Saving Gift Bags and Tissue Paper: a quick way to go green and save money

I had a baby shower thrown for me last weekend and was overwhelmed by the awesome gifts and creative wrapping. Living frugally, I couldn't stand to throw out all of that tissue paper and those bags that were pretty much brand new. So, I sat down during a break from making pizza's to freeze for the upcoming week and smoothed out the volumes of tissue paper, sorted them into coordinating color packets and folded them carefully. Then I removed any tags from the gift bags and figured out how to fold them correctly (a talent that had eluded me for my entire life). Once I got the hang of folding the gift bags, it went really quickly. I even went so far as to cut the taped edges off of the wrapping paper (making a slightly smalled square of paper) and folding them up.

I then gathered all the paper and bags that were appropriate for a certain occasion only (like blue pastel "Baby Boy" paper), and bundled them with ribbon, Then I gathered the "Appropriate Anytime" bags and paper and bundled those with ribbon. I placed both in a giant blue felt amazon bag in the craft room (Those bags that they use to gift wrap large packages.) This does more than just save me money, it creates a stock room of wrapping supplies that I can use when needed, which ultimately saves me a last minute trip to Walmart. I'm a big fan of reducing the amount of errands I need to run. My limit is one errand a week (not counting my once a week shopping trip on my day off). Anything that I can do to skip that errand puts me in a better position to keep to my routines, relax, and have fun!

It took me less than ten minutes to sort through all the bags, We thew out less than a quart plastic baggie of wrapping material, and the wrapping paper stock pile is pretty impressive. Plus, I made book marker thank you cards, and I was able to re-use the silk ribbon right away on the thank you cards.

Give it a shot next time!