It’s snowing wrapping paper, or at least it’s about to be. Every Christmas, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the stuff. After present-opening, one of my favorite Christmas traditions as a child was rummaging through the bags, boxes, and bits of wrapping paper to decide what I would keep. Yes, I guess I’m a natural scavenger, although I prefer to call it upcycling.As an eco-minded and budget-minded person, I hate to see these items go to waste. It is in this spirit that I suggest that you too go through the bags and boxes and paper and decide what you want to keep.
If you are storing wrapping paper, be honest with yourself. Is this a piece of wrapping paper that you will actually use again? Is it really big enough to wrap a gift next year? Choose pieces of paper that are not scrunched and that have a lot of open wrapping paper terrain to choose from. Store your Christmas wrapping paper in rolls if possible. This keeps it nice and smooth and ready for next year. Folding it causes creases, and the creases may not fit next year’s gifts.
Store bags flat. If you can, tuck some matching tissue paper inside. If you’re going to reuse bags, make sure that they were not used to hold food. Bags that hold food should be discarded, since you don’t want to invite animals into your wrapping paper and bag stash. A seasoned bag regifter tip: keep those tags on! That way you don’t send the same bag back to the same recipient next year. If you’re very crafty, you can make beautiful bags from fabric. We’ve sent reusable bags and boxes back and forth from the same families for years!
Boxes are one of my favorite things to keep. We make a lot of cookies every year, and metal or decorative chocolate boxes make excellent containers for cookies. They’re also good for small gifts. I recently gave a friend a piece of vintage fabric nestled into a snowflake chocolate box.
Make sure that you keep Christmas cards and pieces of especially nice wrapping. These make lovely gift tags next year. Bows and ribbons can always be reused as well, and they’re ideal children’s craft projects throughout the year.
Image Credit: Cannaw