Housewarming wishlist ready before the Christmas shopping starts

You moved in October. The boxes are still in the hallway, the kitchen has three forks, and your mother has already asked twice what you want for Christmas. Those two problems solve each other. If you create a wishlist built around the new place, the people who were going to buy you something anyway can buy something you need.

People prefer buying for a new home over guessing

A housewarming list gets used more than most Christmas lists. A vacuum cleaner or a set of decent towels has an obvious purpose, so nobody feels awkward buying it and nobody wonders whether you already have one. You have just moved, so you probably don't.

It also spares your family the usual December guessing. The aunt who would otherwise pick a scented candle can buy the bath mat you keep forgetting, and she knows it will be on the floor by New Year.

What belongs on the list

Walk through an ordinary weekday in the new house and write down what is missing or what you keep working around. That gives you a better list than any category page in a shop. These turn up on almost every housewarming list:

• Kitchen: a Bialetti moka pot or a proper filter machine, six matching mugs, an oven dish that fits the new oven, one good chef's knife
• Textiles: two sets of bath towels, a throw for the sofa, a doormat that holds dirt
• Hosting: a large serving board, eight wine glasses (one will break), a carafe
• Storage: baskets for the hallway, a shoe rack, boxes so the last cartons can finally be emptied
• Maintenance: a cordless vacuum, a basic toolkit with a drill, a step ladder. Hardly exciting, but you use them every week

Skip decor unless you already know exactly what you want. A vase chosen by someone else ends up in the cupboard behind the vase you chose.

Finish the list by early November

Christmas shoppers start earlier than you think. Plenty of people have half their presents bought by the middle of November, so a list that appears on 15 December mostly gets a polite look. Have it ready in the first week of November, so the link is there the moment the family asks.

Then keep editing. The espresso machine that seemed obvious on day one looks less obvious once you notice you drink one cup a day and simply rinse the moka pot. Take it off. Add the extension lead you have been borrowing from the neighbour.

Spread the prices and allow a few pointless things

Give people a range to choose from. A colleague will spend a little and your parents may spend a lot more, so the list needs items at both ends and a few in between. Add colour, size and model where it matters. "Grey towels, 70 by 140" saves an exchange in January.

And put two or three things on it that serve no purpose at all.

A wreath for the new front door, a tree ornament with the house number on it, a set of daft tea towels. The first Christmas in a new place deserves one or two things that are not a bathroom scale.

Let the expensive items be group gifts

Some things a new house needs cost more than anyone will spend alone: a mattress, a garden table with chairs, a decent pair of speakers. Put them on the list at their real price so several people can chip in together, which is what the contribution option on the list is for. Four people each putting in the price of a normal present is easier than one person paying for all of it, and it beats four separate frying pans.

Items the whole family will use when they visit work best for this. Nobody hesitates to chip in for the dining table they will be sitting at on Christmas Day.

If the housewarming and Christmas are going to be one occasion this year, create a Christmas list with the new place in mind and have it ready before the shops get busy.