Storing Your Gift Wrapping Supplies

Is anyone out there up to their ears in Christmas gift bags and ribbons and tissue paper?!?!

Believe it or not, more than half of my clients need help in this area. These days, everyone has gift wrapping supplies for not only Christmas, but baby showers, birthdays, and everything in between.

I'm compiled a list of my favorite 6 ways to organize your gift wrapping supplies,

and will also reveal how I store my gift wrapping stuff!

Most homes have a "catch-all" closet. (Yes, even mine does too!) Whether that is in the foyer, a guest room, or bonus room, it's a great place to store gift wrapping supplies. I store mine in our guest room, and utilize space in both the closet & under the bed.

I have two of these under the guest bed - one with "everyday" wrapping supplies (mostly gift bags, ribbon, and tissue paper), and then the one shown below holds all of my Christmas gift bags, ribbon, boxes, and tissue paper. I think it's wise to separate Christmas wrapping supplies from the rest of your stash. (*That way, if you don't have room to store Christmas wrapping supplies in a guest room, they can easily go up the attic since you only use them once a  year. However, I would recommend keeping "everyday" wrapping supplies in a more accessible place like a guest room or catch-all closet.)

A similar organizer can be found here. Or, just a regular Sterilite underbed box will do!

 I also have two vertical tubs similar to this in my guest closet, and they exclusively store wrapping paper. One holds Christmas wrapping paper, and the other holds baby shower/birthday/miscellaneous wrapping paper. Again, I recommend separating Christmas wrapping paper from "everyday."

Now, here are 4 other great ideas to store your gift wrapping supplies:

1. A rolling cart with drawers: This is actually a picture from a recent client's house. Her "catch-all" closet was being overrun with gift bags. We pared them down and organized them by occasion. Her Christmas ones are in a separate cart, that hold ribbon and tissue paper as well.

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2. A hanging organizer: I recently stumbled upon these, when I was searching for solutions for a client that used a small coat closet in her foyer for craft supplies. What a space saver! There a ton of these organizers on Amazon, but this one is my favorite because it is double-sided.

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3. A DIY hanging organizer: Along those same lines, here is a way to inexpensively store wrapping paper. Just use a clear vinyl garment bag, and a heavy duty wooden hanger!!

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 4. A wall-mounted system: If you have room on a small wall or perhaps even on the inside of a spare closet, you can repurpose a mail organizer and a grocery bag keeper to corral your gift wrapping supplies!

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Happy Wrapping!! :)

How to Display Christmas Cards

It's that time of year again.....where I look forward to the mail being delivered everyday, to see all of my friends & family's beautiful Christmas cards!

There are SO many clever ways to display your cards, and I thought I'd offer a few ideas.

(Or rather, ideas from one of my favorite bloggers)....

Click here

Christmas Special!

Ladies, I have the perfect gift for you....

This year, ask your husband for the gift of an organized home for Christmas!!!

Take advantage of my Christmas special, where you receive 5 hours of organizing for $200! I can easily transform one large space, or even two smaller ones, in just 5 hours.

Use the 5 hour package for whatever you'd like.....whether it's making room for all the new Christmas toys, or even taking down & organizing your Christmas decorations. I am happy to help in any way I can!

**If you're interested in this offer, please note that it must be purchased by December 17th.

BUT, you have until January 31st to redeem it**

January is my busiest month of the year, so purchase your package now! Comment below or email me at organizingplus.123@gmail.com to take advantage of this Christmas special.

Won't it feel nice to start off 2017 with an organized home?!

Giving "Non-Toy" Gifts

I blogged about this last December, and I think I will continue to do it every December going forward. That's how important I think it is!

Kids these days have too.much.stuff.

 

Yep, I said it. And believe it or not, I'm as guilty as the next parent. I can't even tell you how many times I've said to my husband, "We have a playroom full of stuff that never gets played with!" Now, our family has scaled back quite a bit in recent years, but still, it's an ongoing process.

 

The kids & I evaluate their toys twice a year. (And sometimes, I do some small purging when they are at school!) We go through their toys / books / games before their birthdays, and before Christmas.

 

I tell them it's to

1) make room for new toys and

2) to give toys to those that don't have very many

 

Usually, it's a surprisingly painless task.

 

But herein lies the problem. Even if you have scaled back the amount of toys you buy your kids, there's always grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. that want to spoil them with lots of "stuff!"

 

So here's a few ideas for Christmas this year, for some non-toy gifts for toddlers.

Be sure to check out this blogger's non-toy ideas for Children, Teens, Teachers etc.

So this Christmas, consider asking family members to buy things like gymnastics classes, museum memberships, basketball tickets, zoo memberships, or ice-skating tickets (instead of a Barbie doll or another Lego set). If the gift is an experience that they can do with the child, it will make it even more memorable.

Storing Holiday Decor

Let's hear a round of applause.....I finally put away our Christmas decorations today!!

 

We have been out of town for almost 2 weeks, and today was the first chance I've had to get our house back in order. And since both of my kids have felt a bit under the weather today, it was the perfect excuse to let them have a movie marathon.

(Yes, not only am I organizer extraordinaire, I am mother-of-the-year too! :)

 

I decided to try a different tactic today, and stored every decoration for a single room in one tub. (Ex. all the decorations that were in the dining room, went in a tub labeled "dining room.") Now, I know that's not rocket science, but for some reason, I've never done that. In past years, I just put things away in tubs where they fit best, according to size. And then I took inventory of each tub and wrote it on the outside.

 

So, although it took a little extra time today, I must say...I love my new system!

 

Here's what I did:

1. Used MS Word to create a sheet that said "Christmas Decorations" with 10 lines underneath, and printed 14 copies (2 copies for each tub).

 

2. Took down decorations room-by-room and placed in one single tub if at all possible.

 

3. Wrote the contents of each tub on 2 copies of inventory sheets with a sharpie, and used packing tape to attach a copy to the front & side of the tub.

 

4. Repeated for each room with holiday décor!

 

 

How do you store your holiday décor?!

Non-Toy Gift Ideas for Kids

I was having a discussion the other day with a friend & fellow mom, about how we were both dreading Christmas.....due to the high probability that our kids would be receiving LOTS of new toys. (Ones they will barely play with after a few weeks, and ones that we do not have space for.)

 

I came across this on Pinterest and it perfectly sums up how I feel. There is nothing wrong with giving gifts, but perhaps making the gifts be experiences or classes, rather than toys!!

 

(We have started doing this with my youngest, who just turned five last month. Her Nanny & Poppy gave her the gift of monthly gymnastics classes.)

 

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**The weeks leading up to Christmas are also the perfect time to have your kids purge

some toys.....you can also use this opportunity to talk to them about giving to those less fortunate.

Win, win!**