A Home for Our Stuff

Leo and I must be the worst wedding couple ever.

At least when it comes to registering for gifts.

It sounds like so much fun — a chance to get a bunch of new stuff. We can upgrade what we have or get new of what we don’t. Although we have a lot of awesome kitchen stuff already, I figured there would be plenty we still wanted or needed, plus some fun things such as camping gear.

So we walked into Bed, Bath and Beyond Sunday ready to scan away. We scanned this and scanned that … and we were up to only 40 items. Mixer? Already have a KitchenAid. Griddle? Already have it. Coffee maker? Don’t want or need one.

They say you’re supposed to register for a number of items three times the number of your invited guests. By that theory, we need 600 items. Um, keep going.

Sheets? BBB tells you to get three sets: one for the bed, one for the laundry and one for the closet. Sounds like a way for them to sell more sheets. Besides, we plan to get a new queen-sized bed when we move into a new house. Meanwhile, I have two or three sets of sheets already for the full bed. So we only added one set.

Silverware? Already have two decent sets. China? We’d NEVER use it. A laundry hamper? No room for that in our house and we have a laundry basket.

Sheesh, what are we going to put in there? The problem is, Leo and I have most things we need or want and our house is too small to accommodate more. For many items, we want to wait until we buy our new place before making decisions.

So, really, what we need is help buying a house.

Ta-da! That’s where Hatch My House comes in. It’s a website that enables our guests to “buy” us a window or a door for our new place. Really, it’s a donation to the one thing Leo and I would really love to have: our very own home.

But we know not everyone wants to donate money. So somehow we found a few more items, making our grand total 112 — including each individual dish towel on the list. On Amazon, we added the oddball items: a canopy for the beach, a fire pit, some lanterns. Grand total: 21.

Long story short: We’d love to have the items for which we are registered. We will add to the list as we think of stuff. But if you feel compelled to buy a gift, consider a shingle for our new house.

After all, what’s the point of adding to our collection of stuff if we don’t have anywhere to put it?

Want to buy a gift? Use the links in this post or check the main page called “gift registries.”