the bearable burden of storing gift wrap
Okay. Its D-Day. Christmas Eve. How is your Christmas Wrapping Station going? Not at all? A big pile of paper and ribbons in the corner? Here’s an easy solution to get it all up off of the floor and in an unused or packed closet from Real Simple Magazine by way of Apartment Therapy! (and both are great resources for organizational ideas.)
It has an attractive (you can barely see it in this photo) wicker basket holding all the rolls of papers, a see-through shoe organizer being re-purposed as a container for all gift wrapping accessories (oh how Classics love new uses for old things also a Real Simple staple.) There’s also the pant hangers being used to hold tissue paper, gift bags, and recycled wrapping paper that has been saved, smoothed down and folded…yes an easy place to put the paper you have reused! So thrifty!
This solution will also appeal to the crafty side of the Classic and Funs because there’s a good chance they have all the materials needed to create this wrapping station stored in their basement or storage facility. They both notoriously hold onto things that might come in handy some day. The only trouble is that they sometimes don’t see or know why something is aesthetically pleasing. This solution looks good because it is color coordinated. The orange tissue papers are grouped together, also blues, greens, etc. If you organize by color (not by type) with this visual solution, it will always look nice when you open the closet door. We say this because this might not be how a Classic would instintively organize it.
This solution has the practicality that a Fun would admire, all the ingenious uses for old things, but they could have trouble keeping it up. They always mean to keep the wrapping paper at the party, but then get caught up in the moment and it ends up in the trash. So, they would appreciate the beauty of this thrifty solution but would have trouble maintaining it. There is an easier solution for them in the Martha Stewart pegboard (not as many moving parts) or the other clear shoe holder solution from Organize Magazine.
This has all the requisite visual elements that would appeal to an Organic — the paper and bags hanging like clothes, all the rolls easy to see and retrieve from the wicker basket. Even the shoe organizer would appeal to the Organic, but if it’s hanging in a closet like the rest of the items, then having to take it in and out would be a step that an Organic, Freedom or Structure, would quickly tire of doing. She likes things to be out in the open and unless she was raised by a Classic, it might be the last straw.
A Smart would want it to work. She tends to admire the clever ideas of a Classic, but her follow through, especially if she is Smart Freedom is even worse. In the end, having to keep all those bags and paper clipped onto the skirt hangers, or the tissue paper draped over the slack hangers would probably get annoying. It’s hard enough to put her skirts and pants back on those things!