What to buy the parent, in-law or friend who says they want nothing. Consumables, quiet upgrades and experiences that work in Australia.
Bob, Quokit · 10 July 2026
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"Don't get me anything. I have everything I need."
It is one of the hardest answers to hear when you are trying to buy a useful gift. The usual result is panic-buying another jumper, mug or gadget that never gets used.
Buying for Father's Day this week? See our last-minute Father's Day gifts in Australia for Click & Collect, digital, experience and homemade options you can still organise before Sunday.
Here is the useful way to think about it. People who have everything are often not asking for more objects. What they run out of is the stuff that gets used up, the small daily annoyances they never fix, and reasons to leave the house. Buy in those three lanes and you have a much better chance of getting it right.
Three lanes that work on the person who wants nothing: consumables, quiet upgrades of things they use daily, and experiences with a date attached. Plus the habit that solves this problem for every birthday after this one.
Consumables are the perfect gift for this person because they create zero clutter and they signal taste.
Coffee they would not buy themselves. Not a machine. Beans. A rotating specialty coffee sampler (ad) from small roasters gives a coffee drinker three weeks of small daily pleasure and then politely disappears.
Genuinely good olive oil or vinegar. The person who cooks has a $9 bottle of olive oil. Give them the good bottle (ad) they will never spring for. Same logic works for aged balsamic, native Australian condiments and single origin chocolate.
Tea for the tea person. A T2 gift set covers the parent who has "everything" but drinks four cups a day out of the same tired box of breakfast tea.
A really good candle. The rule: Australian made, soy, a scent that sounds like a place and not a dessert. Australian made candles (ad) sit right in this zone.
Everyone who "has everything" is using a worn out version of something daily. Your job is to spot it.
Their charging situation. If their bedside table looks like a spaghetti accident, a tidy charging station (ad) fixes a daily annoyance they stopped noticing years ago.
Their keys. A Bluetooth key finder (ad) is the upgrade nobody buys themselves and everybody uses. Bonus points if you have personally watched them hunt for keys while the car warms up.
Their reading light. For the person who reads in bed while their partner sleeps, a clip-on reading light (ad) at $20 does more good than most $100 gifts.
Their cup. People carry the same battered travel mug for a decade. A Frank Green in a colour they would pick is a small daily improvement.
Objects fail with this person. Time does not.
An experience voucher works when it matches something they already love rather than something you wish they loved. A long lunch booking, a garden show, tickets to their team, a hot lap day for the motorsport dad. In Australia, RedBalloon covers most of this ground. The trick is to book a date, not just hand over a voucher. A voucher is homework. A booked table is a plan.
And if the person is a grandparent, the answer is often time with the grandkids with the logistics already handled. That can cost very little and mean more than another object.
The real problem with the person who has everything is not this birthday. It is every birthday, plus Christmas, plus Father's Day, forever.
A better habit is keeping one quiet list per person year round. When someone mentions in March that their secateurs are rubbish, that goes on the list. Come December, nobody is interrogating them at the dinner table about what they want, and nobody gets a fourth multitool.
That is the exact reason Quokit exists. One list per person, items saved from different stores, a private view for the people buying, and verified claims so shoppers know what is already being handled. It works just as well for birthdays as for Christmas. The person who "has everything" usually has things they would appreciate. The useful ideas just appear at different times of the year.
Practical takeaway: stop buying objects for full houses. Buy things that get used up, fix a small daily annoyance, or book an experience with a date on it. And start the quiet year-round list now, because there is always another occasion coming.
Consumables, upgrades of things they already use daily, or an experience with a booked date. People who want nothing still drink coffee, lose their keys and enjoy a good lunch. Avoid adding objects to a house that is already full.
Practical comfort beats novelty. A better reading light, warm quality socks, their favourite consumables restocked, or time together with the arrangements already made. If they mention any small daily annoyance during the year, write it down. That note is next year's perfect gift.
Keep a shared family wishlist. Everyone adds ideas for themselves through the year, and gift givers pick from the list without saying which item they chose. The receiver knows the categories, never the specifics. Quokit's claim tracking helps relatives see what someone else is already handling, which reduces accidental overlap.
For people who already own most of what they need, experiences can be a better fit because they add no clutter. The important rule is to match the experience to their existing interests, not to what you would enjoy.
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