I read an article that in Japan it's common to wrap presents in cloth (ribbons, twine, etc instead of tape). Yesterday my DH cleaned out PART of his closet and made a huge pile of clothes too bad/ugly to wear (only took 2 years of nagging and pointing out the holes and stains!)LOL! Today I cut the shirts into large squares and rectangles to use as "wrapping" paper this Christmas. The sleaves make great cleaning rags. Hubby actually thinks it's a good idea and doesn't look at me like I'm nuts! His only concern is that he wants the "wrapping" paper back so we can re-use!
So, wrapping paper out...cloth in. Anyone try this?
I have seen this . Many crafty people can make gorgeous presents out of scrap cloth , ribbons , twine , dried flowers - anything from your yard or closets .
Several natural soap companies wrap their products in cloth and use a paper label like ribbon or the reverse . Quite attractive !
You could go one step further and sew the fabric squares into bags. That might help you get the fabric back as your husband wants, and also to avoid the fabric getting thrown away after one use.
It is hard to get my family out of the habit of just bundling all the wrapping paper and tissue into garbage bags. I swoop in and salvage all the tissue that I can, but getting them to recycle the wrapping paper is a lost cause. Since I'm always at one of their houses, I don't have much control. Paper gift bags get reused, though. One year I made marbled paper to wrap gifts, and that was so beautiful that it did get reused several times.
For you recyclers, check with your recycling center prior to tossing wrapping and tissue paper in the bins. Our center will only take wrapping and tissue paper for a couple days after Christmas.
Follow-up.....Most of my family liked this. A few missed the "tearing of paper" of Christmas past. It was fun finding ways to tie to make it fun and ways to incorporate the ribbons!
I've since created a special place for the Sunday comics to use as wrapping paper. In just 3 months I already have quite the stash!
