When my sister moved into her new house, I gave her a nice decorative doormat for her front porch. It adds a nice touch to the house, but a lot of people don’t think to buy one for themselves.
I’m a single woman in my 30s who will most likely be in my mid-40s before I buy my first house, and I give another vote for a Home Depot gift card. Or even Sears: no matter how much stuff I move with, I always wind up wanting to buy something “special” for the new place … I imagine I’ll want that even more when it’s my first house! If she’s anything like me, she could always use new sheets, towels, etc.
Any woman worth her salt (and bread) who has lived on her own for more than a year already owns a toolbox. 
I’ve been a renter for 11 years, and one of the first things I asked for when I moved into my first apartment was a toolbox – a nice, sturdy, metal Craftsman toolbox, not one of those pink plastic thingies. With all of the basics, plus a simple cordless drill. I still love my toolbox!
These are great ideas, folks. The logical part of me agrees that a gift card to Home Depot or similar would be a excellent idea, though the emotional part of me thinks it’s not individual/personal enough so that’s something I need to work out.
While I’d really like to get her something decorative, I know that’s pretty much out since our tastes our different - for instance, she spent 5 years working in South Africa and has a lot of African artifacts she brought back with her. I’d have no idea how to choose something that would fit in with that. I could get her an outdoor greyhound statue, which would be her equivalent of the gnome idea :).
I like the bread and salt idea - maybe a nice gift basket with those items and a gift card tucked in there too!
Maybe buy an especially pretty basket, that could be used for decorating, or as a centerpiece on her dining table? There are some really pretty baskets out there, that can fit in with almost any theme, including African artifacts. Here are some woven African baskets FWIW.
How many stories is her home? I bet she doesn’t have a sturdy, full-sized ladder already. Or, you can offer your services for cleaning and/or the labor on replacing gutters.
Zabali, those baskets are lovely! Though a little pricey. I’ll have to look around and see if I can find something. Maybe a nice basket or tote with some nice locally made bread, fancy salt, some gourmet dog biscuits and a gift card might work …
Scrivener, her home is a single-story ranch. I could buy her a ladder, but there’s no way I’m getting up there (afraid of heights)!
I really like the idea of a nice gift-basket and the gift card for Home Depot. That’s a nice combination of something pretty and impractical plus something not very personal but very useful.
Yeah, I thought the baskets were rather expensive myself, but beautiful. I’ve seen very similar baskets for less in stores though, and now you know what African baskets look like. 
You can probably find baskets close enough to fit in with her decor, that are still of decent quality for less. There are some inexpensive, pretty ones at Pier One, but they aren’t as close proximations as I’ve seen in other places. (If you don’t mind shopping there, I just did an online search, I haven’t looked through that store’s stock in quite some time, because I don’t have the money for things like that right now.) I wish I could remember where I’ve seen baskets like the ones on the previous site I linked.
Well, I think this is what I’m going to do - I just called a gift basket company near where she lives and they said I could send them the specific stuff I want to use (except for the bread - they’ll go to a bakery nearby and get that fresh) and they’d put the basket together for me and deliver it. They’ll supply the basket as well - they have one that is dark brown and wheat colored, woven in a diamond pattern, which should work well. They’ll only charge me $30 for the basket and other supplies, the bread, and hand-delivery to her home the same day they put it together.
Wow. That was easier than I thought - and mostly thanks to y’all!