A housewarming wishlist that is ready before the holidays

A housewarming in the first half of December competes with everyone else's shopping. Your guests are already hunting for Secret Santa gifts and something for their mother-in-law, and a vague "come and see the house" invitation ends with six bottles of wine and a scented candle. If you want something you will use in the new place, have the list ready in early November, before their attention goes elsewhere.

What to put on the list

Cover the practical things first. They are what a new house lacks in the first weeks, and they are the things guests feel good about buying.

• A proper chef's knife (a Victorinox is not expensive) and a large wooden chopping board
• A set of glass storage boxes for the fridge, the kind with clip lids
• Four bath towels in one colour, plus a shower curtain and a bath mat
• A cordless drill (Bosch's green range, the mid-priced one) and a basic toolkit for the flat-pack furniture
• A decent vacuum cleaner and a bucket with a mop that wrings itself

Then leave room for the things that make an empty room one you want to sit in: a large plant such as a monstera, a wool throw, one framed print, a floor lamp. Do not put "candles" as a line; you will get eight.

Spread the prices

A list where everything is expensive shuts out most of your guests, and in December their budgets are already spoken for. Put small things next to the big ones: a bag of good coffee beans, a pepper mill, four wine glasses, a set of tea towels, all of them inexpensive. Then add two or three larger items (a coffee machine, a chest of drawers, a rug for the living room) that several people can chip in on together.

Add one or two things that are not objects at all. A voucher for the pizzeria round the corner, a cleaning service for the day after the party, or someone to do the garden in spring. In the middle of a move, an evening off is worth more than a fifth serving bowl.

Group it by room and say why

When you create a wishlist, sort it by room and put one line under each item about where it goes or why you want that one. "For the hallway, the old one did not survive the move" tells a guest more than a product name does. That line is often the difference between a gift that gets used and one that goes to the charity shop in March.

Paste a link for anything specific, so the photo and the price come through and nobody has to guess between the grey and the green. If something has to match what you already own, say the colour. Guests can see which items someone has already reserved, so you do not end up with two of the same lamp.

Send it three weeks before the party

Three weeks is the minimum in the run-up to Christmas. People order later than they think, and the parcel services slow down from the first week of December. Put the link in the invitation, on the card or in the message, with one quiet line such as "in case anyone is wondering what to bring". Leave it at that. Guests who want to use the list will find it, and anyone who turns up with a bottle of wine instead is just as welcome.

Thank people for whatever they bring, including the sixth bottle of wine. They came out on a December evening in the busiest month of the year; that is worth a proper thank you.

You can add things as you unpack, so do not wait until the list feels complete. Create a wishlist in ten minutes, put the link in the invitation and you are ahead of everyone else's Christmas shopping.