Gift Wrap Class 3: Be Prepared With The Basics

When I was a kid we seemed to never be able to find the tape, glue or scissors around the house. For some reason we had one roll of tape, one bottle of glue and one pair of scissors for the entire place and no one could ever find them and it was just always frustrating. Trying to wrap gifts during the holidays became a major frustration when everyone was trying to share one pair of scissors and one roll of tape.

So it may not surprise you to hear that I buy scissors, tape and glue sticks by the packs full and each is available in many locations around my home. You are never more than 10 paces from a glue stick or pair of scissors or tape. In my tool closet I have a bag of every kind of tape humans might ever have need of.

I find it easiest to have one bag and one drawer where I keep all my gift wrapping supplies. I have a supply of small gift tags usually already made, I have tape, scissors, and two or three kinds of very basic but good quality wrapping paper than can be used year round. You can never go wrong with craft paper, a solid color, stripe or polka dot in basic colors. But be careful buying really big rolls of paper because you may tire of it long before it gets used up.

You can really sass things up with ribbons, trims and cards, but having good basic papers will get you through a lot of wrapping and save you money and space. Buying a big multi-pack of holiday paper is such a nightmare and the paper often is poor quality, rips easily and has to be stored -and usually gets damaged- year after year.

Here's a list of basics I like to have in my Gift Wrap Supply Kit:

• 2-3 high quality papers
• Multiple rolls of good tape
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Foam adhesives
• Boxes
• Gift Bags
• Ribbon, raffia and twine
• ornaments, tags, paper crafts, natural elements
• Scrapbook paper
• Cellophane
• Clear fishing line
• Hole punch
• Paper cutter

I'll go into more detail about what I use some of these things for, it won't be self-evident necessarily, in follow up posts. But that gives you an idea of basic tools that take gift wrapping from a time you want to tear your hair out to an enjoyable and quick opportunity to do something nice for someone else. Be ready and it will go much easier.

See the entire giftwrap series here:

Class One: A Little History
Class Two: Is It About You or Them?