I'm taking a step away from Christmas planning today to share a recent project that has got this organisational gal super excited - our brand new gift wrapping station! I've always wanted one designated spot in the house to house all our wrapping supplies, and this recent addition to the back of a cupboard door has given me exactly that. Here's how we created this new organised beauty!
I love utilising the backs of doors for extra storage, and a new cupboard we built a few months ago at the end of our hallway (watch this video to see how we did it!) was the perfect spot for all wrapping-related bits and pieces.
The storage cupboard is a walk-in, and has ample space on the shelves. Pictured below is the way I previously organised our wrapping supplies, with storage boxes for ribbon, tissue paper, small boxes, gift bags and cards. The wrapping paper was stored upright in a tall waste-paper bin. It was all fairly organised, but the supplies were just taking up too much precious space! They also weren't that easy to quickly get to, and didn't look super attractive.
I did quite a bit of research for the best storage supplies for our gift wrapping station. I was initially looking for wire mesh baskets that could just be screwed into the back of the door, but they were not as easy to find as I anticipated! After a bit of research, I came across the Clever Closet system at Bunnings. It included a wardrobe strip that could be secured against a wall/door, and wire baskets that hooked onto the strip. I ended up grabbing 4 baskets of varying sizes to accommodate all of our supplies.
I called on my hubby to attach everything, as I haven't quite mastered the drill [yet!]. He first tested the baskets against the door to make sure they wouldn't crash into anything when the door was shut. He then attached the track to the wall and ensured it was straight with a spirit level.
Next, hubby drilled into the set holes, and attached the screws so everything was nice and secure.
The baskets then just hooked onto the wardrobe strip, and could be easily adjusted depending on the contents.
Here are all the supplies (minus the wrapping paper) out of the cupboard and ready to be sorted - my favourite part!
I started by sorting the rather large collection of gift bags into categories - birthdays, Easter, Christmas, baby arrivals and miscellaneous. Smaller gift bags were placed into one of the baskets, along with small material bags that I popped into a small tubular container (lower left photo). The bottom storage basket holds the bigger gift bags, plus the wrapping and contact paper. I tied rubber bands around the top and bottom of each roll, then affixed some ribbon onto small hooks to prevent the rolls from sliding around or falling over. The ribbon can easily be hooked on and off to grab a roll of paper.
The ribbon collection was a mess! I pinched two of our mason jars from the kitchen (that we use for our lunch storage) and placed the rolled up ribbon inside.
This basket holds the jars, some ribbon flowers, and a box of blank cards and envelopes.
The top level holds all of the tissue paper. The basket is quite shallow so I can easily grab the paper at the back.
I like to collect small boxes for re-purposing around the house, or when giving a small gift. I couldn't fit these into any of the baskets, so I popped them into a spare Ikea Kassett box, which was placed back inside the cupboard.
I have seen some people store their scissors, sticky-tape, markers etc with their wrapping supplies, but as there is no hard surface here to do my wrapping on, I am keeping those things in our living room storage unit.
So that's a wrap! (pardon the pun). This sight definitely makes me smile when I open this cupboard door. Everything is easily accessible, I will be able to see at a glance what supplies need to be topped up, the unit isn't taking up any extra room... plus there's now an empty shelf inside the cupboard just waiting for me to get my hands on!
