The ABCs of Adorable Giftwrap

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There are so many ways to give a gift.  There’s simply no need to stick to the plain old, boring status quo!  Too many times we go over the checklist in our mind (cardboard boxes, tape, wrapping paper…).  We don’t even stop to think about all of the fun ways we can giftwrap something.  Did I mention easy and cheap, too?   You don’t have to be Martha Steward to hand someone the most adorable package they’ve ever seen.  If you’ve got Pinterest and YouTube you’ve got everything you need!

Sans Cardboard Boxes

Let’s start by saying “no” to plain old cardboard boxes.  Nowadays, there are templates and patterns online that you can download and print out and then trace on beautifully designed cardstock.  Literally, with a couple rolls, tucks, and bends you can create a package that yawns open at the corners, unfolding like a flower, with a cylinder in the middle holding the actual gift.

Another favorite of mine are like little fortune cookies.  Once again, using cardstock, you can fashion hollow geometric shapes and then stick a little piece of ribbon or thin paper out with the name of the participant.  These make awesome party favors.

Sans Cardboard Boxes

Random Materials

You  might be scared to branch out, but trust me, this is one of those times when it’s okay to do so.  Sometimes people use a cute scrap of cloth or even a beautiful scarf to wrap their gifts in.  This is all well and good but you can achieve the same effect with a fifty-cent piece of felt from your local craft store.  Once again, there are plenty of how-tos all over the internet, so don’t get give up before you even get started.  Felt and ribbon.  That’s like three bucks.  And if you are really liking the wrapping-turned-bonus-gift idea just use a coffee mug!  Everyone uses coffee mugs (they do, right?).  Stuff it with tissue paper, slip a gift card inside, that’s all it takes.  See! You don’t have to be a creative genius to make it happen.

Embellishments

Perhaps my favorite thing about gift-wrapping is embellishing.  This is simply not how things were done when I was growing up.  You were lucky if the paper was cute.  But now there are SO many ideas, and most of them aren’t that groundbreaking.  Skip the designed wrapping paper altogether and go with a solid color.

Embellishments

 

Then, make it fun and 3D by adding your own touch: glue buttons or pompoms all over a package; use washi tape to create designs and pictures.

Make Your Moving Day Easier

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So you’re moving, and the question remains: now what?  Do you do it yourself, or do you pay someone else.  Good question.  Probably the most important one.  It’s completely acceptable for an average-sized home to have upwards of a hundred boxes.  That requires a lot of manpower, not to mention vehicle space, to transport all of it.

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First and foremost, a couple things have to be established:

  • How big is your move? Are you downsizing or upsizing?  How many rooms are you moving into how many rooms?
  • How strong are you? This is a serious question.  Depending on your age, your health, and your overall stamina, moving will take its toll.  Are you ready for that?
  • Have you done the math? Moving always winds up being more expensive than you plan on.  It usually starts with the shipping boxes.  You think you will only need twenty but you wind up needing forty.  How about gas, tipping the movers buying your helpers dinner…

After you’ve answered those questions, hopefully with the advice of some friends weighing in, you can decide if you are going to do your own move or not.  If you have decided to hire movers, make sure you’ve done your research and read good reviews.  If you are have decided to do your own move, here are a couple tips to help you save time, money, and energy:

  • Use shipping boxes to pack your stuff in. Boxes designed to go through the mailing system are usually a better quality cardboard and more enforced.
  • Go through your belongings and get rid of what you don’t need. If you enough to get rid of you could even host a garage sale and earn some money towards the move.
  • You can save on moving supplies by finding or purchasing used items. You shouldn’t have a hard time finding used shipping boxes from local stores or that someone else is trying to sell on Craigslist.
  • Mark your boxes on the top and the sides. Be descriptive! Label the room they are being moved into, and what they are holding (Kitchen: hand towels, Scentsy burner, mixing spoons).
  • If you don’t feel comfortable, or interested in, driving your own moving truck, you can at least save a lot of money by loading it yourselves. There are plenty of companies that will drop off a truck and then come back to get it after you’ve loaded it.
  • Pack everything tightly, using enough padding. Make sure not to pack too heavy, so don’t use bigger boxes for books or kitchenware.  Be sure to label if a box is fragile!

What Pinterest Has to Say About Cardboard Boxes

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Do not go on Pinterest if you want to continue feeling good about yourself.  Do go on Pinterest if you want see how talented, creative, and apparently wealthy everyone else is.

Of course I’m just kidding.  Pinterest is a wonderful resource, and if you treat it for what it is (namely, an internet website), you can walk away without hating yourself.  It’s true that there are now new forms of depression and obsession that have developed solely because of social media, and that makes sense.  They call them “Pinterest fails” for a reason.  And have you ever seen any of those?  Hilarious!  But honestly, if we embraced the components of our own lives we might be able to give some of those creative, witty, and resourceful Pinterest ideas a try!

If you simply type in “cardboard boxes” you will immediately see pin after pin of awesome looking DIY cardboard toys.  Okay, let’s stop there.  I said “give some of these try”.  Not “replicate them to perfection”.  The fact is that we aren’t starting out with the same resources of whomever that even created what they have posted (starting at our brains), so we can automatically start to assume that our project will NOT come up looking the same.  And that’s okay.

corrugated_stack

Do you have some cardboard boxes?  If you do, awesome.  You are one step closer to attempting a cool Pinterest idea.  So, you type in “cardboard boxes”.  You can make a pirate ship or a mailbox.  If you have a ton of them you can tape them all together and make a maze.  You can make a marble labyrinth game, which actually gave me an idea… I took some old cardboard boxes that were in the burn pile and cut them down so that they were trays.  I squirted different colors of paint on the bottom.  Tossed in a couple of black walnut pods and taught the children how to hold and tip the tray so that the black walnuts would roll through the paint and create a very Jackson Pollock-esque painting.

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Don’t have kids?  Dress up the boxes with cloth and rope and turn it all into a beautiful storage box, or any number of organizational containers.  Don’t even want to make anything, you were trying to find those subscription boxes and you couldn’t remember what they were called for the life of you?  Those pop up, too (and they are my favorite).  I want to try all of those subscription boxes… but I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars, and that would just happen.

Cheap Moving Boxes or Bust

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Cheap moving boxes are a must for the moving process.  With how expensive the entire moving process is, it is essential that the packing materials be of a decent price.  After all, you only wind up using them once, so what’s the point in spending a lot of money on them?  It isn’t entirely necessary to invest in the really expensive, really heavy duty boxes.  Maybe for heaviest stuff, like the kitchen supplies and books, but for the most part our belongings don’t wind up weighing that much and they don’t need triple reinforced corrugated cardboard to get them point A to point B without mishap.

Many companies boast that they are selling cheap moving boxes, but it is helpful to make some comparisons between providers before deciding who, in fact, is actually doing so and is, therefore, the best fit for your investment.

Moving-boxes-packing-kit

Let’s completely take local, through the door type stores off the table.  It is safe to say these places are not going to be offering you the most bang for our buck.  These companies have to pay the middle-man and so their products are going to be priced higher than what you want.  They might be a good resource for your simple packaging and shipping needs, but not for something as huge as a move.

Which brings us to on-line providers.  On-line providers are the middle man that the local companies have to compensate for, which is why you are going to get a better deal.  There is no need to cover the costs of shipping to the local stores and all that jazz.  The product will be shipped directly to your door!

First and foremost, online companies offer bulk products at wholesale prices.  This is the first thing that you need to compare.  How much product is coming with what price?  Don’t be fooled by lower dollars.  One place could offer twenty-five boxes for twenty-five dollars.  Another place could offer twenty boxes for twenty-one dollars.  You might be originally attracted to the idea of saving four bucks, but you will find that you are losing a “free” box at that price.  Now, if they are selling twenty boxes at nineteen dollars, that’s the better deal!

Secondly, make sure that shipping costs aren’t going to negate all of the saving that you worked hard to configure.  Most of these companies offer free shipping, but some of them won’t.  At the same time, a lot of them will offer coupon codes for free shipping that are easy to come across.  Either way, when looking for cheap moving boxes make sure that is what you wind up with!

Using Packaging Supplies to Create a Unique Unboxing Experience

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Everyone loves to get something in the mail.  Of course I’m referring to something fun, and not the un-fun stuff like bills and spam.  That should go without saying, of course… I was talking to my neighbor the other day and she was saying that even when she orders something for herself she still feels excited waiting for it.  When she gets home from work and sees that the box has arrived her heart skips a beat.  There’s just something about it.  Tearing the heavy, outer layer.  Needing special tools to do so (and I’m talking about scissors, of course).  You’ve gotta work for it!  You see your name on it.  Then you get to the inside packaging.  This can be a let-down, or it can be another step to prolong the delicious process.  It all depends on the packaging supplies you use.

corrugated-boxes-white

Like buttoned!  Yes, I said buttons.  Buttons look just like candy.  A bright, thick pop of color that you really want to take a bite out of but you know you shouldn’t (but you still might try anyway).  After you’ve boxed up your precious cargo, whatever it may be, use some white string to wrap around it, threading it through the button with each pass, and then tie a bow right above the button at the end.  There are tutorials on-line for how to do this, so don’t write it off immediately.  Even if you are using a simple paper bag to wrap something, make small dots on it with a silver Sharpie, and then use the string and button trick.  You will find yourself adding these simple do-dads to your packaging supplies list!

The longer you can drag out the unboxing experience, the better.  I’m not talking about a Christmas present prank, where you have a box in a box in a box in a box, or an entire roll of tape wrapped around a gift card.  I’m talking about clean lines and bright colors and thoughtfulness.  It’s all about the thoughtfulness.

Like tissue paper!  Is tissue paper a necessary part of packaging supplies?  Not at all.  But it is a thoughtful one.  Wrap what you are sending in some tissue paper and you will be simultaneously sending the message that you want the recipient to look at this like a gift.  “Here you go, unwrap this.”  It’s like saying, what’s inside?  Even though you already know.