Though the holiday shopping season doesn’t officially start until the day after Thanksgiving (that would be November 28th of this year), readers of The Lean Green Family seem to be keenly interested in how they can begin stocking their gift closet now. That’s probably because when I wrote a post on that topic back in 2007, I talked about taking advantage of back-to-school sales for stocking up on kid-friendly gifts to keep on hand in your gift closet.

So to give you a refresher course on creating a gift closet and keeping it stocked, here is a rerun of that post.

Before I began devoting my life to being green and frugal, I focused a lot of my writing and speaking on gifts and etiquette. One trick/tip that I shared over and over again in interviews was the notion of having a gift closet. This doesn’t have to be an actual “closet” but rather a place where you stock all-occasion gifts you can grab when you need a hostess gift or a thank-you present. It just dawned on me that sharing my advice on gift closets was relevant for my frugal readers. You guys want to find great deals no matter what, right?

Well, now is a great time to start stocking your gift closet. That’s because soon enough the holidays will be here, and that’s when you’ll receive the lion’s share of party invitations, all of which you should show up at with some kind of gift for the host.

Visit any retailer near you, and chances are, though it’s only mid-September, the shops are fully stocked for Halloween. Soon enough they’re going to have to make room on the shelves for Thanksgiving and the December holidays, and the best way to “make room” is to start putting items on sale.

At the same time you can probably still find some super clearance items from summer or back-to-school, which could also work for a gift closet. For example, recently I needed to return some of the back-to-school supplies I’d purchased for my oldest daughter. While in the store, I checked out the clearance rack. (I always do this.) There I found lovely boxes of notecards, some with toile designs on them, others with festival florals. Turns out they were 50 cents for a box of 10. I snapped up all four boxes, and with only $2 spent, now I’m set if I want to give a hostess gift of notecards, or if I want to use this stash for writing my own thank-you notes in the future.

Some of my other favorite items to keep in a gift closet include bags of whole-bean coffee, savory bottles of olive oil, picture frames, bottles of wine, and serving or decorative bowls. I make sure that I pay close to nothing for everything in my gift closet. In fact, it’s been a couple of weeks since I checked out the end caps (the shelves at the end of aisles, where stores stock sale items) of my favorite big-box stores. Think I’ll add that to my weekend’s to-do list.

What about you guys? Do you keep a gift closet? If so, how does it mimic or differ from mine?