I've been home for over a week, and time has flown by. I've been busy seeing old friends, going to church, working on art, being with family, and cooking my own food. I'm really glad I started thinking about my christmas presents before I got home, because I've had so many other things to do. I can't tell you what my presents are, but I can tell you I thought a lot about how I wrapped them.
I never thought of wrapping paper as wasteful. We only use it once a year, so it never seemed like a big deal. But if you think about how many presents in the world get wrapped in paper every Christmas, the amount of paper waste is likely astronomical.
This fall, I read about making cloth gift bags on the Frugal Girl's blog and in Amy Dacyczyn's The Tightwad Gazette. It made me think about all of the packaging that is thrown away at Christmas. Even if you wrap gifts in reusable bags, many bought products come in cardboard boxes, plastic, and styrofoam. Wrapping paper is waste that can easily be avoided.
Though I didn't have much time or convenient access to a sewing machine (ours is broken), I managed to make and use one good cloth bag. My other three presents are wrapped in bags too--bags that we'd saved from years past. While they aren't cloth bags and they do require tissue paper, the bags can be reused by the recipient. Because two of these paper bag presents are for my mom and sisters, they will just stay in our family.
Out of all of these bags, the gold cloth bag is my favorite. I think cloth is just a little more classy--I've seen some really beautiful cloth bags by other waste-conscious people. These bags are also really easy to make--I was learning to use a sewing machine while I made this bag. If you have any experience at all, or even no experience, you can do this too!
Before you set out to buy that wrapping paper during after Christmas sales, why not try making some cloth bags instead? For a good set of instructions, check out the Frugal Girl's blog post on cloth gift bags.
How do you prevent wrapping waste? Comment below!
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