Health & Fitness
11 Ideas for Earth-Friendly Wrapping Paper
Small steps can collectively make a huge difference, so in the spirit of the unavoidable gift giving this holiday season, I offer you these tips to keep holiday wrapping eco-friendly.
Small steps can collectively make a huge difference, so in the spirit of the unavoidable gift giving this holiday season, I offer you these tips to keep holiday wrapping eco-friendly. By implementing one or a few of these ideas, you can reduce your single-use waste, increase your originality and hopefully inspire more thoughtful holiday cheer in years to come.
- Wrap it in a Reusable Bag: You can also buy new ones just for gift giving, but remember to get ones made locally with organic materials and non-toxic inks. Then put a little thought into how to tie it, secure it with ribbon, or add some special touches to transform it from “just a bag” into a beautiful presentation of your homemade gift.
- Collect Used Wrapping: Have a box in your closet in which you store used ribbon, tissue paper, gift bags and wrapping paper. If you reuse, you won't have to buy it again. Money saver!
- Use Towels or Scarves: You can use any material item, really. It becomes two gifts in one.
- Decorate with Actual Plants: Connect with nature and utilize its beauty to accentuate your wrapping. I can’t imagine a more beautiful finishing touch than a fresh flower or specially arranged tree branches and leaves.
- Leftover Newspapers, Magazines and Junk Mail: I know we all get attached by at least one of these paper items. I know it may sound cheap to wrap gifts with these items, but do yourself a favor and conduct a quick Google search for wrapping with these items. They can be quite striking.
- Clay pots or bowls: Another gift in a gift. You could probably reuse some classics from around your own home, or buy something new to perfectly capture the essence of your gift and the intended recipient.
- Glass Jars: These can make fun gift carriers because they can easily be decorated.
- Old clothing: Go through that growing pile of clothes for Goodwill and find some special items that can be turned into cloth wrapping with just a few cuts and snips. Try sweater arms to wrap wine bottles, and the body to wrap just about anything.
- Homemade Gift Tags: You can use the backs of old greeting cards, recycled card stock and creative pictures cut out from old magazines.
- Last Year’s Greeting Cards: You can make the artwork from last year’s greeting cards into this year’s gift tags or holiday decorations on your wrapping.
- Your Old Calendar: Twelve beautiful pictures that clearly make you happy. Why wouldn’t you want to share that with your friends and family by reusing it as unique wrapping paper.
- Kid’s Artwork: Talk about special. Keep your favorite few pieces from the year for your files, but reuse all of that other adorable artwork for one-of-a-kind paper to present gifts to your loved ones.
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