Peace of Mind Organizing

The keys to orderly gift wrap

1 December 2016

I see a whole lot of gift wrap in my clients’ homes. Christmas wrap, in particular, seems to take on a life of its own in my clients’ basements near their holiday decorations.

Storing gift wrap seems to be a perennial challenge for people. Here are some ideas for making it easier:

• Make your gift wrap accessible. I often see that clients will just buy more wrap if it’s too hard to get to the wrap they already own. I encourage you to move your wrap to a spot where you can easily access it.

• Use up what you have. Place a moratorium on buying new wrap. If you find yourself tempted to buy new wrap because you don’t like what you have, donate the old wrap before buying new.

• Let go of the wrap you don’t love. If you have wrapping paper that’s been sitting in your basement season after season because you never use it, why not donate it, so that someone who loves it can make use of it.

• Streamline your selection. I love the idea of having one “signature” gift wrap that you use for all occasions. Perhaps it’s white paper or brown Kraft paper. You could buy a roll and, if you have room, keep it on a dispenser for easy use. (Such large rolls and dispensers are surprising affordable at Paper Mart.) Think of all the time you’d save deciding which paper to use and figuring out if you have enough for a particular package.

• Don’t buy the extra-long rolls. Those 40” long rolls might make it easier to wrap large gifts, but very few commercially available gift-wrap storage solutions will accommodate them. (Here’s one.) I urge my clients to let go of those extra-long rolls when they’re decluttering and to stop buying them.

• Give fewer wrappable gifts. If you give clutter-free gifts, you have less to wrap and therefore less need for gift wrap.

I love a beautifully wrapped gift as much as the next guy. But I try hard not to accumulate a large collection of wrap. With gift wrap (as in other items, like cosmetics), the more you have, the harder it is to use.

Photo by asenat29 via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Tagged with: gift wrap

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