HDYDI: Organize Wrapping Supplies

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

The season is {almost} officially upon us. I’ve been shopping for several months now and hope to call it d-o-n-e come Cyber Monday. I love me some shopping in my pajamas with a Dr Pepper in hand. As you begin the most wonderful time of the year, I thought I’d help out with a few tips on how I keep all those wrapping supplies under, well, wrap.

1. Figure out what kind of present wrapper you are. I wish I had a handy quiz, but it basically goes something like this, are you:

>  a grab ‘n goer
>  a “let me just add this bow and that trinket” giver
>  slap it in a card and call it done shopper

Knowing who you are, and owning it, will help determine just how involved, or not, your wrapping station needs to be.

2. I’m a mix of the three, depending upon the reason for the gift, who had to pee before leaving for the birthday party and just how much sleep I got the night before. For Christmas, I have a little more warning, like 12 months. Therefore, I can spend more time on the wrapping. For birthdays and such, not as much. It’s a function of time and fairly limited quantities of sanity.

3. It probably comes as no surprise that I am a lover of the Container Store station. However, it’s taken 16 years of marriage and three houses to have room and access to something like this. You may be limited to a shelf or two in your linen closet, the back door of a closet or a spot under your bed. I’ve done all those and this, BY FAR, has been my most successful. I life life vertically. If I can’t see it, I might as well throw it in the trash. This works for me, something else may work for you. You can decide on the depth of the shelves, so it’s versatile for the supplies and needs you have. If you’re up for a bargain, their annual 30% off elfa sale begins on Christmas Eve. You know, in case you need to know.

4. Get your tools accessible and ready. I put mine at the very top, because I use them often, and utilized the shallow drawer. I started by just throwing the scissors and punches in there and they were all over the place. I repurposed the silverware drawer insert and it’s been great. Glue on the left, scissors in the middle, punches in the back and gift tags on the right. The tape stays in the front and my other punches are on the far right.

5. Put like things together. For me, my drawers are as follows:

>  scissors, punches and tape
>  ribbon
>  tissue paper and gift boxes
>  birthday/misc. wrapping
>  Christmas wrapping

For the birthday/misc. and Christmas wrapping, the bags are sorted by size, with the biggest ones on the bottom. I also have flat shirt boxes and some mailing envelopes on the very bottom. For ribbon, I have most of it in a drawer, but a few favorites hang on the outside of the station. And, wrapping paper sits perfectly on the right-hand side. I think that’s my favorite part of the whole thing!

6. Label! Label! Label! I think the best part about the station is that the kids know how to use it, as well. When it comes time to wrap a gift, they know right where to go to find everything and I only have to provide minimal assistance. Score one for independence, y’all. It’s also helpful for the hubby who detests wrapping presents. I take most of the pain away.

7. Sort and purge at least once a year. I typically do this right after Christmas and we have the onslaught of bags, paper and ribbon invade our home. I’ll admit to keeping ribbon and sacks and recycling it for another gift. Quite honestly, I think everybody should do that!

8. Speaking of recycling, when you receive a gift, decide if you want to use it again, repurpose it a different way or if it needs to hit the trash can. I’ve found some great containers for gift giving in some unlikely places.

9. Take advantage of the sales, especially right after Christmas to stock up for the following year. It is most definitely the best time to buy tape. It’s a rare day I have to go out and buy wrapping supplies. My mom and I usually take care of that the day after Christmas.

10. Bonus, bow tying. The December issue of Better Homes & Gardens has some fantabulous tutorials on tying a variety of bows. I’m slightly obsessed with bows on packages. For some great ideas on making those packages look pretty, you should give the BH&G Pinterest board a follow.

I hope this inspires you to take that extra time to make your gifts even more beautiful this year!

For more HDYDI posts, visit my How I Do It Page.