I love creating a new theme or direction for my gift wrapping each year. Although I can pretty easily get sucked in to pretty paper, bows, ribbons and gift tags galore, last year I was sure to make my gift wrap simple and something that the recipient can then re-use. We all know 99% of gift wrap ends up in the trash and it felt really good to not create unnecessary waste. So this year, I took a similar approach to my gift wrapping.

Rather than using a plain, white flour sack dishtowels, like I did last year, I decided to make it a little more colorful and playful and used some napkins that can obviously then be reused by the recipient. Any fabric is a great, sustainable option when gift wrapping. Get creative and use a handkerchief, scarf, tea towel, or even a reusable shopping bag that the person receiving can then go on to use beyond the holiday season.

Rather than the typical ribbon, bows, etc. I went ahead and tucked different elements into the fabric or used a cotton string to tie a little something extra to each gift, which is really another gift in itself! I used dried citrus, dried florals, and a filled ornament to top each gift. After opening, the ornament can then easily be added to the recipients tree year after year. The dried flowers can go in a bud vase or used in other arrangements. The dried citrus can be used as an ornament as well, or used in decor like we did in the AFF office.

How do you plan on wrapping your gifts this year? do you know of any other sustainable gift-wrap swaps?

Let us know in the comments!