Wish Lists

It's that time of year! Christmas is just around the corner and everyone is starting to SHOP, SHOP, SHOP!!! Our family always likes to have ideas for the kids. My two lucky little ones have 3 sets of Grandparents, a set of Great Grandparents, a Great Grandma, 3 sets of Aunts/Uncles and even Great Aunts/Uncles who like to buy for them...... and we can't forget Santa! He needs a list too! So.... this equates to my kids being spoiled rotten!!

This year I decided to try to find a Wish List website to keep everything straight. Let me start by saying this..... I LOVE online organization. I love my Google Calendar and anything else that helps me stay organized online. If you come to my house, you may notice it's not QUITE as organized. I try. But it's hard to keep up with it all. My online world though.... now that's organized!! :)

I've done the Target lists, etc in the past, but I wanted something that let me add items from multiple stores and didn't make people feel required to buy at a certain store. Something that would let each gift giver mark an item as "bought" after the purchase they just made in a store. I also wanted to be able to create a separate list for each child. I searched and searched and searched for the right website. I signed up for about 6 different Wish List websites, played with them and decided it just wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was seriously considering building my own Wish List site!!! ;)

I stumbled onto www.WishPot.com. This site has just about everything I was looking for.

Both of my kids have their own wish list. I can add items from ANYwhere on the web. In fact, you install a cool little WishPot button in your browser and as you're surfing Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Amazon, etc all you have to do is click the WishPot button and it will pop up and ask you which list you want to add it to and whaaa laaa.... it's added to your list! It's seriously SOOO easy and convenient!

The lists show a picture of the item listed, the price, it gives you space to write a note (such as "Size 2T") and a link to the website where you originally added it to your WishPot. You can give your items a priority... such as "I neeeeeed it!!", "I really really want it", "I want it" or "I wouldn't mind having it". Then the people looking at your list can search by priority, price, etc. All great features!

After someone selects what they are going to buy from your list (or after they get home from buying it), they can come back to your list and mark the item as "Reserved". This will give the item a tan background and let everyone else know that someone has already got that item. PERFECT!

There is one downside to this site though.... you do have to register in order to see which gifts have been reserved and to actually reserve a gift. This bothers me b/c it lets anyone see the list without being logged in. And unless you know what you're doing, you may think that none of the gifts have been purchased. :(

The registration is very easy... only your name, your email address and a password you make up. Very simple. And I have not received any SPAM from them.

So there you have it. This post was probably WAY too long to just talk about a silly Wish List website. But like I said at the beginning... I do love online organization!!!!! I posted this b/c I thought some of you may be looking for a way to organize your children's Holiday Wish List as well!

If you would like to see how the WishPot website works, email me and I will send you a link to our lists so you can check it out! :)

Have a great weekend and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!