As a professional organizer, I often recommend that gift-givers consider consumables—things that will get used up, and won't become clutter. There are many ways to design a normally mundane item so that it becomes an interesting gift (whether a stocking stuffer or more), and to design a commonly gifted item so it stands out in the crowd.

Idea #1: Take a common product and make it a work of art, such as this toothbrush from Bogobrush.

Idea #2: Get creative with the holiday offerings. Many companies offer special products for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. But not many have an offering for Burns Day, as L. A. Burdick does with its limited edition Scotch whisky chocolates.

Idea #3: Combine items in interesting ways. For example, Hen & Hammock sells seed combinations: four kinds of chills, four purple vegetables, four Christmas dinner vegetables, etc.

Idea #4: Play around with size. These cakes from Sweet Lady Jane are only 5 inches in diameter, so it would be easy to make a gift of two or more, providing more variety to the recipient.

Idea #5: Get creative with shape, as Charm Villa did with these goldfish-shaped tea bags.

These sticky notes are another example of using a different shape for a standard product.

Photo credit: Joe Utsler

Idea #6: Get creative with color. The Zubbles colored soap bubbles are an example; they are the first colored soap bubbles designed so they don't leave stains.

Idea #7: Experiment with taste, as Breath Palette did with its 31 flavors of toothpaste including Darjeeling tea, bitter chocolate, caramel and plum.

Idea #8: Provide a unique form of customization. End-users can print their photos to all sort of products nowadays, but I've never seen anyone but Boomf that printed them on marshmallows.

Idea #9: Provide a simple solution to an end-user's need or concern. For example, these cheese bags from Formaticum require less bother than cheese wrapping papers.

Here's another example; Help Remedies puts the emphasis on the end-user's problem rather than the name of the medication. The medications are all single-ingredient, and no coatings or colorings are used.