How many gift bags and rolls of wrapping paper do you need?

(Branding or no, most people call all tape "Scotch".)

I know, I know. The Container Store and the Dollar Store and all the stores in between have those handy dandy contraptions to organize gift bags and gift boxes, tissue paper and ribbons, wrapping paper and bows — do people even use bows anymore? And if so, here’s hoping they don't just slap them down in the middle of a gift, which is how we kids used bows growing up-- squished down all by their lonesome looking sad and out of place in the middle of a scotch-taped to hell and back present. Here. Happy Birthday or whatever.

But, just because you can keep stuff organized does not mean you need to keep stuff. Boy, that’s good. Write that down.

1. Gather up all your gift wrap supplies. If your Christmas (or any December holiday) wrapping supplies are packed away with your Christmas (or any December holiday) stuff, as mine are, skip those. We’ll do holiday in January.
 
2. Sort items like with like: gift bags in one pile, bows in another and so on, not that I think I have to explain “like with like” but, well, you never know. 

3. Pull out anything you know you won’t ever use, like that 3-inch bit of ribbon, the torn wrapping paper, the butt-ugly gift bag you got God knows where and kept God knows why. If it’s truly just crap that no one would use, get rid of it. If there’s a chance the item can be used by someone else, start a donate pile.

4. Think through your gift wrapping process. The easiest method is to use gift bags. These - and the tissue paper the gift is wrapped in - can be reused by the recipient, often for a dozen or so gifts. Simplify further by sticking to colored or patterned bags rather than “happy birthday” or whatever bags because giving a graduation gift in a plain blue bag is perfectly fine, but the same gift in a “congratulations on the new baby” gift bag might draw some sneers or raise some brows, even if you cross out the “new baby” and write in “graduation”. 

5. Look at what’s left and ruthlessly pare down. Yes, you need tissue paper to wrap gifts in gift bags (why do we essentially wrap the gift twice?) but you don’t need a five-foot stack of it. If you always use gift bags, which is just plain smart, then move the wrapping paper to the donate pile. And if you use gift bags, why keep the bows? No sense going overboard here. How many gift bags to keep? Start with one bag for every gift you think you'll need over the next year. 

6. Pack up the donations and take them to a charity shop. There’s one in Cincinnati (Main Street OTR) that takes donated art and craft supplies.

7. Make a home for your gift wrapping supplies, preferably right where you wrap gifts. 

P.S. If gift wrapping is high art to you - as it was for me once upon a time long ago - then have at your hundreds of wrapping materials and supplies. Don’t let me or anyone else take away your joy. But take the time to set up a wrapping center and come up with a system to keep your materials handy. That’s what The Container Store is for, after all.

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