Are you Ready to Wrap??

These are my special Christmas gift wrapping scissors. They always make me smile. I was thinking this morning about some of the things I have learned over the years about gift wrapping and started making this list.

1. Obviously, you want to buy all your supplies at after Christmas sales. I store bags and boxes flat in a plastic storage container and wrapping paper in a tall kitchen trash can in the back of my closet. Tissue paper is kept in a gift bag stored in the container. Tape, scissors, name tags, and pens are all in a shoe box in the storage container.

2. My Mom taught me years ago that the ironing board makes a great place to wrap gifts. It's a good flat surface and the height is easy on your back.

3. I've tried several methods for saving pretty gift boxes. First of all, I never tape them shut. That just ruins a perfectly good box. I tried putting the tags on the bottom one year to save the pretty tops, but it was hard to sort gifts when you had to turn them all over to see who they went to. When I got them out the next year, I had the same problem of old tags that couldn't be pulled off without tearing the box (even if it was on the bottom it looked tacky). Then I had a great idea. The first year I use a box, I use the smallest gift tag I can. Every year, I reuse the box by putting a larger tag over the smaller one. After the third tag, it's usually time to trash the box anyway, but tags do come in all shapes and sizes.

4. I love gift bags. For one thing, I sometimes have to peek to remember what gift is in which package, and bags stuffed with tissue make this sooooo easy. But, I had the same problem as with tags on boxes. When you try to remove one, it often ruins the bag. The first time I use a bag, I use the tag that's attached to the handle. If its a folded tag, you can write on one half the first year, then cut that off and write on the other half the second year. On some bags I used the smaller to larger tags method for a while. Finally, I realized I could put the name tag on the tissue sticking out of the bag and the bag itself remains like new.

5. Be creative with your tags. Years ago my family started giving gifts to each other with tags that said it was from a movie star or someone famous. Kurt Russell gets me something every year. I know that's why Goldie won't marry him. He always leaves it with my sister. Just once I wish he would deliver it in person!!

6. As pretty as bows are, I've stopped using them. I like to stack boxes and you just can't do it with bows on them because it messes up the bow. But for packages that I'm taking to someone else, I sometimes attach a bow just before I deliver it. The bow is fresh, and my packages can still be stacked in my bedroom until I need them.

7. I've already talked about my spreadsheet gift list in an earlier post this year, but I'm mentioning it here to add one thing I didn't mention before. I write ideas for gifts on my spreadsheet. This really helps when I see something on TV but I can't actually go shopping right then. If I don't write it down, I forget about it. Some are eventually bought and some are not. When something is bought, I use a highlighter so I can tell with a glance who I still need to shop for.

Can you tell I spent years working in a law office??? I think I enjoy organizing my gift stuff almost as much as I enjoy buying and wrapping the gifts. Anybody have some tips they want to share? I always appreciate a great new idea.