A Bowl full of Lemons Challenge 4: Gift Wrapping Station!

This week's challenge at A Bowl of Lemons was to create or organize your existing "Gift Wrap Station". Early in the week, this blogger posted her Gift Wrap Station and I was smitten. I posted the link to it on my husband's facebook wall and asked a group of girlfriends to keep an eye out for something like that. I also visited a few local second hand shops and our Habitat for Humanty Restore this week, but found nothing that would work. But as the week went on, I thought about it more and evaluated what gift wrap and accessories I actually have, I realized that at the moment I really don't need something that big. Want? Definitely. Need? no.

Because when it comes to gift wrapping, for birthdays I stick to gift bags. I keep and reuse them and have, I bet, close to 100 in my basement storage room. These gift bags that I already have are more economical for me than buying many different rolls of wrapping paper, specific to whether the recipient is male or female, their age and the occasion.

They are organized into "Female Birthday", "Male Birthday", "Kids birthdays - male and female" "Unisex Birthday" "All Purpose Gift Bags", "Baby Gifts", "Valentine's Day" and "Easter".

The vast majority of these bags have come courtesy of my grandmother.

As for cards and tissue, I mostly just buy it as I need it and for the most part, the kids make the cards...because really...very few people keep the cards forever, and if they do, then a handmade one is more special anyway. In my opinion.

The only time I really go all out when it comes to wrapping gifts is at Christmas Time. So today I did go through all of that stuff and somewhat organize it. I put the bows, ribbon, scissors, tape, pen, tags, etc into this little box. Come Christmas time I will have more ribbon, bows and tape, but for now what I do have fits neatly into this box. I also wrote down in the "Holiday" area of my Home Management Binder that I am in need of Christmas Gift Tags as I only have a few left. Feeling more organized already.

I have one of those long rubbermaid bins that fits under a bed to store my wrapping paper. Even though after this past Christmas I went on a bit of a rant about what a waste wrapping paper is, I still have it.

The Christmas themed Gift Boxes and Gift Bags also fit in this storage bin and it is organized enough for my needs come next Holiday Season.

I always seem to do most of my Christmas wrapping in my basement, so I slid these two boxes underneath the futon down there, out of sight until I need them again.

So I really wouldn't call it a "Gift Wrapping Station", but what I have is organized enough for what I need. We are discussing a major overhaul to our back room (Craft Room) and once we get into that I do plan to have all of this kind of stuff together and easily accessible in one space. But I am talking new flooring, shelving and an art wall to be built, all of which I am very excited about...but that is not going to happen in one week...certainly not this week!