10 last-minute gift ideas that are zero waste and wallet friendly

It’s the night before you need to show up with a gift and your hands are empty, much like the store shelves and maybe even your wallet. What to do? Zero Waste Melrose has an idea - or 10 - that are Earth friendly, wallet friendly, and recipient pleasing.

1.       Take a clipping of a houseplant and plant in a simple clay flowerpot. Wrap the pot in a rustic twine bow for a flourish.

2.       Share your garden plants and do the planting, too! Got beautiful peonies or bountiful hostas? Commit to sharing and planting these in the recipient’s garden during the gardening season.

3.       Sharing from the garden – take two. Do you always have a tremendous tomato harvest? Or your zucchini is always abundant? During the harvest season, share the healthy bounty as homemade spaghetti sauce, zucchini breads, pickled treats, or relishes.    

4.       Share your specialty. Are you a whiz at finance? Do you do calligraphy? design websites? sew? Drum up your own gift certificate to share or teach your specialty for a defined time.

5.       Inspire with your favorite reads from your bookshelf. Give your favorite book from your own bookshelf to a favorite recipient and pass the inspiration on to another.

6.       Regift. If you aren’t using it, will never use it, don’t like it, and will never like it, pass it on. Let an item find a new, forever home.

7.       Give time. Offer to pet sit, to run errands, or grocery shop.

8.       Cook a special meal. Make the meal an event for you and the recipients. Bonus Earth points for composting the pre- and post-meal scraps.

9.       Share your secret. A recipe that is! Write out your secret, crowd-pleasing recipes on fancy notecards. Wrap the notecards in kitchen twine and pair the cards with a complementary wine or a special, hard-to-find ingredient for one of the recipes.

10.   Treat the recipients to a local show. Perhaps the Melrose Symphony, Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, or Chevalier Theatre in Medford?

11.   Bonus idea: Take in a museum together. Do a group outing to share your love of art with youngsters or to stir their cultural curiosity. Ask what their youthful eyes perceive in the photo, through the painting, at the sculpture.