Speed Up the Small Stuff

Look in anyone’s gift wrap supply and you’ll probably find dozens of adhesive-backed bows.  Why?  Because it’s faster to adorn a package with one of these than it is to create a homemade version.  We value our time and when we find great shortcuts like the bows, we stock up.  Do yourself a favor this season and search for shortcuts like those listed below to help streamline your holiday workload.

Buy in Bulk: Coaches, teachers, neighbors and coworkers often add to our holiday shopping lists.  It can be daunting to find the perfect gift for each of these individuals.  Simplify the gift buying process by purchasing dozens of “the little black dress” of presents: something universally appreciated, relatively inexpensive and easy to accessorize.  Examples include candles, cocoa mugs, hand warmers and ornaments.  Like their fashion counterpart, these gifts work well on their own or can be enhanced with extras like teacher-supply store gift cards, restaurant certificates or holiday goodies.

Wrap It Up: Most stores offer a dizzying array of gift wrap.  Save time and energy by restricting yourself to a few color schemes with mix and match accessories.  Keep tabs on wrapped gifts by designating one color scheme for each group on your list, such as immediate family, extended family and non-family.

Call for Reinforcements: Hiring help during the holidays doesn’t have to blow your budget.  In fact, the help you need could be right around the corner.  Chances are the teenager you hire to watch your kids on Friday nights would gladly accept the same rate on Saturday afternoon to iron linens, wrap gifts or help you prepare your house for guests.  Likewise, the student you pay to cut your lawn in the summer would be grateful for a little off-season income by hanging your outdoor lights or moving furniture for your party.

*Don’t stop here, there are more great tips in the other two steps…

Holiday How-To: Part 1

Holiday How-To: Part 2

This post is an excerpt from an article published by Organize Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, Volume 03, pg 68-73, written by Maria Eckersley, photos by Poul Ober, styling by Kendra Smoot.

Tip 1.  Get Rid of the Extras

Toy packaging is ridiculous these days – wires everywhere, screwed-in battery compartments, impossible-to-cut plastic packaging – it’s a huge pain.  Rather than mess with these tedious problems on Christmas morning, I remove them all before I wrap.  I open all the toys, remove the wires, insert batteries, get rid of excess packaging and make everything as ready for play as possible.  Generally I like to use the same boxes, so I use sticky tack or loops of tape to keep the toys in place.  However, if that’s not possible, I just ditch the original packaging and put the toys in a gift box.  It saves me tons of time and trouble on Christmas morning.

Tip 2: Make Your Own Gift Tags

When you’ve got four kids to buy for, it can get tough to keep things even.  It’s hard to remember what you’ve wrapped and how many presents you’ve purchased for each.  To help me keep things organized, I make my own gift tags.  First, I check my gift planner and figure out how many tags I’ll need for each child.  Then, I print out a sheet of gift tags on address labels and store them with my wrapping supplies.  The sheet makes it easy to see how many gifts I’ve wrapped for each person in the family.  It also helps me make sure that all the kids have the same number of gifts.  I do mine on the computer (you can find the free file download below), but you could use this same technique with traditional store-bought sheets of tags as well.  Just fill in all the tags and staple the sheets together before you start wrapping.

Tip 3: Use Hairbands on Your Papers and Ribbons

Tired of trying to keep your wrapping supplies from unwinding?  I’ve found that the best tool for keeping wrapping paper and ribbon under control is an inexpensive hairband.  I slip one of these cloth elastic hairbands (don’t use rubber or plastic – they tear the paper) around every tube of wrapping paper and every spool of ribbon before I add them to my wrapping organizer.  When you’re using the paper, slip the hair band around your wrist.  When your finished, just slide it back down onto the roll.

There you have it.  Three simple and inexpensive strategies for happier wrapping.  Good luck!  Just thought I’d pass it on.