is fused into the glass, then finished with sterling silver plated bail & ribbon cord. Amazing. The piece shown above is Look up to the Sky but there are many other cool designs available; another good one is Infinite Sphere.
4. $24.99 – Mini-Blossom Hummingbird Feeders: Pretty little feeder made with recycled blown-glass vessels with Flower Feeding Tubes in red glass. These look great in the garden and attract adorable hummingbirds with 4 oz of space for hummingbird nectar. Stakes included for mounting. Plus this purchase helps to support the National Wildlife Federation.
5. $12.21 -Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World: Great book covering lots of juicy green topics that matter to women. Teaches women how their actions, and how they spend their cash can make an eco-difference. Printed on recycled paper. I like this book a lot, but haven’t written a full review. My friend Peggy however has – read her review.

Five Handy Green Gifts for Guys

1. $20.00 – Vintage Record Coasters for the hipster guy in your life. Made with real recycled vinyl records but sealed so moisture won’t seep through to the surface. Comes in a set of six.
2. $19.79 – Whole Green Catalog: 1000 Best Things for You and the Earth: One of the best green living guides I’ve read in a LONG time. Packed with facts for everyone, but especially cool is the focus on green living for both genders. Many of the green books I read are geared toward women. Women will like this book too, but this one has facts for the guys as well. Read my full review.
3. $20.00 – Stonees All Natural Building Blocks: These rocks are meant to be a child’s building toy, but they’re also fun stress relief for adults when placed in a workspace. Build peaceful structures with these rock blocks made from crushed North American rocks and all-natural non-toxic pigments. Stonees are organic and smooth, and come in fun stacking shapes – square, triangular and cylindrical. Great for a workday break and good conversation starter too.
4. $14.99 – Wilson Rebound Fade-Green Basketball: This ball is Wilson’s first “green” product made from 40% Recycled Rubber and comes in a box made with 80% pre and post consumer board. Not bad on the eco scale and gets your guy outside and keeps him in shape.
5. $12.50 each – Green Family Kitchen Tools: A fun set of kitchen tools for a guy who loves to cook. All of these green family tools are made with a recycled plastic and wood blend for an attractive, functional, and eco-friendly design. At the end of a tool’s life-cycle, it can be recycled too. Way more fun than typical kitchen tools.

Five Cool Green Gifts for Co-Workers, Pals, or Family

1. $5.72 – NRDC: Simple Steps Deck: A Healthy Home. A Healthy Planet. 50 Easy Actions:  This handy little deck of green living cards fits perfectly into a stocking and is printed on recycled paper. Great for folks new to green living. Read my full review.
2. $8.75 – Down To Earth Cookie Cutter Set – Celestial: Great hostess gift or last minute gift for a baker. BPA-free set of ten cute planetary-inspired foodgrade stainless steel cookie cutters that can be used for kid’s playdough or for real cookie dough. Sturdy and log-lasting plus comes in a compact storage tin.
3. $18.95 – “I Am Not A Paper Cup” – Thermal Porcelain Mug: Funny  and the perfect green gift for a co-worker or pal who loves organic coffee.
4. $24.00 - Beeswax Holiday Glass Gift Set: Pretty little candles made with natural beeswax and essential oils. three 3 oz votive glass candles included in the set (each burns for 24 hours) in holiday scents of Spice (Sweet Orange, Cinnamon & Clove Bud), Pine (Rosewood, Spruce & Fir) and Mint (Peppermint & Birch).
5. $25.00 - Plantable Seed Calendar 2010: This is the perfect green co-worker gift; handmade pages embedded with wildflower seeds so after each month the recipient can plant away with no paper waste. Comes in a reusable tin as well.

Post from: Blisstree

20 Last Minute Green Gifts Under $25!

$10-$30 – Sprig toys are battery-free, eco-friendly, paint-free, kid-powered toys made with Sprigwood, a child-safe bio-composite of recycled wood and reclaimed plastic that smells like pine and has visible wood flecks. Sprig makes adventure play sets, trucks, sand and water toys, and much more. AND only one item they sell clocks in at over $40 – all other products can be had from about $10-$30.

$28.99 – Eco-Friendly Tea Set from Green Toys – made with recycled milk cartons AND comes gift ready wrapped for free.

$25.00 – Organic Joobles from Fair Indigo are made of soft organic yarns and eco-friendly dyes and come in many adorable characters from penguins to bears to lions and more.

$20.00 – Eco Playdough all natural, made with plant, fruit and veggie extracts with no chemicals, artificial dyes or metals. Containers are made from cornstarch and are 100% compostable and colors include orange, yellow, green, and pink.

$19.99 – Imaginarium Green Triangle Activity Center – made with eco-friendly rubberwood and non-toxic paint.

$25.00 – Eco-Friendly Tool Set – made by Green Toys with recycled milk cartons.

$24.99 – Cardboard treehouse – totally creative, fun, and 100% recyclable. Comes in unpainted cardboard so kids can paint it however they like.

$38.90 - Plan Toys – Water Blocks made with eco-friendly rubberwood and non-toxic finishes.

$24.95 – Earth-opoly is a game made with all easily recyclable paper, soy inks, and game pieces are made made by nature or completely recyclable. Plus this game celebrates the Earth one turn at a time. “Players buy properties, collect Carbon Credits and trade them for Clean Air. As they travel the board visiting each impressive land form, they will learn about the planet and pick up Go Green tips from each deed card. Learn about Earth and how to care for it as you play. There is Traditional Play or One Hour Version.“

Post from: Blisstree

Nine inexpensive green gifts for kids

For your mom: You don’t always talk to your mom about green living, so the Change Starter Kit is a great place to start. The set starts with a reusable grocery tote that comes packed with green-minded goodies – a great intro to green living.

For your dad: Knobstoppers Golf Ball Wine Stopper – made with an actual vintage golf ball; a great way to stop up that organic wine for the holidays.

For your best guy friend: If your best guy friend likes to grill the natural World Flavor Gift Set will help him grill better. Recycled packaging too.

For your grandma: Recycled Paper Candy Dish – Made from 100% recycled paper and hand crafted by Artisans.

For your active pal: The new water bottle that’s all the rage – The hydration vessel, by Kor Water, features an ergonomically designed spout and a pop top lid for easy opening with one hand. Made with totally BPA-free plastic and is perfectly hip for folks with an active lifestyle. Proceeds from the sale of the Green vessel will benefit the Wetlands Initiative. Comes in four color choices.

For the party host: Bamboo Grow Box Gift – Chocolate Amaryllis – beauty and sustainable. Components of the lovely bulb grow boxes unite contemporary design with good stewardship of the earth’s resources. Each box is hand-crafted and full-on usable. The lacquered lid elegantly becomes the drainage saucer for the leak-proof reusable grow box. Lacquer is hand-applied and  all-natural. Even the ribbon is sustainable, made from recycled plastic bottles. There’s also a paperwhite version.

For your best girlfriend: Flip-Top Clutch made with all recycled soda pop tabs. Fun.

For your female significant other:: Literally anything from FaniSong Jewelry – a gorgeous eco-friendly store with amazing recycled glass nature photo jewelry. This is one of my favorite online eco-jewelers and really inexpensive too.

For your male significant other: vedaDUDE Glide – Pretty much the best shaving gel ever created. Smells amazing and made with organic aloe leaf juice, bilberry extract and organic orange fruit extract.

For your sexy significant other: A great holiday deal romantically wrapped in a starry organza bag …with organic rosebuds and a sprinkling of tissue hearts on Yes certified organic lubricants. In fact this is such a great deal that you could throw in a sexy organic soy Love Machine candle from Dirt, and STILL the whole gift would come in at under $40. Nice.

Post from: Blisstree

Ten Green & Inexpensive Holiday Gifts

Potting Shed Creations uses materials that are sustainably and organically sourced and minimally packaged with reuse in mind. Best of all they offer gifts for all ages and stages of gardeners. Some fun Potting Shed Creations gardening gifts for the upcoming holidays include…

Garden-in-a-Pail – A super gift set that includes a lovely leak-proof, galvanized pail, garden gloves and all the ingredients to grow exceptional bulbs, flowers, herbs, and tomatoes. These pail gardens can be used inside or outside and if you’re short on space they also offer The Mini Gardens.in.a.Pail which fit well on a patio or windowsill.

Potting Shed Creations Kids! offers children the chance to express themselves and design a personalized garden for their own enjoyment or as a gift for someone special. Various child gifts available such as gardens in a coloring bag, magical beans with coloring activities, an adorable stone soup garden kit, and more.

Trees-to-be – these sweet kits offer everything needed to grow a tree along with an aluminum tag for a personalized inscription.

See the gallery below for some of these fab garden gifts and visit Potting Shed Creations to learn more.

Post from: Blisstree

Potting Shed Creations Holiday Garden Gifts

Well, not exactly.

See, The Nature Conservancy is now offering people the option of giving a green gift. With this one, you can give the gift of helping the earth. You can opt to help keep the coral reefs safe. You can opt to make sure that this piece of land in this rainforest remains green and healthy. Or you can also choose to have a tree planted somewhere. Whatever it is that you choose, this will be the gift you will be giving your loved one because it will be in honor of them.

And yeah. The e-card that is sent to your recipient to let them know that they have such a green gift from you is sent to the recipient right on the day that you specify. So if you’d like them to receive it on Christmas, then on Christmas it is.

Source: The Nature Conservancy
Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Post from: Blisstree

The Green Gift

If you want to really really save,  don’t buy gifts.  Or at least, keep it to a minimum.  A Christmas card would be nice though (and it’s inexpensive).

Now for those people who you really wanted to give a gift,  I suggest give them something “green” in nature.   Since this is an environment related blog,  of course I would like you guys to be “green” this Christmas.    So what I did was to look for some online shopping site (which features “green” products)  and strike a deal to get a discount coupon for my readers at unpluggedliving.com

I emailed Mark of 3rliving.com and told him that I would like to request if I can get a coupon code for my readers at unpluggedliving.  Guess what,  he agreed!

The only condition?  You just need to check out these 2 pages.

Holiday Eco Products

Green Gift Ideas

The coupon code that I will give you would be applicable to any product in the site, not only from those 2 pages.   The coupon code  is “link08” and needs to be plugged in upon checkout.

As for me,  I personally like this solar backpack.   So if any of you kind hearted souls out there wanted to send me a gift, you know what to give me (hahaha!)

Post from: Blisstree

Green Christmas Shopping – 3RLiving Exclusive Discount to Unplugged Living

This green gadget is actually a pair of speakers. You can actually plug the speakers to some of your gadgets and everybody could enjoy whatever sound is coming from your gadget. Of course, you really are interested in knowing more about this green pair of speakers that I am talking about. So here’s the video:

Post from: Blisstree

The Green Gift