Whenever I wrap a gift I have a little scavenger hunt to do first. I have all the supplies I need I just have to find them. The wrapping paper is in a Rubbermaid wrapping paper storage container which I’ve had for about 16 years. I lost the top in one of our moves. This container sits in a closet in the basement and holds all the wrapping paper rolls and gift bags. The ribbon is found there as well. Gift cards are in a cabinet in the kitchen. The tape is a whole different story. My children are tape hoarders so I’m lucky if I find tape at all. I hide it, they find it. 

Whenever I’m Christmas shopping I never know what I have so I go ahead and buy paper and gift tags only to come home and eventually find out that I still have paper and gift tags from the previous year. It happens every year so I have quite the collection.

I always wrap gifts in the guest room. It is a great place to stash all the Christmas gifts as well as birthday gifts since my children haven’t thought to look there yet. When I was finished with all the wrapping this past Christmas I made uo my mind up to streamline the process a bit and try to keep everything in one place. I was considering a door organizer like the kind found at The Container Store. This could fit in the closet I have in the basement that is dedicated to my things. Right now it is full of fabric, spray paint, batting, and lots of frames and accessories. I wasn’t too crazy about cluttering up the closet or the door itself so I never moved forward on the idea. Then as I was cleaning out the guest room the other day I rediscovered my little red closet. 

This door is typically hidden since the regular door you can see in the left of the pictures is always open. When the guest room was the original playroom I painted to door red and this was a little play space for the kids. I filled it with pillows and a ceiling mounted battery powered light. They loved going in there and hanging out. Before I emptied it out the other day it contained three items. A suitcase, my college portfolio and a cabinet. I moved those to the walk in closet and started planning. There was plenty of room for all the supplies I had on hand as well as gifts for upcoming birthday parties. 

I needed something to contain all the wrapping paper first. I had purchased a wire bin from Home Goods a while back and was happy to discover it holds lots of wrapping paper without damaging the paper. 

Next I needed something for everything else. I was thinking of purchasing the IKEA Raskog but I didn’t want to pay about $50 for something that would be hidden away in a closet. I found a rolling cart at Target meant for bathrooms or laundry rooms. It came with four shelves but I only installed three so that I could fill them with bins, also from Target. 

The top shelf hold two bins. One has scissors, pens, tape and my hole punch. The other holds gift cards and blank cards if anyone feels like making their own. So far the tape has stayed in its place.

The second shelf has one bin full of ribbons and the other with gift tags and gift wrap embellishments.

I did not inset the third shelf so that I had more room for the bottom shelf. I wanted one large container for gift bags and tissue paper. These always seem to be all over the place in this house so I love having one place for them all.

The cart rolls out into the room which means I don’t have to climb into the small closet to find anything.

When I’m all done everything goes right back in its’ place. No searching, no buying duplicates and the former wrapping paper container has found a new home as a wastepaper basket in the garage. Everyone’s happy.