Monday, March 12, 2012

I am organized (and can wrap presents)!

Remember that disaster of a craft room I shared last week?

Specifically this one.
Well, I have made a bit of progress! Look:

Progress as promised.
The other angles still look very similar. The trash bag of trash has been replaced with a giant box of trash. But look how I cleared off that dresser! And I didn't just move it into a different part of the room, either. I did this:

Into one drawer, I put all my shipping-wrapping supplies (butcher paper, bubble wrap, and packing peanuts):

Shipping supplies.
Can you say packrat? Yeah, well, be proud that I limited myself to three gallon-sized Ziplocs filled with packing peanuts. It's better than keeping the actual shipping boxes filled with them, trust me.

Into another went all the gift-wrapping boxes and gift bags:

Handy.
Again, packratting. I think I've bought one thing of tissue paper and three bags...ever. I just save every single one I get and send them back out into the world filled with gifts...or use them to give stuff to the DDH and then steal them back from him to store. Whatever.

Aaaaaaand in the bottom drawer on the little dresser that's stacked on top of the dresser (I have an awkward surfeit of furniture) went all the tissue paper and the ribbons:

Ta-da!
I have a different quart-sized Ziploc bag for each color of tissue paper. Some colors are sorted more precisely (dark blues, light blues, turquoises) while others are all together (pink, colored patterns). White tissue paper has a gallon-sized bag instead of a quart-sized (you can see it under the ribbons).

This keeps the tissue paper from getting ripped when stored and makes it easy to quickly find colors that complement the bag I'm using.

I've used this method for several years, but I used to have all the boxes, bags, and tissue paper piled into an old comforter bag--which was handy because it was portable, but I had slowly allowed the organization to falter, my stock was beginning to outgrow the bag, and I couldn't find a good place to store it where I could get to it easily.

Theoretically once this room is finished there will be clear work spaces that will be perfect for wrapping gifts, and all my supplies are in one handy place (because a craft room will be well stocked with scissors and tape, obvs).

I keep the Christmas gift-wrapping supplies with the Christmas supplies, though once this room is done they may get moved in here. (Did I say I had never bought any gift bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper? I lied. I have never bought non-Christmas-themed wrapping supplies. I'm a sucker for Christmas wrapping supplies, however, and have a giant box of them. Which is silly, since I give Christmas presents to like four people in person).

Also, the only actual wrapping paper I own at this point is Christmas-themed, so I haven't had to figure out a storage solution for that. As the DDH's birthday is at the end of November, very rarely do I give non-Christmas-wrapped gifts--hence all the bags and tissue paper, which are flexible. 

But yay! Maybe getting this room fixed up by the end of the year isn't such an impossible goal, after all.

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