9 Inspiring Mother’s Day Gifts for the Minimalist Mom

What do you all do to celebrate Mother’s Day? It’s only a couple weeks away in the U.S. How about gifts? What do you do as gifts for the minimalist mom?

I already know that I’m spending my Mother’s Day making my mother-in-law’s favorite meal (I’m doing all the grocery-shopping and cooking too) and kissing her butt. That’s how I spend ALL my Mother’s Days – it’s all about the mother-in-law. Too bad for me though, as that’s not my favorite way to spend the day.

But I can DREAM of what my ideal Mother’s Day would be like. And in my dream… my mother-in-law would never appear. Also in my dream… I’d be able to take a nap, eat all my favorite foods, and not have to lift a finger for a single chore. And that would be my perfect Mother’s Day. So easy.

Since I was dreaming about this, I was thinking what do people usually do or gift for Mother’s Day?

I think I’m quite close to being a minimalist as far as how I prefer my lifestyle. My family doesn’t necessarily cooperate with that, but my preference is definitely a “less is more” approach. And my kryponite is clutter. Tangible objects as gifts usually freak me out bc if I don’t have a proper place to keep it, then it falls into the clutter category to me, and that stresses me out.

So as far as what the ideal gifts for the minimalist mom would be, I came up with a list of 8 things I would definitely enjoy to receive as gifts. See below…

9 Gifts for the Minimalist Mom

  1. Quality Time Together. This one could be a family movie in front of the tv, or a nice walk outside if the weather is comfortable, or even just a road-trip somewhere. Is there an event coming-up that she would enjoy? If so, tickets to that event would be perfect.
  2. Food and drink. Moms do love to eat and drink! This can be either a restaurant experience, or a home-cooked meal (as long as she doesn’t have to cook it). Feed her! Also, food and drinks as gifts can be good too, as long as they won’t perish quickly. I’m thinking about wines, alcohols, or even a fancy collection of spices, etc. Because even if I don’t consume them myself immediately, then I’ll be able to use them when I have guests at my home or I can bring them with me when I visit someone else’s home.
  3. Portraits! I have a shortage of actual photos of me WITH my child. Since I’m usually the one taking all the snapshots of my family in all their glory, I don’t have anyone that will take photographs FOR me so I can be in the picture too. So arranging photos that mom can be in too would be a great gift.
  4. Digitize Her Photos/Videos. This is perfect for the mom my age or older, who has a ton of printed photographs and VHS videos stored. Remember those days where we had to take our camera film to the store for printing before seeing all our photos?! No?! If not, then your mom does and she would love this gift! You can do all the work yourself, as it’s not difficult just very time-consuming. And not everyone has a VHS deck that works anymore. If you need a service that will do all this work for you, LegacyBox is one of the most popular ones. I’m actually trying them out for the first time myself, and I will let you know how it turns out!
  5. Gift Certificates and Gift Cards. These are pretty awesome gifts for the minimalist mom – or for ANY mom to be honest. We all love gift cards like crazy. Especially if it’s for something I have to buy anyway, because in that case it actually SAVES me money!
    Gifts for the Minimalist Mom
  6. Subscriptions and Upgrades. Ok, this is something I would never spend money on myself, but if someone else would like to spend money on it instead, then I would definitely take advantage and enjoy tremendously. I’m thinking mostly about tv subscriptions here – like for Hulu, or Discovery+ which I don’t have at the moment. Upgrades are almost the same as subscriptions. But I’m thinking here, like an upgrade to my cable tv package to get more channels. Or, once travel picks-up again… upgrades on airline memberships and hotel memberships. The perks are amazing! You can get free alcohol, special lounges, extra space, larger rooms, etc. I would never actually splurge and spend my own money on any of that… BUT, as a gift… I’d love it!
  7. Services. So if you really want to BUY something for someone that doesn’t enjoy clutter or more traditional gifts, how about a service? This can be a hair/face/nails salon service, or even a home service such as carpet steam cleaning or a deep-cleaning from a maid service. Even a car detailing service could be great gifts for the minimalist mom.
  8. Self-Care Consumables. Here, you have to be careful that you choose items that the mom will actually use. For example, if the mom NEVER takes baths (perhaps she doesn’t have a comfortable tub), then gifting her bath-bombs or bath-salts would be a terrible idea as it would feel like additional clutter or it would feel wasteful. The key thing to remember about tangible gifts for the minimalist mom is that they have to be useful to her. Some ideas here could be lotions, skin-care, candles, perfumes if those are items that would be used by her.
  9. Take care of some routine chores. Holy cow, this would be my most favorite one of all!!! If someone else could just do my laundry, do my grocery shopping, cook the family meals for a change, etc. Anything to relieve me of these chores, even for a single day… would be an incredible gift to me.

Anyhow, that’s what I’ve been able to come-up with as gifts I would enjoy, since more traditional gifts like tangible objects aren’t really my thing. So hopefully these ideas for gifts for the minimalist mom will help you out if you have one in your life.

What do you all think? I am missing something that a minimalist mom would like?

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15 Replies to “9 Inspiring Mother’s Day Gifts for the Minimalist Mom”

  1. Mother’s Day was never a big deal in my family. I call Mom, but that’s about it.

    This will be my first Mother’s Day without also calling Grandma too, though 😦

  2. It’s too bad you don’t get along with your MIL. I can’t make much commentary there, because mine passed away a couple of years ago. Before that, she was far away in another country, so….

    Sometimes someone else doing the chores or a clean house is all we need. I don’t mind receiving stuff, but some of the stuff hubby gives me is questionable. Usually, my son is spot on. He’s more in tuned and actually listens to me when I talk. Ha ha!

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