It’s that time of year again; we all have a lot of presents to wrap. (Especially those of us with larger families!) For a long time I’ve kept certain key gift-wrapping supplies on hand, but I got a new container for them this year and we’re loving how easy this setup makes it to pull out and find exactly what we need when we need it. If finding the supplies is easy, the whole process is more efficient, so we can spend more time on more important things — like spending time with the people the gifts are for!

Easy Gift Wrapping Kit Container

The key to the whole shebang is this container. It has a tray that lifts out, with organizing dividers that are perfect for keeping track of all the bits and bobs that go with gift wrapping. The open area in the bottom can then be filled up with ribbons, bows, twine, etc.

In the past, we were constantly having to dump everything out to locate that one elusive pen that managed to bury itself in the depths. With the divider tray here, that’s become a complete non-issue.

The tray is deep enough that you can stack two standard rolls of tape in it.

What We Keep in Our Box for Easy Gift Wrapping

Here’s what’s in our bin:

• scissors (Our previous ones were lousy, so I recently replaced them with these. My son’s a lefty, so it was important to me that they be usable either right-handed or left-handed. These work for both, and they cut like butter.)
• black permanent marker
• silver & gold permanent markers
• silver & gold gel pens
• white gel pen
• red & green ultra-fine point permanent markers (I don’t think it’s very cost-effective to buy just red and green, but you can buy a package that has red, green, blue, and black. And we use the red and green a lot when labeling Christmas gifts.)
• a regular pen (not pictured)
• tape
• gift tags
• various ribbons & twine (in the bottom section)

Silver, gold, and white are all helpful for writing on dark tags and papers (and of course the metallics are festive).

I primarily buy kraft-colored “butcher” paper on large rolls, and this is what we most often use for gift wrapping. You don’t have to use what we use, of course, but having a few colors that work well together that most of your wrapping is done in will enable you to minimize the supplies you keep on hand.

Keeping Track of It

I don’t know about you, but we have multiple pairs of scissors in our house, more than one Sharpie, etc. And I don’t want to have to track these down when I’m ready to sit and wrap gifts because one “walked away.” So I cut pieces of a Christmas-printed duct tape I happened to have on hand, and wrapped the scissors and each of the pens or markers with this tape. That doesn’t keep anyone from taking them elsewhere (obviously), but it does make it easy to tell at a glance that these belong with the gift-wrapping supplies. (Incidentally, our “kitchen Sharpie” is similarly marked with a food-related washi tape so we know where it goes back.)

This is a totally optional step, but I’ve found it really helpful for knowing what goes away where, so that we have what we need when we need it.

 Bienvoun 17 Quart Plastic Storage Box with Removable Tray Caddy Clear Art Supply Craft Organizers Playroom Container Organizer with Lid for Bead Crayon Tool Sewing Playdoh Scissors, iBayam 8 SHARPIE Twin Tip Permanent Markers, Fine and Ultra Fine, Black, 4 Count Sharpie 1829202 Sharpie Metallic Markers, Fine Pt, 2 Color/PK, Gold/Silver Pilot 34400 G2 Pens, Gel, Metallics.7mm, 2/PK, Gold/Silver SAKURA – Gelly Basic White – 05-08 – 10 – Set 3 Scotch Magic Tape, Invisible, Repair Christmas Cards and Use as Holiday Gift Wrap Supplies for Christmas, 6 Tape Rolls With Dispensers VGOODALL 150PCS Christmas Gift Tags, Christmas Name Tags with String Small Red Green Paper Gift Tags Santa Tags for Christmas Gift Party Decorations