Excited for the holiday season, but dreading the piles of discarded wrapping paper, less-than-useful gifts, and excessive packaging that will accumulate? Look no further than our low-waste gift wrap guide!
Get thrifty.
Check out your local thrift store for vintage gift boxes, cookie tins, and holiday linens. Not only are some vintage hand towels or napkins really cute as wrapping, but your recipient can get some practical use out of them. Bonus: brooches often sit on thrift store shelves without selling, but they look great when used to pin on gift tags, and there are tons of holiday ones available.
Get arty with your box and bag stash.
Many people save gift bags to reuse year after year, but you might also have some plain paper bags or cardboard boxes that you can spruce up. Something as simple as a hand-painted bow looks really cute, and it also shows that you put time and effort into your gift. If you aren’t into arts and crafts, tying on a second hand ornament with reused ribbon looks just as good.
Use the gift as wrapping.
Unpaper towels and bandanas make great alternatives to tissue paper that can also be given as part of the gift. Look here for tips on furoshiki, a method of cloth wrapping. You could also gift a sealed glass bowl, silicone bag, or produce bag that doubles as wrapping for something else! Maybe even a countertop compost bin could look cool–get creative!
Repurpose old stockings, baskets, or other spare containers.
Spare stockings can make great vessels for gifts. I thrifted a couple small ones from St. Vinny’s, where they have dozens and dozens available. Woven baskets are also sturdy and will come in handy for your recipient.
Be imaginative!
There are so many sustainable wrapping ideas out there, from using the (cleaned) silver shiny side of chip bags to reusing old magazine pages. Can you come up with something new?
Have more ideas? We’d love to hear about them in a comment below. Happy gifting!
