Recycling Giftwrap and cards

Rather than toss all of that beautiful paper into a crumpled mess into the garbage....

Here's what I do........

While I watch my favorite TV show........I snip out the good parts of a sheet of gift wrap. Using scraps of paper,(my discards) that lie at my feet.....I cut strips to roll around a neatly rolled piece of good giftwrap and at the end of the "label"...I scribble out the approximate size of the piece of giftwrap that I'm saving for next year....eg....14 x16. Then I collect all of my "scraps" in a clear plastic bag so that I can easily see the sizes of my remnants for gift-wrapping smaller gifts...the following year. Only the taped and torn edges go into the garbage. The rest is reused.

I will go through my Christmas Greeting Cards and clip out reusable parts for gift tags or parcel toppings. Some cards can be rolled into 'tubes' for gift wrapping small items. Some cards....are so beautiful...that I just save them and use them in my decor for the following year. The remainder......if it is unwritten and not of a glossy finish...I cut up into note-size pieces for reminders at my computer or I use them in place of note-pads. Sounds tedious...but I do this when I'm watching my favorite TV show!

Willow, I always save pieces of wrapping paper that are good,
cutting off any torn and wrinkled parts.
I cut tags from some of the cards to use next year too.
It is another way we can recycle.

I don't have much to save. The wrapping paper is torn to shreds by the kids. LOL big and small. All part of the fun.

I toss my used wrap into the recyling bin with the other paper. I used a lot of gift bags this year too and only wrapped what would not fit into the bags.