Tuesday, December 14, 2010

{On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent to Me ...}

Hello! I'm here today with a couple ideas to make your holiday shipping a little more
environmentally friendly, but first, I must confess ... I'm in a wrapping coma.



The 3,000 miles between us and most of the people on our Christmas list means I do a lot
of wrapping, boxing and shipping this time of year. Since I didn't start early (like I always
think I will but rarely seem to do), I had to cram last weekend.

I'm half numb from shoulders to finger tips, but it was so much fun and totally worth it.

I used way too much wrapping paper and should definitely plant a couple trees as penance
to Mother Earth. Plus, I'm sure I get a demerit for my overindulgence in packaging tape.
Still, I was excited about two eco-friendly things I did manage to do.

Oliver (my cat/wrapping assistant) and I came up with a green living alternative to bubble
wrap or Styrofoam popcorn this year. We used paper from our paper shredder! This is a
great way to repurpose your shreddings since you can't recycle them anyway, and it lets
you avoid harmful Styrofoam products altogether. (But if you do have Styrofoam or you
get some in a package this year, consider reusing it instead of adding it to a landfill.)




I saved a few trees, too, by reusing boxes that I kept throughout the year. If they had labels
showing, I just covered them with a small piece of scrap paper or wrapped them in brown
packaging paper. I only used one brand new box for all the items I shipped out of state,
including everything from gift boxes to exterior packaging.

If you want to make your gift giving green, check out these environmentally friendly gift wrapping tips from the Green Goddess. I loved her idea to buy gift bags and reuse them year after year. Also, here's a tutorial on how to make your own bows from magazines you already own by EcoLizzie.

Finally, I'll leave you with some photos from the outside of the packages I sent. It's become
a holiday tradition for me to make them as merry and bright on the outside as they are on
the inside.










Holiday cheer to you and yours!

3 comments:

Liz Holland said...

Thank you so much for linking to EcoLizzie!! Your blog is beautiful

Unknown said...

You are so cute! You have to be the best Auntie on the planet!

Kristi said...

Sam, you are so smart and so creative! I just love you! What a great auntie you are, those kids are so lucky. I love the holiday design you have here, I am in such a blogging design funk because it takes me so much more work now to build the site and change things up. I've been enjoying more time reading lately :)
Anyway, I am totally going to use shredded paper for packing boxes forever on. I hate styrofoam with a passion.
Hopefully as else is well with you