For the past few years, I’ve been putting together practical gift guides at House & Garden for people like me: the anti-clutter contingent. We’re the types who wring our hands about waste, and shy away from the short-lived or overly decorative. The people who cannot interpret the thriving market for statement cushions stitched with ‘Be the Person Your Dog Thinks You Are.’
Broadly, my advice for coping with us is to find better-made versions of everyday things. Nothing is too ordinary. Charbonnel et Walker doesn’t get my blood moving, but soap or scissors? Yes, please.
1. A stylish set of notebooks
These simple, tactile notebooks are printed in Sussex and come in three page varieties: plain, lined, and dotted. They feel weighty and hard-wearing in hand, and thanks to a specialist book-binding technique involving sewing and cold glue, the notebooks open flat, which makes it easier to write. Mark + Fold is a small British company with a female founder, and every piece they sell feels considered—take the triangular erasers, for instance, whose shape allows for more precise rubbing out, or the travel journals, which can come with or without paper specimen pockets. There are also packs of Blackwing 602 pencils (known for their fluidity of movement), solid brass paperclips, and grid-lined sticky notes. For truly devoted letter writers, the company offers several rungs of annual stationary subscriptions.
2. Small-batch olive oil
The founders of Citizens of Soil set up shop in order to function as a conduit between artisan olive oil producers and consumers. They make a point of paying farmers above the going rate for their oil and highlighting both the origin and the harvest date, which isn’t typical in an industry with murky supply chains. The company offers olive oil subscriptions, in which a rotating selection of olive oil arrives monthly or bi-monthly in recyclable packets, and they also sell one-off glass bottles of specific varieties. The trio above, which includes oils from Italy and Croatia, is a good place to start when you’re moving away from supermarket olive oil—the rich, deliciously bitter oil from Tuscany, in particular, has become a by-the-glug topping for saucy beans at our house.
Mediterranean Olive Oil Trio
3. A really good pillow
Sleep is a scarce commodity for us at the moment, and we push the boat out where we can: linen sheets, a natural mattress, a wool duvet from Floks, goose down pillows. The Odd Company, based in Yorkshire, is best known for their handmade, bespoke mattresses (are you in possession of an unusually-sized, Tudor-era four poster? These are your guys), but they make top-of-the-line pillows too. The version above is hypoallergenic, chemical-free, and decadently fluffy when plumped.
Supremely Soft Goose Down Pillow
4. A retro camera
I picked out this instant-print camera with my kids in mind; there are around eight million photos of them eating spaghetti on my phone, but I’m erratic about ordering hard copies for the fridge. The Kodak Mini Shot is a comedically large camera that looks like a prop from a Wes Anderson film and spits out 4 x 4” snaps. It’s sturdy enough not to feel precious, so our seven year old can have a go on it. The quality is not the same as if you had the photos professionally printed, but it’s not supposed to be—the occasional blurs and more limited colour range are, for me, part of the charm.
KODAK Mini Shot 4 ERA 4PASS 2-in-1 Instant Camera and Photo Printer
5. A wetsuit for wild swimming
When we moved to the countryside last year, I felt, all of a sudden, that standing on a slimy-bottomed riverbed in rushing, icy water was the thrill I was looking for (‘tell me you’re almost forty without telling me,’ said many, many people). I asked a couple of the local, ocean-dipping cabals about colder weather kit, and the unanimous recommendation was for the wetsuits from Cornwall-based Finisterre. Their suits can be bought or rented, and the try-before-you-buy aspect makes the outlay easier to accommodate. I have the long sleeve suit above, which is warm enough for spring swimming, and also a two-piece, jacket-and-shorts combo, which are perfect on their own, or for pulling over a lighter suit.
Women’s Kaia 2mm Yulex® Long Sleeve Swimsuit
6. A beanie
Where to start with this best-in-class Scottish beanie? It goes without saying that it’s the softest hat you’ve picked up in your life, made of something that Johnstons of Elgin, who are the last word in cashmere, are calling ‘cashmere ash.’ Regardless, it’s not at all scratchy, and feels substantial and warm without being heavy. The sizing is unisex, so it’s not too tight, and there’s enough material for a generous fold around the ears.
Aran Cable Light Brown Cashmere Beanie
7. A Victorian-style greenhouse
Two of these handsome grow houses are sitting in our garden, a few steps from the kitchen. We’ve had them for six months or so, and there’s palpable charisma about their stately glass lids and steel frames—they pull focus every time somebody comes over. It makes me obscurely proud and proprietary, as though I hammered them together myself (they’re from Crocus; probably no hammering was involved). We use them mainly to grow herbs, which they kept in fine health throughout the winter.
Victorian growhouse, rectangular chalky white
8. A ceramic-lined Water Bottle
The jazziest bottles in our water bottle drawer are the bright, eye-catching ones from Frank Green, a popular Australian company that aims to reduce single use plastic. The bottles have durable stainless steel on the outside, three layers of insulation for keeping a drink hot or cold, and a ceramic lining on the inside, which doesn’t flavour the contents. The lids have easy-to-open, hard-to-spill flip straws that are useful for kids. Or for adults who are known to chuck their bottles into the snack bag without closing them.
9. A really good knife sharpener
For a long time I ‘sharpened’ our knives on the stick of honing steel that came in the knife block. I understood, vaguely, that this was not proper sharpening, and that the knives were becoming dull. Enter this knife sharpener and its joy-giving powers. At first it seemed a little hulking, and not intuitive, but it’s crucial to push past that part. Because after a couple of How-To videos, it gets really good. Your knives become working, self-respecting tools again. See them chop! See them dice! For weeks my husband and I kept saying things to each other such as, ‘watch me while I cut up this tomato.’ We have friends coming over for lunch soon. We aren’t going for a walk or anything. They are bringing their knives.
Tormek T-1 Kitchen Knife Sharpener, Ash Green
10. A National Art Pass
The National Art Pass is a membership offered by Art Fund, an independent British charity that raises money for museums and galleries all over the country. The passes allow free entry to most museums and a 50% discount on major exhibitions, at places including the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Tate. We have a family membership. So far, down in Sussex, we’ve used it at a couple of local favourites, Charleston and Lewes Castle. I have my sights on Anne of Cleves House when it reopens in the spring.
National Art Pass, Individual
11. Pretty storage baskets
By necessity, I try to smother the instinct that it is right and true to collect more baskets. We have a lot of them already. But the combination of simple good looks and toy-hiding capability is ensnaring, and I could not pass these house-shaped baskets by. They are tough receptacles, made of stiff rattan that keeps its shape, even when empty. There are large handles for lugging them from room to room, while collecting stray Pokémon cards and chewed-up dried mango, and what can only be pieces of paving stone that have been removed from the outside of the house and left under a chair.
Dutch House Storage Baskets, Set of 3
12. Barefoot hiking boots
Years ago, when putting together my first gift guide for House & Garden, I wrote about the original Vivobarefoot ‘Tracker’ hiking boots. I had never been crazier about a shoe. They were lightweight, flexible but grippy, and sufficiently nice looking to wear to the type of pub with Aesop soap in the loos if you were going there directly from a walk. I wore them out and eventually needed another pair, and lucky thing, the people at Vivobarefoot were not taking a nap in the intervening years. There’s a darker, sleeker model now, with deeper grooves for even more grip, apparently, and increased water resistance. I have them, and I’m sorry to tell you that the sincere, one-sided infatuation continues.
Tracker Leather AT II Womens
13. An air fryer
A phenomenon has occurred among the people I know: they all want to sell me an air fryer. My dad is one of the worst. ‘Now we never even turn on the oven!’ he says. ‘The most terrific reheated pizza you’ve ever had!’ he says. This went on for years. Our family stayed with him for ten days in the autumn, and lo and behold, there was the air fryer, taking up an entire counter in his pantry. He started modestly, cooking chicken nuggets and crinkle-cut chips for the kids (both very crispy, I can admit), then moved on to more razzmatazz demonstrations: Brussels sprouts with crunchy outer leaves; moist, hotted-up tortillas; crackle-skinned roasted chicken! We ordered the hardworking, largely dishwashable unit above. I like it for snappy chickpeas and browned shiitake mushrooms and just wait until you come across some pizza that needs reheating.
CASO Design AirFry DuoChef
