{Home Organization} Gift Wrapping Closet

One of my favorite organization blogs, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, is co-hosting an awesome month long challenge, New Year's Organizing Revolution.

Week three is all about closets and I couldn't be more excited! Life didn't give me time to participate in the first two weeks but I made sure to plan ahead this week. There are so many closets I want to work on this year but since we recently just packed up Christmas, my wrapping closet was in desperate need of a touch up. Best part about this project, it was FREE. I didn't end up spending a penny!

I want to first start off by saying that I am SO grateful that I have space to store a decent supply of wrapping and gift materials. I am a little bit of a collector, going all the way back to my high school part-time days at Toys R Us, and can never resist a good deal. I have kept my stash with me through eight moves, including a cross country move to and from CA. It has grown quite a bit in the last few years as I am also one to refold tissue paper and keep every bag. I now have a generous supply of wedding shower, wedding and baby bags! If I didn't have the space to store everything, I wouldn't be able to keep my stash but since I do, it's a great environmentally friendly and cost effective hobby.

My first project was inspired by another one of my favorite blogs, iHeart Organizing. Jen recently blogged about organizing her greeting cards. It was perfect timing and really inspired me to go the extra mile. I had been keeping this adorable Tiffany's box from a gift for our wedding. It was too pretty, large and sturdy to just throw away. I decided this would be the perfect box to use. I cut colored scrapbook paper to fit inside as dividers. I also decided instead of just writing out the categories, I would put some of my stamps to use! I ended up making sections for baby, xoxo (aka cards for Rob), congratulations, thank you, wedding, get well soon/thinking of you and holidays. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out.

I have always loved organizing but have now branched out into what I like to call, pretty organizing. Using things I already have to store and organize. I have a collection (surprise, surprise) of baskets that I pick up at thrift stores for MaryKay gift baskets. I decided to use one to store my bows. I always forget that I have them because they were usually stored in a drawer. In keeping with my low budget, I also decided to re-purpose a salsa and pretzel container. Now they display some of my wrapping ribbon and my Scotch Tape Handband Dispensers.

Ah tissue paper... This drawer was in DESPERATE need of some attention. After going through and sorting everything, I can report that my collection still had ripped pieces from Modge Podge projects I did in my college painting classes. Yeah, it was time to weed out some of the old and faded sheets. I cut down huge poster board sheets to make large folders that fit inside the drawer and then divided the tissue paper by color leaving separate categories for patterns, multicolored and holidays.

I am such a collector of bags and boxes it's sometimes scary! I already had them organized by theme with short and wide bags in front of the taller skinny ones. I wanted to spruce it up a little and make it easier for the hubs to find what he was looking for, if by some odd chance he were to ever go looking. The dividers I used were actually the backings for a cube set we bought at Target. I kept them knowing they would be perfect for a project someday. Guess I was right!

I organized gift boxes by theme and size in a Bed Bath & Beyond reusable shopping bag (top right). It's the perfect size and durable. Plus, it has such a nice pattern! The larger bags (bottom right) are organized the same as the smaller ones. They are just stored in a large Hallmark bag which is nothing fancy but does the job and fit perfectly in the space I had.

I also pulled out of storage a crate (right hand side) to organize some of the gifts I have collected over the years to use when I am in a pinch. It has saved but butt several times.

I had been keeping my wrapping paper in this box for years. It was the perfect shape and size. While it always sits in the closet, I thought it would be fun to spruce it up a little! I decided to wrap, my wrapping paper box. Get it? Yeah, I know NERD ALERT! It makes me smile every time I look at it. :)

Even though we have a Google calendar I am always forgetting special dates. I will remember a day or two before but then life gets in the way and I end of having a, "oh nuts" moment. I found this bulletin board at Hobby Lobby awhile ago and up until now, it's just been staring blankly on the door screaming, "USE ME!" So, I decided to start using it to record special dates for cards and gifts.

I love collecting tin boxes after the holidays when they are 75%+ off. They are great to use when mailing gifts or when you just don't have time to wrap a gift. I have quite a collection including several gift card tins that I am just itching to use.

One drawer holds larger ribbon, wrapping tap, gift box accents, balloons, confetti and cello treat bags.

These are my favorite holiday gift box accents at the moment! I got them after Christmas last year at Target.

I decided to keep all of the Christmas cards, labels and paper in one drawer. That super secret envelope contains the special paper that Santa Claus writes on to P. You can read a little more about that here. We make our own Christmas cards every year so I have ended up with quite a stash of generic Christmas cards for a snowy day.

Of course my little P man was playing in his bouncer cheering me on the whole time! Well, until he got hungry and we had to take a break. <3

That's a wrap for this project. Thanks for tagging along as I organize our home, one project at a time! Did ya get it? ;)

Tweet

Pin It