There's a First Time for Everything...

katholicos

Last week i placed an order for some Advent calendars (i'd seen a thread on the 'Grab it' Board) and managed to get 24 Fairtrade calendars delivered in a nice big box, for a fiver. Well i gave loads of the calendars away and what did i find in the box? A massive wad of brown paper that had been used to pack out the box so the Advent calendars didn't get damaged.

I pulled it out and thought 'oooh, i bet i could re-use that' and promptly pulled out the iron and the ironing board and ironed the brown paper so i can re-use it! I am certainly learning some thrifty ways on here!

What kind of things do you do nowadays that you would perhaps never have done in years gone by?

THIRZAH

I always iron the brown paper that is used as packing when I get an order from Lakeland.

katholicos

THIRZAH wrote: »

I always iron the brown paper that is used as packing when I get an order from Lakeland.

I'm glad i'm not the only one who does this then

Caterina

SNAP! Yesterday I was puzzling as I had to send a parcel with some biscuits, when lo and behold, a knock at the door, my new eco-kettle was deliverered, so I used the box to pack the biscuits and some of the brown paper that had been scrunched into the box to protect the kettle (inner box - overpackaging from Amazon!) to cover the parcel.

I have loads of brown paper left, which I shall use for Christmas presents for the family this year. But I do not bother ironing it, they will have to have it with the creases on, saves me time money and energy, after all it lasts only a few seconds before it goes in the recycling bin!

I was thinking of using newspapers for giftwrapping but was put off by all the horrid news that people would read as they open their presents, so this is a perfect solution!

katholicos

Caterina wrote: »

SNAP! Yesterday I was puzzling as I had to send a parcel with some biscuits, when lo and behold, a knock at the door, my new eco-kettle was deliverered, so I used the box to pack the biscuits and some of the brown paper that had been scrunched into the box to protect the kettle (inner box - overpackaging from Amazon!) to cover the parcel.

I have loads of brown paper left, which I shall use for Christmas presents for the family this year. But I do not bother ironing it, they will have to have it with the creases on, saves me time money and energy, after all it lasts only a few seconds before it goes in the recycling bin!

I was thinking of using newspapers for giftwrapping but was put off by all the horrid news that people would read as they open their presents, so this is a perfect solution!

I love the idea of using it for wrapping paper!

Last month was my daughters pirthday and me an her have this ongoing debate about Primark (the ethical manufacturing debate: she spouts off about it being unethical and then goes to town and comes back with bags full of stuff from Primark! She's a teen with not much cash so i don't blame her having 'flexible' principles!) so for a laugh, i got hold of all her Primark bags, cut them open, stamped some image of flowers on using a craft stamp and a small green ink pad and wrapped all her birthday presents in it...finishing off with an old Post Office gummed address label instead of a gift tag. It actually looked quite impressive i think.

I might have a photo of the wrapped pressies, let me look ...yep...here we are:

sylphraven

They look fab Katholicos, might have a go at stamping some brown paper (boots delivery packaging) & tie with a bit of red ribbon.

clutterydrawer

Caterina wrote: »

I was thinking of using newspapers for giftwrapping but was put off by all the horrid news that people would read as they open their presents, so this is a perfect solution!

do you get the financial times, or know anyone who does?

they have a supplement called "how to spend it" which is 90% full of ads for overpriced status symbols...these are large pages which are very glossy and colourful and this year I've wrapped ALL my gifts with them. most of them don't even have writing on. also i feel subversive for using such a paper in an OS way

overlykeensaver

Katholicos - what a great idea they look very professional! I think I will get myself a pretty stamp and ink to do that in future......

nanokitten

one year I wrapped all my pressies in brown paper and then used cheap satin ribbon (I had a big bag of offcuts), I dried slices of oranges and clementines that were past their best in a cool oven and tied them on with little posies of fresh holly with berries and pine cones (from the garden).

They looked amazing, the most expensive bit may be the ribbon but fine ribbon is pretty cheap and offcuts or ebay make it even cheaper.