A Christmas Edition of Random Reuses

If you've read this blog for a while, you may know that I'm always on the lookout for ways to reuse items around my house, even if it's just once, before it goes to the trash. It's been a while since I've done one of these Random Reuse posts, so I thought I'd share a few reuses to help during the Christmas season!

Rolls of wrapping paper can turn into a big, wrinkled mess in no time (especially with kids wanting to wrap their own homemade gifts). One way to keep your rolls of wrapping paper a little more tidy is to keep them rolled with this handy-dandy cuff made from a toilet paper roll. I saw this idea years ago on Pinterest and it works really well. All you have to do is cut in a line down a toilet paper tube so it opens up and then put it around the roll of paper. Easy peasy!

While I'm on the topic of wrapping gifts, one thing I always do is reuse the boxes from cereal and crackers for gift boxes. My mom did this all the time when I was a kid. I mean, why spend the money on gift boxes for family gifts when they're going to be torn apart? This is a good thing to do if you have someone that tries to peek under the wrapping before Christmas, because all they'll see is a cereal box. I like using the cereal boxes because it makes things a little more confusing, adds an extra level of mystery because the shape gives nothing away. Plus, there's the inevitable joking (at least it happened with my family growing up and now) when you open presents Christmas morning -- "I've always wanted a box of Cheerios!".

Maybe this is a super-obvious tip (I never know with these reuses. Am I clever or are these common sense? Oh well.), but if you need a hook for an ornament you can always use a stretched out paper clip. Personally, I think they hang better than those flimsy ornament hooks that get tangled up in the box. 

I'm sure I'm not the only who does a lot of baking during the Christmas season (have you tried my recipe for the BEST gingerbread cookies ever? Because if you haven't, you should). One thing I've been doing is saving my butter wrappers when I've used up a stick of butter. When it's time to bake a batch of cookies, I use the little remnants of butter on the wrapper to grease my cookie sheet. 

Finally, what list of Christmas reuses would be complete without the wrapping paper tube-turned-sword? Having grown up in a house full of boys and now currently being outnumbered by boys again, I know all too well that paper tube sword fights are an inevitability around Christmastime. And, let's be honest, they're one of the best (and most fun) reuses out there.