the christmas drawer or how jen stayed sane this holiday season

Are you anything like me? Buying cute christmas gift tags then getting home and realizing you bought the same ones last year. Thinking you had plenty of holiday wrapping paper only to find you have 1/2 a roll left at 1:00 am. For years I had my ribbons, gift tags, wrapping paper in different places in my craft room. When I moved into my apartment this year I had to consolidate and move from a large house and a dedicated craft space to a 940 sq ft apartment. Keep in mind that 3/4 of that apartment was the kitchen, living room and the kids rooms. It turns out that downsizing my wrapping and craft supplies and tools was one of the best things I could have done. Simplifying in a time when life was complicated. It made perfect sense.

I began by going through all of my gift tags, cards, ribbon. Making two different piles of each item. One for the items I would use year round and another for all my Christmas items. That was a lesson in itself. I couldn't believe how many gift tags that i had from years past, others were still in their unopened package. After that task was complete I focused on finding anything holiday related. Another eye opener. There were a ton of Christmas craft kits ie: Martha Stewart, Paper Source etc that I had never opened There were holiday stickers, small gift bag kits and holders for gift cards. My next task was tackling the wrapping paper. That was pretty easy, I had always kept my christmas wrap separated but in different places throughout the house. The answer was buying one of those long wrapping paper boxes from the container store.

Finally after gathering all of my Holiday gear it was time to get organized. I decided to dedicate one of my larger Alex drawer for all my wrapping gear. It seemed a little silly to be dedicating such precious space to a drawer that would basically only be used once a year but I thought I would give it a try. I purchased a plastic divider from Ikea and filled it with tags, ribbon, gift card holders, gift embellishments and stickers. I then filled in the empty area surrounding with the kits and holiday cards. It was now easy to see where and what things were. Nothing was hidden and would miss being used. The wrapping paper box went under my bed.