Eco Friendly & Zero Waste Gift Wrapping

Sustainable and plastic free ways to wrap your holiday gifts. 🎁

Thanks for watching #MyGreenCloset!

💚 ABOUT MY GREEN CLOSET
Hi! My name is Verena but most people call me Erin (my middle name). I studied Fashion Design & Technology and it was through this I became aware of and passionate about sustainable and ethical issues in the fashion industry. On this channel I share my journey to live more consciously and create videos to help you build a wardrobe that reflects both your style and values. 🌎

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[steveleary]

Gift bags - what a wonderful idea! As a sewist and quilter, I have LOTS of fabric, so I can make these great reusable bags for all our gifts this year!

[AlyssaBeltempo]

Yay! Love these ideas .. especially how your family passed down the cloth bags over time :) and yes to greenery! Thanks for a great video!

[nicollekalivoda]

Maps from National Geographic magazines make really nice gift wrap.

[acmulhern]

My daughter always comes back from school with millions of drawings and colouring pages (5-6 a day). We keep the nicest ones in binders and the rest is used to wrap gifts (I start collecting a few weeks before Christmas and that's more than enough). It's so nice and very personal. Also, the quality of the paper is much nicer than that of shop bought wrapping paper and doesn't rip.
I also keep gift bags that I receive gifts in from friends and family and I reuse them for wrapping odd shaped gifts. The most beautiful ones have been passed around the family for years now.

[raraavis]

I usually get nice looking boxes, that people can later use to store stuff or use as packaging for someone else. And this year, I‘ll definitely also use twine and greenery instead of tinsel.
I love the idea of cloth bags as well, though. I need to transport quite a few presents by train and boxes take up a lot of room!

[bananapuffin]

My own mum made cloth bags this year for gifts, I know these will be passed around family for years! String also is being used over and over, love idea of using cards and pictures too x

[JennDyer]

My dad got the idea of wrapping with newspaper from the Southern Christmas Show one year and we did that every year afterward, usually with the funny papers saved up over time. I always reused gift bags because I thought it was wasteful to throw them away. I have some that I've reused for over 10 years and they're still in great condition.

I also keep any fabric bags I may receive with items, such as shoe bags and reuse them for travel bags or for gifts.

Last year I found a lady who was making gift bags, like the one you showed that your mother made, from leftover fabric scraps, so I ordered a few. When we wrapped presents my husband found it so easy, he is now all in on reusable bags for wrapping. We don't give the bags with the gifts though. I know it might be rude, but knowing the people we're giving them to, they'd either be thrown away or lost. I want them to be used for as long as they can be.

[TheBlacktressDiaries]

I love the old fashioned twine and Kraft paper. Adding an artist postcard is a great idea to add vibrance to it!

[snailrat]

Lots of great ideas! I love using old paper bags from the grocery store and tying them with red string. But I should try some of these for Christmas!

[megan]

Love all of these! I love that first bag with the ribbon attached... I've made drawstring fabric bags in the past, but they end up looking sloppy because I rushed when making them! The ribbon on the outside looks nice and tidy (and is less work!). :)

[sarahRA]

I like to stamp the wrapping paper...you can buy festive stamps, along with some ink pads!

[nicoleisheretolearn]

Great tips! My boyfriend and I also prefer to opt for experiences. Some years we haven't even done anything more than hang out and watch movies, some years we'll get little gifts. And I find that, living an ocean away from pretty much all of my family, I kind of get a pass where it's not expected that I send anything home (not least of all because the way our postal system works, my family would probably have to pay customs to receive their own gift in most instances and that seems a little weird to me). But for my boyfriend's family who lives in the same country, we usually just use regular brown package wrap and (being illustrators) draw on it. We like the look and, not to be cheeky/mean but, I kind of think that if someone is *more* concerned about wanting traditional aesthetics that don't align with my values than the thought/time/choices that go into what I'm offering them, then maybe they don't need to get any more gifts from me in future.. 💁🏾 haaa

[debiwaleski]

I love these ideas esp. the sewn Christmas wrapping bags.

[cherrymaniego]

Love this ideas. Would love to get a gift with these bags. Love the prints and color of the bags. 👍🎉👏

[IWillSayItLouder]

still my favorite sustainable xmas video on the internet :) I'm sharing this with my friends and family this year

[hildurhreinsdottir]

My nice is very artistic and one christmas I got a gift wrapped in plain white paper that she had decorated. It was so beautiful. Use for example white paper that is used to wrap around shoes in shoe boxes and let your own artistic hand go loose or let your kids draw on the paper. Then use it for gift wrapping. Also, reuse the shoe box for items difficult to wrap.

[ursuionela]

This just opened a whole new world for me! I never thought of gift wrapping like that. So cool! Thank you!

[robynnordstrom]

I spent a couple of days sewing fabric bags for Christmas wrapping this year, and just pulled them out to use for the first time. They're eco-friendly, but also wrapping this way is SO fast and easy! I have some more scrap fabric that I want to put to this use as well!

[valeniricibar]

My parents have huge rolls of paper (the newspaper type) and every year I make wrapping paper from it using painted oranges or potato cut-outs as stamps! Other times I’ve gone with plain paper and stenciled the recipient’s name on it as decoration. I think I’ll be going with newspaper this year, using twine because like you, it’s a favourite of mine. I love the idea of cloth gift bags though! :)

[imahimfan]

Love it!! I've been using pages from old books and national geographics for years 😀