Greener Living #49 Re-Gift Gift Wrap

Help cut down on the consumption of paper and plastic by re-using wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and gift bags. These items should be good for at least one more wrapping. If you are feeling creative, use old calendars, pages from magazines, or even newspaper to wrap gifts. (I find this tip funny for a couple of reasons. One, I used to yell at Barb for always wanting to recycle gift wrap. Of course, I now see how smart she is to recycle wrapping paper. My thinking used to be why store a bunch of old gift wrap. Then recently Erin and I started talking about what a real waste wrapping paper really is and how silly it is not to reuse it or to simply do away with gift wrap all together. She and I even talked about wrapping next year's Christmas gifts in newspapers or only using gift bags, which many people do reuse. I love the suggestion of using pages from magazines because we get a ton of magazines, which I do recycle, but figure I could use for gift wrap as well. I can even use brown bags from Trader Joe's, which are nice and thick. Plus, I could always add some stickers or doodles to decorate the brown paper. So this is obviously one tip I am going to start incorporating into my life.)