Pay attention to the details, and you can find great gift ideas from nowhere. Let me give you an example.

My Dad is not a carpenter, or a craftsmen, but he loves to work with his hands anyway. You might call him a Weekend Warrior or whatever, but the point is that he takes pride in his construction hobby.

Knowing this, I was not sure of what he was working on lately, or what needed work or anything. I just knew that he liked to work. So, I snooped around his work bench and noticed he had a severe lack of large hose clamps, and stainless hose clamps.

I knew that that was my entry point. That was my inspiration. Right there. Hose clamp. But, what do you use a hose clamp for, I wondered.

So, I went to the hardware store down the block and asked. Typically, a hose clamp is used in plumbing projects. They are used to attach a hose to a fitting, naturally. It was not the most helpful of trips in gathering a birthday idea.

I am not sure if it was because I was thinking about ways to use a hose clamp or what, but I started noticing them all over my house. My dad used them to fix anything that was coming apart it seemed. Even the shovel, whose wooden handle was cracked had a hose clamp fixed to it.

So there it was. That was why he was running low. And then it hit me. I could get a ton more hose clamps and fix up more stuff for him, take the pictures, and give that to him as a present.

And that is how you can get great gift ideas from anywhere. You just have to open your mind to the possibilities. Has anyone else come up with great gift ideas for their folks? What ideas do you have for the handyman in your life? Please share in the comments.