Several years ago I vowed to stop buying wrapping paper. I didn’t say I’d never use it or reuse it, just that I wouldn’t buy any more.
- Very little wrapping paper is recyclable.
- Commercial gift wrap can’t burn in a fireplace, either; it releases too many chemicals.
- Most wrapping paper will wrap one gift and then end up in the garbage.
- Gift wrap costs add up. The shiny patterned paper is expensive.
Amigo doesn’t like the philosophy. In fact, he’ll only help me wrap if we’re using real gift wrap. I compromised by using gift wrap I’d rescued from the wastebasket when the school PTA cleaned their closet. We wrapped with rescued and reused papers, and the gifts look great.
He doesn’t object to my green version of gift tags. Every year we take stock of the previous year’s holiday cards, cut them apart creatively, and with the help of a little ribbon and a hole punch, turn those cards into unique and lovely gift tags that cost nothing but a little time. We’ve done this since before he was born; maybe that’s why it feels natural to him.
We’re a little behind on the wrapping process this year. My limited mobility meant less shopping in town and more shopping online, and then facing the challenge of gathering all the trimmings and trappings in one place without overdoing the stairs. Luckily, Mother Nature provided me with a blizzard that cancelled school and gave me some quality time with Amigo to attack the wrapping task.
Thanks to my spreadsheet gift record and my online shopping prowess, the majority of the shopping is done. We need a few little things, and I might enlist Amigo in a short shopping trip Saturday to finish up. It’ll be a surgical strike, with a list we’ve made and checked twice, and we’ll come home and finish wrapping.
Maybe I can sneak some of my eco-friendly and frugal methods past my wrapping assistant that time. Or maybe not; after all, he reads my blog.
If it helps, we found some recyclable gift wrap at Target made by American Greetings. But I find we use it sparingly and I didn’t buy a single gift wrap supply this year!
I reuse pretty gift bags. No wrapping from me. I am just two lazy to wrap.
But I did put a pretty bow on Debs new snowblower. I bought her a little one to match my big one.
We also try to use very little wrapping paper. I make fabric gift bags, and we re-use them each year. We also recycle gift wrap whenever we can. The stuff we use is mostly for our 12 year old daughter –there is a certain fun in tearing (gently) into gift wrap that I know she enjoys, so some of her gifts are wrapped in paper.
I’ve done the same thing w/gift tags for several years now. I think they look so unique and pretty! I tend to be a gift-bag collector and reuse them until they’re falling apart, I use as little gift wrap as I possibly can and I buy the kind made of recycled paper. Mr. EM and I are “that couple” that takes the giant trash bag full of wrappings home with us and sorts through it and recycles it every year.
It turns out that nobody gave me gifts with recycled paper. I am on the naughty list.
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