Giftster Gift Lists and Registry for Families!

I've come to realize that blogging is a lot like retail. I have to start planning posts and events months ahead of time to correlate with the upcoming season or holiday. Although it's still several weeks away, I've been in Christmas mode for months! The holiday season will be here before we know it and I want to help you get prepared. When Giftster reached out to me about a sponsored post to share their awesome website, I thought it was perfect timing with our holiday gift guide rolling out tomorrow!

What is Giftster?

Giftster is a FREE universal family wish list sharing service that takes you {mom} out of the middle. The idea is really genius. This isn't like a generic wish list that you might see on your favorite retailers' website. Giftster is a lifetime registry that you set up once and use forever! Holidays, birthdays, graduations, weddings, new babies, new homes, anniversaries, or maybe just because - Giftster is the place to share gift ideas with family members and friends. It's your personal, permanent family gift registry.

Getting started on Giftster is easy (and did I mention it's FREE?!). Once you sign up you'll be able to add their handy-dandy "Add to Giftster" button on your bookmarks bar. If you're familiar with the "Pin It" button from Pinterest, this is the same concept and makes shopping online so much fun!

You can immediately start connecting with your friends and family members by either inviting them to be a part of the Giftster community or searching to see if they already are. You do this by creating groups.

Creating a group and connecting with your friends and family members is a great way to keep in touch and be reminded of upcoming events and celebrations. You can build a centralized, shared family event calendar so everyone stays in the know. Personally, every time I think about buying a gift for my 12-year-old niece or 10-year-old nephew I draw a complete blank. I am not exactly in touch with the latest and greatest products for that age group, so having a list that they've created themselves that I can reference (and reserve gifts from) would be a blessing. I hate the thought of wasting hard earned money on a gift that they may not like but are too polite to mention. With Giftster I can rest assured they'll be receiving exactly what they want.

Speaking of creating lists, let's talk about that since it's FUN! I started by setting up a Christmas wish list for myself and the Wubba. This process was easy! Since I had something in mind for myself right off the bat, I just loaded the information into Giftster. You can input the name of the item, how many you'd like to receive, the price, where it can be purchased, and even add the link to make it super easy for your friends and family to find it. There's even an awesome star rating system so you can let people know how important an item is to you. Maybe you don't want to share your list with friends and family? That's okay too! You have the option of setting your list to private, shared, or public.

Having the "Add to Giftster" button makes adding items to your lists SO easy. I had already set up a list for the Wubba, so when I was browsing Amazon and found an adorable Thomas the Train set, I just clicked on the button that's so conveniently located on my bookmarks bar and saved it to his wish list. Giftster makes it super easy for you by preloading all of the info and saving the link. Just use the drop-down box to select which list you'd like to add to and use the star rating system and click save "Add item to Giftster". That's it!

Now that you've made your lists and you've connected with your friends and family members you can view each other's lists and even reserve gifts for each other. If you decide to purchase an item from your loved one's list you can mark it as purchased so they don't receive duplicates. With giftster you can become part of a small private social network connecting family and close friends around gift giving occasions.

Another great feature of Giftster is that you can use this easy tool at home on your computer, or on-the-go with their easy mobile app. You can download it to your iPhone or iPad, or use the Android App from Google Play. Or, you can use any smart phone and view the site at m.giftster.com. List updates are synchronized in real time between all applications and devices so you'll know right away when an item has been purchased.

I think Giftster is a great organizational tool, especially with the holiday season rapidly approaching. I love that this takes the stress out of the holidays. I can simply "shop" online in the comfort of my own home and make our lists to share with family and friends. Since we'll all be connected through Giftster and I can view their lists and I'm sure this will make my holiday shopping a breeze!