December is flying by, and I can’t believe that within two weeks I have to wrap way too many presents. So today’s post is another short article about a simple thing we can do this season to help set us up for future events that require wrapped gifts. Today we’re going to talk about organizing our wrapping paper and ribbons, tags, and other ephemera.
By now, you’ve probably wrapped your gifts or are getting ready to do so. You may even be thinking about what wrapping supplies you have, what you need, and what you could toss because you’ll never use. So it’s time to get this all organized. Especially if you plan on purchasing more wrapping supplies when they are 50% off the day after Christmas!
Let’s inventory wrapping supplies:
Using the household legal pad (see Prep & Plan: Week 1), use one of the pages (it doesn’t matter if it’s in order since we can make washi tape tabs later) and as you wrap your gifts, write down how many rolls of paper you have left over. If you can, also write down how many rolls you used. While this might not be a great way to estimate future holiday wrapping needs, it will give you an idea–especially if you keep track year-to-year.
If you keep all of your year-round wrapping paper together with your holiday paper, take the time to inventory that as well. It won’t take long. As you do this, if you find any paper you hate or will never use, toss it or donate it. I know that my Goodwill center loves to collect unused wrapping paper, even if it’s open.
Once you know how many rolls you have (and have noted if any are of unusual widths that are hard to store–I’m looking at you Hallmark!), begin to sort through the bags, ribbons, note cards, etc. Because we get so many packages delivered during this season, I save some of the packing boxes for this job. I sort everything by type, tossing/donating things as I go. When you’re done, you may have a number of boxes filled with different types of wrapping items. That is good! Write it all down on your ledger, and then visually inspect what you’re keeping. This will help you with the next two assignments.
Let’s Organize wrapping supplies:
Now that you can review what you have, make a list of what you need for future events, even next holiday season. (Tape? Tissue paper? Etc.) That way you can hit the stores in late December and fill your holes with sale items.
Then decide how you want to store everything. Luckily for us, January is “storage supply sale” month. Storage supplies are never cheaper than they are in January, although April comes close due to spring cleaning. Anyway, once you decide if you want to use plastic storage bins, or canvas carriers, or any of the other million options online, you can start looking forward to those January sales. Yes, in the meantime it’s kind of a pain to have everything stacked in packing boxes and shoved under the bed or in the closet. But if you can deal with the temporary clutter, it will make it easier to store everything neatly when you can buy what you need. I know that taking time out to do this chore may be the last thing you need to do right now. But I promise that the extra 15-30 minutes it takes to organize and sort will be worth it in January when we start our pre-spring cleaning plan!
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