sustainable gift wrapping

Wrapping paper. To be honest, I've never been a fan - it takes forever to pick out the "perfect pattern" and get your gifts wrapped, then gets destroyed in .2 seconds and immediately thrown away. I've also never been great at wrapping gifts in general. SO when I discovered that most wrapping paper is made with plastic and isn't recyclable, that was the final straw. No wasteful wrapping paper in this house! While it was easy to cut it out of our lives (I'd already been making the switch to gift bags), it begged the question - what do we use to wrap gifts with?

Take a look around you. Any paper bags from the grocery store? Recent deliveries with paper packaging? Old gift bags? How about the orange in your kitchen? All of these materials and more can be repurposed to wrap up your presents perfectly. Everything I just listed is what was used to wrap the gifts you see here! I have been loving the more minimal holiday look, and this fits the theme to a T. How much did this cost? All of $2 for the rosemary and the orange (I already had the faux mistletoe on hand) - and I had rosemary left over for cooking. Inexpensive, sustainable, reusable. I promise your friends and family will love it just as much -probably even more so- than if you had wasted money on single use wrapping paper.

While I can't give much advice on actually wrapping the gifts (re: I'm not a good gift wrapper), I'm very proud of my little front wrapped gift with an orange slice and rosemary in it. This one was inspired by Mama Mila, a professional gift wrapper who makes beautiful creations. In her tutorial video, she made it so easy to recreate this style! I'll definitely be using it again.

Now to the dehydrated orange slices! This is such an easy and inexpensive decoration. Not many steps at all, plus it makes your house smell AMAZING while they're cooking in the oven. Here's the breakdown make your own slices! Also keep in mind that you can do this with other citrus fruits, not just oranges.