Organizational Tips: gift bags and wrapping paper
Even if you’re not a tree hugging hippie, you should still have the decency to recycle. This includes the reuse of gift bags. But where to put them all, you ask? In clear plastic storage bins, of course!
(By the way, I also keep and reuse tissue paper that hasn’t been ripped.) Not only is reusing gift bags good for the environment, but it’ll also save you money. Depending on how fancy pants the bag is, it could easily tack on $5 to your overall gift price. Not that your family members and friends aren’t, uh, worth the extra $5. But you know what I’m saying. It adds up.
The importance of keeping all this stuff together in one nice, neat spot is that otherwise, you’ll have to search your house looking for a bag when you need one, inevitably give up, drive to Target, and waste $5. Girl, you know it’s true! Ooo ooo ooo, I love you. {name that band}
I’m personally not a big fan of wrapping paper because it can’t be reused. I’ve had the rolls in this storage bin…
…since I bought them on clearance December 26, 2004. Yes, they’ve lasted that long. Crazy, I know, especially considering how many kids I have. Clearly, I don’t use much wrapping paper.
p.s. – You can go ahead and make fun of that label for the wrapping paper. I deserve it. I could explain that this particular box used to be under my bed, which was dark, and the label helped at that time. However, that’s a really lame excuse. I deserve to be ridiculed.
I love reading your organizational tips. I consider myself an organized-but-messy person. I can have a lot of clutter laying around b/c I’m just plain lazy and I don’t pick up the house every single day. BUT, underneath that clutter, I am fairly organized. It’s fun to read/see how others do it. I especially like how you’ve tackled the ‘childhood memorabilia’ challenge. I hadn’t yet figured that one out, and will probably adopt your solution.
Anyway, just thought I’d chime in here and say I kinda don’t like the whole gift bag thing. I do save them because I can’t stand not to recycle, but I don’t like to use/receive them AT ALL. And I actually sold a ton of my ‘used’ gift bags at our last garage sale to get rid of them!
The biggest reasons I don’t like gift bags is because:
- they are a huge waste of money. Even if they are reused, someone had to buy the bag at some point. With gift wrap, you can buy a big ol’ tube of paper for the cost of one bag (or less). And, if you are concerned for mother earth, you can recycle the gift wrap.
- I think gift bags are the easy way out of wrapping a gift. It makes the process of opening go by too quickly (especially for kids). I like how there is suspense opening a gift the old fashioned way — a box wrapped in paper with ribbon tied around it.
Anyway, that was much more info than you care to know but I just had to chime in.
Gift wrap can be your friend. And I have a good way to store it that I’ll have to photo one day.
It’s so funny that we have that same wrapping paper!
Actually, Lucia, I kind of feel the same way about gift bags. I don’t actually buy them. We just have so many, that’s what I always use.