Kit Davey, Interior Designer
18 Years in business - Over 2,600 homes transformed!
Tips From Kit - October 2006
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Setting Up a Gift Closet
By Kit Davey
Want to avoid stress and save time and money during this year's holiday season? Set up a gift closet now. When you set up a gift station in your home it encourages you to shop over the course of the year, rather than waiting until December, and makes storing and wrapping gifts quick and convenient. Preparing birthday, anniversary and thank you gifts is also a snap when all you have to do is shop in your in-house store.
Start by clearing out a part of a closet for your gift station. If you can't sacrifice the space, create an area in your garage or under a bed. You might clear off a few shelves in an inconspicuous bookcase, use the dresser in your guest room or hide several big plastic containers behind a couch or desk in your den.
Once you've cleared the space, start gathering supplies and other ingredients.
Things that I have in my gift closet include:
- An old calendar tacked on the wall. It has the names of friends and family written on the dates corresponding with their birthdays and anniversaries. A calendar from any year will do; all that you need to know is the date. I check the calendar on the first of each month, and mark my Daytimer to give myself plenty of time to prepare.
- A shoe box or plastic tub with supplies. I keep scissors, glue sticks, tape, stamps, a packet of gift tags and a variety of greeting cards in this container. I make my own gift tags by cutting up old postcards and greeting cards and using a hole punch to loop ribbon through. I also use playing cards, pressed leaves, bits of wallpaper or whatever interesting-looking scraps of paper I can find. I keep at least a dozen greeting cards on hand in order to select one suited to the giftee and occasion. I never buy greeting cards from shops at full retail; at $3 to $6 each this can really add up! I wait for after season sales, or buy from flea market vendors. I also enjoy making my own. Many friends often prefer my hand made card to the gift I give them!
- A bag or box of ribbon. In addition to ribbon bought at after-season sales I store previously-used ribbons (On Christmas morning and at birthday parties everyone knows I will be the one snagging wrappings and ribbons to recycle). I also use twine, raffia, belts, scarves and rope to tie up gifts.
- Rolls and sheets of wrapping and tissue paper. Several companies make boxes especially designed to store rolls of gift paper, but I prefer to keep mine standing up in an old waste basket because I'm too frugal to spend the money on one! I am offended by the waste involved in creating paper which will be used once and thrown away, so I reuse the tissue and wrapping paper from gift boxes, flatten it and store it in a bag. I use alternative papers to wrap gifts whenever possible: the funny papers for kid's gifts, the financial pages for business people, grocery bags with stamps on them for others. I also reuse gift bags. My family has received their Christmas gifts in them same large bags for the past four years!
A variety of boxes---recycled, of course! Don't encourage the destruction of trees and waste your money on store-bought boxes. Save space by nesting the smaller boxes inside the larger ones.
- A selection of gifts. The idea is to shop in advance, at your leisure, instead of being forced to buy under pressure and having to pay a high price. Since you shop all year long for food, clothing and household items, why not use these regulars expeditions to pick up gifts, too? Wine and delicacies make great thank you and hostess gifts and can be picked up at the grocery store. Purchase generic gifts, like candles, gift baskets, picture frames and vases at stationery and gift stores. If you are a flea marketer or garage saler, look for items to add to your family member's collections. "Re-gift" items given to you by well-meaning friends which are not your cup of tea or are duplicates. Recycle books, videos and CD's which you have already enjoyed.
(C) Kit Davey 2006
Kit Davey, Allied Member, A.S.I.D., is an interior designer specializing in room re-design, design consulting, staging and professional organizing. Call her at (650)367-7370 or write her KitDavey@aol.com You can visit her website at www.AFreshLook.net.
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