Storage Ideas and a Gift Wrapping Station

This post is sponsored by DYMO.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

When we were working on organizing the basement last month, I ended up with a bunch of little things that I didn’t really have any place for.  I still wanted to keep them {and knew that I would use them}, I just didn’t really have a place to keep them that would keep everything organized. I headed out in search of some kind of storage unit and ended up with three Ikea Alex drawer units.  I have debated putting a solid top across all three pieces but this is how it looks for now…

I had used one of these drawer units in the past for organizing Matthew’s desk and really liked them.  Plus, they were on sale and I got a great deal.  Now, of course, the one problem with having so many drawers is keeping everything in the right place!  I am kind of obsessed with labeling and pretty much label everything that I can get my hands on.  Not only does it help me know where things are, but it also helps the rest of the family find their own things and {hopefully!} put them back.

I have a DYMO Label Manager that I use for a lot of my labels around the house {you can see how I used it in the bathroom HERE}.  It’s super easy to use and comes with a regular QWERTY keyboard that makes it much faster to type out the labels. You can get the labels in a variety of color options but I love the black on clear for its versatility.   The font sizes vary from 8 pt to 24 pt so it works great for a variety of different projects around the house.

I have a lot of items packed into this unit, including photos that need to be put into albums or scrapbooked, small party supplies, extra candles and my Scentsy bars, but my favorite use for it is as a gift wrapping station.  I have a rather large collection of wrapping supplies, cute tags, extra cards, and other wrapping embellishments but when I went to actually use them, I could never find what I was looking for.  To keep things looking pretty, I purchased these adhesive book plates through ebay {they are from the Martha Stewart line that was discontinued at Staples} and then used my DYMO Label Manager to add the labels.  Now everything has its own spot and is clearly labeled for quick and easy use!

The drawers are quite long, so for the drawers that I have a lot of little bits, I added some drawer organizers that I picked up in the kitchen section at Ikea.

I actually got rid of quite a few old bags that had seen better days and donated some other items that I just had too much of.  Now we are left with a functional and organized space that makes gift wrapping so much easier!

For our gift wrapping rolls, I have a wooden bucket that works great for storage.  I have been wrapping my presents as I buy them in an effort to stay organized this Christmas, but I will store these away and replace them with other wrapping paper once the holidays are over.

For the most part, a couple of nice rolls of simple Kraft paper works great for any season and can be dressed up for any occasion or holiday.  It’s a great way to cut down on a having a bunch of different papers!

If you don’t need such a large unit or would like something that is a little more portable that you can store away, you can always do the same idea with the plastic Rubbermaid storage drawers – you can then just label directly onto the drawers.  The labels will remove easily if you ever want to use it for another purpose down the road.  Happy Wrapping! 🙂