{"id":24938,"date":"2026-02-18T12:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=24938"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:58:00","slug":"go-big-or-go-home-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/go-big-or-go-home-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Go big or go home alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 18, 2026 | Belen Ponce Leal | Lifestyle Editor<\/span>Those in relationships are often trying to find ways to make their partners feel appreciated. Ranging from pricey gifts to dates to even traveling together, everyone tries to find a way to make their significant other feel special. However, due to everything constantly changing and getting more expensive, I thought it would be a good idea to list some romantic gestures that any partner would enjoy receiving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cleaning\/Organizing <\/b>\u2014 Something I think is highly appreciated in a relationship, especially when the couple lives together, is keeping the home a bit more organized. Tidying up the living space is nice and makes one less thing for a partner to worry about. If wanting to be more specific, try to do something that has been actively avoided for a while. Maybe there\u2019s a junk drawer that needs to be cleaned out. The closet might need to be reorganized, or the car could use some vacuuming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meaningful <\/b>\u2014 If wanting to up the romance and exercise the brain a bit more, writing something meaningful for a partner is always a good idea. Whether it be a poem, a love letter or a small note, something handwritten can mean much more than a cheap card bought at the store. If more of a visual kind of person, creating a painting or a sketch for a partner would be incredibly sweet. A kind gesture to do for someone would be to create a photo album for them. Go down memory lane and fill it with photos, tickets to concerts, movie posters, handwritten notes or anything that has meaning. Similarly, a person can create a memory box and fill it with all the same items.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Audio-related <\/b>\u2014 If both are music lovers, making a custom playlist for each other would be a thoughtful gift, especially if it\u2019s songs that remind the person of their partner. It can also be a bunch of songs that they would like to play in the car. If wanting to be more playful, recording voice memos for a significant other can be both more meaningful and potentially funny, whether it be telling them how much they mean to the other or saying that they saw a weirdly shaped tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Activities <\/b>\u2014<\/span> There are several things couples can do. Cooking dinner together or as a surprise for a partner when they come home from work is always fun and appreciated. Something my husband and I love doing together are couple\u2019s quizzes. They are popular on Instagram and TikTok, but don\u2019t necessarily have to be couple-related. There are some quizzes that can be done on YouTube about various subjects, whether it be Disney movies or who knows the most Bad Bunny songs. There are also many two-player games that couples like to play. Some that come to mind are It Takes Two, Overcooked!, A Way Out and Split Fiction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Expensive gifts don\u2019t need to be the only way to show affection. It doesn\u2019t always have to be about the hundred-dollar clothes or the sparkliest jewelry. I would be happy with a swept-up floor or a vacuumed room. So when my husband recently gave me a handwritten note expressing how proud he is of what I have accomplished, it has been all I have been thinking about lately. Not the expensive shoes that he bought me, not the hoodie collection that\u2019s slowly growing in my closet and not even the insane amount of plushies in the apartment. A simple note on my desk made me happy. So \u2014 make a significant other happy, too. Or go home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at <\/span>howllifestyle@wou.edu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb. 18, 2026 | Belen Ponce Leal | Lifestyle EditorThose in relationships are often trying to find ways to make their partners feel appreciated. Ranging from pricey gifts to dates to even traveling together, everyone tries to find a way to make their significant other feel special. However, due to everything constantly changing and getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Go big or go home alone","_seopress_titles_desc":"Romantic gestures to do for a partner","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[258,1753,6091,9538,1680,55,1547,9560,704,9549,667,4664,9552,6045,8918,472,474,9554,4491,3018,546,405,9521,8723,9546,9524,9561,9553,3933,417,9537,9514,668,7738,9547,9559,9544,9557,9525,9542,8629,8873,288,154,1754,9562,1955,9543,5385,9550,9551,9556,9558,54,9497,9548,6836,923,9539,2742,3905,2752,1038,167,4352,9545,6038,9541,9555,2169,1584,9093,9536,665,1391,3023,9540,4571,880,1254,567,7183,684,3887,3927,3381,66,39],"class_list":["post-24938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-activities","tag-advice","tag-album","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-art","tag-artwork","tag-avoided","tag-baking","tag-box","tag-boyfriend","tag-brain","tag-car","tag-card","tag-clean","tag-cleaning","tag-closet","tag-co-op","tag-concert","tag-cook","tag-cooking","tag-couples","tag-couples-quiz","tag-custom","tag-cute","tag-date","tag-drawer","tag-drives","tag-expensive","tag-gaming","tag-gesture","tag-gestures","tag-girlfriend","tag-give","tag-gorgeous","tag-handwritten","tag-heartfelt","tag-home-cooking","tag-husband","tag-inexpensive","tag-items","tag-kind","tag-letter","tag-lifestyle","tag-love","tag-material","tag-meaning","tag-meaningful","tag-memory","tag-memory-box","tag-memory-lane","tag-memos","tag-movie-tickets","tag-music","tag-note","tag-notes","tag-oregon-2","tag-organization","tag-organized","tag-painting","tag-partner","tag-photo","tag-picture","tag-playlist","tag-poem","tag-pretty","tag-quiz","tag-receive","tag-recording","tag-relationship","tag-romance","tag-romantic","tag-significant","tag-significant-other","tag-song","tag-sweet","tag-take","tag-tickets","tag-travel","tag-university","tag-video-game","tag-visual","tag-western","tag-wife","tag-wolf","tag-wolfie","tag-wolves","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24938"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24947,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24938\/revisions\/24947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}