Miss Simplee Sufficient

If you ask me, one of the biggest reasons that gift cards have caught on so widely is because it means that there are no presents to wrap!

When I first got married, every time a holiday, birthday or other special occasion rolled around, I’d pitifully wrap the presents and then - so we could BOTH save some face - I’d let him claim all of the efforts. He came out looking like a real Prince Charming and I didn’t have to admit that my strengths were in UN-wrapping presents, NOT the other way around.

Unfortunately, as our first few anniversaries came and went, everyone else started to catch on. The cat was out of the proverbial gift bag!

If you can relate, don’t worry - there’s hope... The following oh-so-simple solutions and strategies can help eliminate your embarrassment:

That’s A Wrap!
Gift wrapping is a bit like tying a neck-tie, there are a LOT of ways to do it, but the naked eye rarely knows this diversity. The major “rule” of wrapping is to slow down and relax. It also doesn’t hurt to keep the carpenter’s adage in mind: measure twice and cut once!

Fortunately, there are a host of websites out there geared exclusively towards helping you to become a better gift wrapper. Here are a just a few of them. Bookmark them and use them often AND well...

www.ehow.com has a series of 13 videos that can help you out with various aspects of wrapping presents. You can view them all here, How to Wrap a Gift Video Series

The folks on Squidoo also have a few recommendations of their own, which you can check it out here, How to Wrap Your Gifts Like a Professional.  If you’d like to try something out that’s outside of the proverbial box, Japanese gift wrapping, known as tsutsumi, is an option you can learn more about visiting here, Japanese Gift Wrapping.

It’s In the Bag
If you absolutely can’t seem to manage this whole gift-wrapping thing without wrinkled paper, awkward bulks, ugly bunches, or paper that doesn’t quite cover the entire present, then you might want to trade in traditional gift wrapping in favor of the old Gift Bag technique.

Unlike gift wrapping, relying on gift bags for each present can get a bit pricey. While wrapping paper can be purchased in bulk, each time you decide to gift bag an item, there are a number of items you need to purchase, including:

Gift bags
Tissue paper
Bows
A Card

For more information on how to get everything put together seamlessly and with ease, be sure to check out the following article, How to Wrap a Gift in a Bag at wikiHow.

Pay the Pros
While you’re on a budget, paying for professional gift wrapping services may seem to be out of your league, if you shop around, it CAN be done. Many department stores offer paid gift wrapping around the holidays. As a matter of fact, some entrepreneurial students set up gift wrapping services of their own to make a few extra bucks whenever holidays roll around.

A few online shopping retailers offer gift wrapping services - both free and at a premium price. This pops up a bit more around major holidays like Christmas, though, so it might be difficult to find wrapping for, say, birthday gifts or shower gifts.

Gift wrapping services usually start at about $1.00 per package, so this can get fairly pricey. Try to mix up your gift wrapping mix between hand wrapped, gift bagged and paid services to help avoid breaking the bank.

Of course, there ARE other options. If you can’t wrap, don’t want to bag it or can’t afford to pay the pros, you can always send flowers or do what everyone else does and load up on those oh-so-impersonal gift certificates!