Wrapping Paper Storage and Organization Solution

I work for a gift wrap manufacturer and therefore probably have more wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, tissue paper, gift tags, gift bags, and whatnot than most sane people.  As an employee I get a lot of free stuff as a perk, and even when my closet of supplies is full, it's hard to say no. My neighbors are fully stocked as well since I bring home more than I can handle.

My previous solution, and I regret that I don't have a photo of this for you, was to use our old vacuum cleaner box to store the rolls of paper and a cardboard box (let's say a 14 x 14 x 10) to store the tissue paper and ribbons and goodies.  The bags were stored in another larger bag. All of these were in the coat closet next to our stairs in the downstairs hallway.

I got tired of the chaos that would ensue each time a birthday party came up and I needed to dig through Christmas paper to find a juvenile boy gift bag. So I decided to organize.

My first attempt was to use some hooks and bungee cord and go vertical up the wall in the closet.  It was a good idea, but the rolls were too heavy and not stable in that set up. I tried to do it spending as little money as possible, but with that failed attempt, I was reminder that it is often cheaper to buy the right tools for the job in the first place! So I bit the bullet and paid just under $35 for this beautiful find at a home improvement store:



What is it? It's an adjustable pantry organizer. It comes with several deep and shallow shelves and some bracing rods (which was key for this project), and it mounts to either a wall or a door. It's over 6 feet tall, 17 inches wide and only 6 inches deep. It was perfect for the small closet and since it was only 6 inches deep, it didn't come out too far into the usable space of the closet.

So I went to work.  With a drill in hand, after about 30 minutes, I had this:

Please ignore the bags behind the organizer. That's my current gift stash and the next area to be organized.

You can see in the pictures that I used the shallow shelves to hold the gift wrap and the bracing rods several inches above to keep them upright. I then used the deeper shelves to store my ribbon, tissue paper, gift tags, and bows.

The "everyday" paper (aka - non Christmas paper) is stored on the bottom and the Christmas paper is up top. This was for two reasons. First of all, I'm more likely to access the everyday stuff most of the year, so it is easier to get to at the lower level. Also, as an industry insider, I know that this paper will always be 24" or 30" tall. The Christmas paper may be 24", 30", or 40". That extra height extends upward into my closet and doesn't affect the shelf height for the ribbon.






The Christmas paper is mounted so that the bottom of it is right eye-level for me. I can pull the rolls out from the bottom and put them back the same way.




So this set up is really working for me.  It keeps everything organized and easily accessible and it takes up vertical space that was not getting used otherwise!  Hooray! Now I have to figure out something similar to do with all of the gift bags!

Go visit We Are THAT Family and see what is working for everyone else too!  You just might get some brilliant ideas!