Organizing Gift Wrapping Supplies

I was so disorganized that it drove everyone crazy when it came time to wrap gifts. I had to hunt all over the house for the wrapping paper, the scissors, the tape, and the bows. Sometimes I would even go so far as buying new supplies to save me the time of looking for the old ones. I was frustrated and tired of spending all that money on gift-wrapping materials only to find them weeks later. I decided to take action.

I took some closet space and turned the area into a small gift-wrapping station. To begin with, I began to gather all the gift-wrapping supplies that seemed to be located all over the house and placed them in one spot. Then, needing something to store all these items in, I collected a bunch of old plastic shoe storage boxes that were lying about the house. Then the fun began.

Taking all the bows that I had bought, lost, and found again, I placed them into the plastic storage boxes. I organized the bows so that all the bows of the same color were in individual storage boxes, along with ribbons of the same color. My next step was to place all the tape and scissors together into a plastic box. I found that I had several scissors that had been used for cutting as well as a dozen rolls of tape. Remembering to label each box as to what it held made it so much easier to find the right box without having to open and look through each one.

I next sorted my gift-wrapping bags by size and then by color, making it easier to find the perfect bag to use at a later date. I also separated the Christmas gift bags from the rest of the bags and again sorting them by size. Now that all my bags were sorted I placed all of the gift bags onto hangers, big ones on one hanger and little ones on another hanger. Christmas bags were placed onto their own hanger.

I wasn't quite sure what to do about all the tissue paper I had, so I used the same method as I did for the bags. I placed all the white tissue paper onto one hanger and each color of tissue paper on other hangers.

I found a box that was long enough to hold all the rolls of wrapping paper. An umbrella stand or even a tall kitchen garbage can is great for holding the rolls. I keep the wrapping paper to about six to seven rolls of paper. What I generally try to keep on hand is a couple rolls of Christmas paper, a roll for juvenile birthday, a roll for birthday wrapping and then a couple of plain wrapping paper that can be used for other types of gifts.

If money is not a problem in your budget, then a fast solution is to buy containers that are made for an instant gift-wrapping center. These containers can be found online or at some of your favorite discount stores.

The gift wrapping mess that I used to have is now gone. I find that I now save time and money by having all of my gift-wrapping supplies located in one place.