Last-minute mother’s day gifts for a minimalist

It seems most mother’s day gift ideas are for gifts from children to adult parents.  Well…I’m an adult woman with no children and an even more adult mom who happens to be a big fan of simplifying.  And I would still like to give my mom a gift for Mother’s Day!  I’m not a very good gift-buyer in the first place, so coming up with last-minute mother’s day gifts for a minimalist mom is definitely not what I call “fun.”

Here’s some proof that my poor gifting skills have been life-long:

We were told in class to write down words that we thought of when we thought of our moms.  That’s all I had.  Oh mom…hello, you are exolint.

But back to 2018.

Of course, the first stop for ideas is Pinterest.  It’s a gift idea goldmine, right?  I got pretty excited about all the results…until I read all the posts and common recommendations were:

1. A really good hug!
2. Flowers
3. A day of doing the chores
4. Flower-y weeds from the yard
5. …(I was done reading at this point)

I might be crazy, but I don’t think a hug counts as a gift.  And as much as I love flowers, it just never seems worth it…it’s a lot of money for something that only lasts a couple days, and a florist almost never delivers what you actually ordered.  And maybe it’s just me, but it seems like being an adult and going to clean your adult mom’s house as a mother’s day gift would just be a little awkward.  Besides, my parents live 10 hours away.

So what do you buy last-minute for a lady who doesn’t want stuff?

(5 of these 8 ideas can be purchased as late as Mother’s Day itself. The other three might need a day or two.)
Some of the items listed are affiliate links.

Here are my last-minute mother’s day gifts for a minimalist:

Just have everyone send a phone video and merge them together (there are tons of apps and free programs that will do that).  Then upload it as an unlisted video to YouTube and send her the link.
I did this for her a couple years ago and she LOVED it.

If you’re crafty, you could knit a pretty + functional dishcloth.  Here’s a very pretty one from Nourish and Nestle.  These work amazingly well, guys, everytime I give one to someone they can never go back to a regular dishcloth.  

Make a quick (quick as in 10 minutes) and easy earring organizer.

A surprise flying card.

If she likes to learn, you could buy her unique, local one-day classes from Groupon.  You could also gift great online classes.  CreativeLive offers gift cards so the recipient can choose their own class, and Craftsy offers a “Gift This” option for any of their classes.

Update: Craftsy just announced two Mother’s Day specials. 

1. They are offering $25 in Craftsy coupons if you sign up for a monthly subscription that allows you to watch all the classes you’d like in a month (I would probably take a few days off and binge learn/craft), or $100 in coupons if you buy a one-year subscription!  (Craftsy also sells craft supplies, so Mom could use the coupons to buy supplies for a class she wants to take.)  Click here to check out the deal. (Expires May 16th)
2. A Mother’s Day Watchathon.
   You can watch all the classes you want COMPLETELY FREE this weekend (until midnight EST on Sunday).  If you live near mom, this would be so fun to do together!  I’m actually jealous if you do.  

So she can take a trip or use it for one of their newer “Exepriences” in bigger cities.  You can buy a gift card here.

The Q&A a Day journal just asks one question that makes you think each day, with spaces to answer for 5 years.  It’s fun to answer in the first place, and even more fun when years start going by to compare previous years’ answers.  We love ours and keep it on the nightstand.  They’re meant for one person, but the Hubs and I both like to answer (when we remember to).

If you’re a Prime member she’ll get it by Sunday!  You can also pick it up in-store at Anthropologie.

Buy special versions of things she already enjoys.  For example, a coffee subscription with really high-quality coffee like Go Coffee Go offers.

Subscriptions are always fun because she’ll continue to get to try new things every month.

Amazon has a new-ish offering called Amazon Home Services and you can hire people to clean, set up smart home devices, computers, assemble furniture…pretty much anything she wouldn’t want to do.  Does she have a room she’s been dying to have repainted for a while?  Have someone do it for her.

Who really has a mom who hasn’t been frustrated by setting up a computer or smart home device?  Even we get frustrated with them.

If she has a Kindle, you could get her a Kindle Unlimited Membership Plan.

Hopefully there are some actual gift ideas in here you can use too.  And whatever you end up getting, don’t forget to tell her how exolint she is.