This may come as a surprise to many people, but there are now many items for the home or things to give as a gift that you can have personalised.

Suppose you want to send your boyfriend a bottle of Calvin Klein Eternity For Men? Yes, that would be a lovely gift and one that he will adore, but how about if you could have a message engraved on the bottle? Something like "Happy Birthday. Lots of love. Joanne"? Just imagine what a difference that would make to your birthday present.

And the fact is that you can now make that a reality because there are companies out there who will engrave the bottle for you with whatever you want to say and include it in the price. Obviously, there is a limit to how many letters you can get on the bottle, but it makes that present so much more special because now it is not just a present, but a unique gift.

That is just one example of what can be done. We all want our homes to look unique, which is why so many people take great trouble to care for their front gardens (even if the back garden is a bit of tip!) so why not go that extra mile and add a personalised modern door and house number sign, or a name? Even if your home doesn't have a name at present, that doesn't stop you giving it one and personalising your home and making it stand out from the rest.

Instead of just being Number 22, you could become Smith's Cottage (if your name is Smith), or The Flower Garden, or The Mansion House, or anything else you wish. The possibilities are endless, and they give you the opportunity to add that touch of your personality which makes you stand out from the crowd. These house signs come in a range of different colours and can be written in a number of different fonts.

You could also have signs made for your office in order to bring it up to date so that it looks to your staff and visitors that you are now very firmly in the 21st century, and ahead of the competition. In addition, you can also have a personalised mailbox that you can fix to the wall or to a post.

While we are talking about your office, what about a personalised clock? A clock can be made in a wide range of styles, classic or modern, in a choice of materials such as acrylic, mirror, glass, metal such as stainless steel or aluminium, and in a very wide choice of colours and finishes. You could have your company logo included, or perhaps the badge of your favourite football team, your dog's name, or if you are a professional horticulturist you might have created a new variety of a particular flower such as a new geranium and you could include a picture of it on the face of your clock. Why ever not? The world is your oyster (or as Del Boy used to say in Only Fools And Horses, The world is your lobster!).

Clocks can also have ordinary numbers on them in any colour you wish on any background, or you could have Roman numerals – which many people like – or just a series of twelve dots around the edge. You don't even have to have dots: if you are a tennis fan you could have twelve tennis players showing the time position. Do you begin to see that the possibilities for personalisation are almost limitless? No, they ARE limitless! The only limit is your imagination.

What about mouse mats? These can be produced in a range of colours in leather and include your company logo, company name, the name of a product, the name of a long-term project (think HS2), or anything else. The same thing applies to leather desk mats and leather coasters: if you own a pub you could have coasters branded with your pub name.

Yes, there are companies out there who can personalise all sorts of different objects for you and make your home, business, clock, birthday gift, or anything else stand out from the crowd.