I’d love to be a Party Planner/Gift Basket Specialist. I imagine swag piling up – oodles of free gifts. I get to try amazing products, design themed gift sets and use confetti!

People will be fist-fighting outside my door, like “Pick me! Add my love potion to your gift basket! Feature my soap made from human celebrity fat!” I will be calling Oprah and telling her what my favorite things are. Even Martha Stewart will be like, “Wow, Liz, you’re right about everything – all the time!”

Most recently, I made baskets for some of my fellow self-quarantining friends.

Being stuck at home sucks, so I wanted to share a little joy!

Remember Ding Dong Ditch?

If you’re looking for a fun work out, I recommend ringing your friends’ doorbells and running away! Back in the day we called this “Ding Dong Ditch”. Sometimes it included nice things, but other times it included dog poo which we won’t get into.**

Ding Dong Ditch with gifts is nice! You can burn many calories as you run off like an idiot, laughing and hiding in nearby bushes. Highly recommended. Plus, technically you don’t have to come within 6 feet of anyone during social isolation.

Bonus points if you Ding Dong Ditch and leave a gift basket of luxuries or essentials on a friends’s doorstep. Food, toilet-paper, gifts, puppies, sex-toys, whatever…. we all have needs and if the world is shut down, then we need our friends to hook us up!

Oh – and more bonus points for doing the Cop Knock instead of ringing the doorbell. I pounded so aggressively on one friends’ door, I almost peed my pants laughing as I ran away. Cheap thrills, I know.

Gifts for Friends Stuck at Home

All my mom friends are isolating at home with their kids. While it would HILARIOUS to leave a sex toy on their porch, I opted to make my gifts a little more family-friendly. I tried to imagine what my own teenage son would think if he opened the door and inspected the package – then I toned it down like ten notches.

Coronavirus Gift Baskets

Here are some of the fun things I added to the baskets. Each one was individualized with art and a unique combo of items.

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• Homemade Soap – Wash the COVID-19 virus away. Wash those blues away. Made with love in my crock pot. Unscented because I was lazy, but also for, uh…. allergies.
• Vegetable Seeds – Broccoli, lettuce, zucchini, carrot. I want to empower my friends by helping them grow their own food!
• Scented Candle – Light it up, take a bath, relax. Smell something yummy. Don’t burn the house down. ‘Aint nobody got time for that.
• Infused CBD Oil – Another crock pot wonder! A teaspoon of this in your tea or food is wonderful, physically and mentally.
• Smokeable Cannabis – Calm down, it’s fine. We’re Oregonians.
• Unique Art – I found each person’s unique item at our local dollar store. For quick and inexpensive gift baskets, they have the perfect items!
• Handwritten Note – “I can smell you from my house, here is some soap.”
• Flower Bulbs – The best part about bulbs are that the flowers come back year after year.
• Live Flowers – Just a little pansie for a pop of color!

For the record, I would have added toilet paper, but local stores were sold out. I decided my friends want me to continue wiping my butt while in quarantine, so I kept the rolls I had. There is a limit to my generosity and apparently this was it.

Keeping it Clean

I went through great lengths to make my friends feel comfortable with their gifts. I added took a ton of precautions like:

• Assembling the baskets outside in fresh air
• Wiping each item down with a sanitizing wipe
• Spraying the entire thing with bleach solution and letting dry outside before bagging
• No one who touched these had any sickness symptoms, but wore gloves for the fun of it
• Using food grade turkey cooking bags to wrap everything in.

To top it all off, I added this big note:

The gift baskets were well received! It got my heart pumping dropping them off and had a laugh cop-knocking friends. My partner came with me to deliver them, and it was a great date activity.

All in all, time and money well spent.

Total time spent preparing 6 baskets (including ridiculous cleaning measures) = 2.5 hours
Total money spent on each basket = approx $13
Time spent delivering and laughing – 1.5 hours.
Finding joy in a pandemic = (you guessed it) Priceless.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear how you are cheering your friends up lately, or how a friend cheered you up!

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**Actually, we are going to get into this. If you’re leaving dog poo (flaming or otherwise) on anyone’s doorstep during this pandemic, you’re a real piece of work. For real, who are you? Message me. I have so many questions.