Tracking Gift Lists

Thanksgiving is over and December has begun. No matter how much you enjoy complaining about how early the commercials and music and decorations start popping up, holiday shopping must now begin in earnest. [If you don’t celebrate any gift giving holidays in December, I do think my advice can be easily adapted for birthdays or event planning. Send me a note if you’d be interested in discussing further!]

If you’re like me, you have a long list of people to buy gifts for, and it can quickly become overwhelming to keep track of what you have purchased, who you still need to find a gift for, or even if you have received everything you’ve ordered online.

My suggestion? Make a spreadsheet. (I’m an accountant. What did you expect?) I’ve even created a template that I would be glad to share with you!

I recommend including the columns below in your spreadsheet, with tweaks or additions as necessary for your specific circumstances.

• Name - List every person (or pet) that you plan to buy a gift for.

• Gift - Once you decide on a gift, add it to the spreadsheet next to the person’s name. If you are planning to buy more than one thing for any given person, list them on individual lines, grouped under the appropriate person, so that you can track the remaining columns individually.

• Purchase Status - This is an easy way to check off each gift as you buy it. It will also create an at a glance list of what gifts still need to be bought. You can even add formatting so that a "Yes" in this and other columns turns the cell green.

• Tracking # and Shipping Vendor - I buy 98% (or sometimes more) of my gifts online. It’s so easy to forget which packages you’ve received and digging through your inbox for all of the tracking emails can be painful. Instead, when you first receive the shipping notification, drop the information into your spreadsheet. This will make it easy to see what has been shipped and to check in on the status of each package.

• In Possession - Whether you buy gifts in person, order online, or go in on group gifts that someone else buys, it is a good idea to keep track of the status of each. Use this column to note which gifts you actually have in your possession, which ones are still in route, or which ones you need to follow up on to make sure your name is added to the final packages.

• Wrapped - Once you have all of the gifts, making sure they all get wrapped is a whole endeavor of its own!

• Mailed - This column is useful if you purchase gifts and then mail them to the recipients. You may also want to add additional columns to record the tracking numbers and shipping vendors for these packages.

• Gift Received - Whether you mail gifts, or celebrate with various friends and family at different times, this will help you make sure all of your gifts are received! If you mail gifts, I recommend following up once your tracking info says it has been delivered to ensure that it actually arrived. Additionally, sometimes gifts get knocked behind a couch or hidden under a blanket, so checking in on your list will make sure no gift is forgotten!

I look forward to hearing from you! Let me know how you end up using this tracking method or what adjustments you make so that it fits your circumstances.

If you would like to use the template I created send me an email at ducksinahexagon@gmail.com and I will send you a copy.