Hack: Hiding your Clutter at Christmas

The trees are barren and Thanksgiving has come and gone. It’s officially December and it’s time to start putting out the Christmas decorations in our house. Undoubtedly, a new collection of items throughout the year have managed to find a home on our bookshelves, like my cookbooks. We have a very small kitchen which we planned on gutting when we moved into the house, four years ago.

I thought last year would be the year, but then we had our baby, so that got tabled. Anyways, our kitchen is functional, but lacks storage for things like my cookbooks. These found their way onto the living room shelve. To avoid the revolving carasoul of clutter or shipping them to the basement abyss, I wanted to come up with a solution to keep them there, without distracting from the feel of Christmas.

The easiest solution I could think of… wrap them up! I didn’t want to wrap them completely in case I needed access to one during the next few weeks, but you can’t tell by looking at it. It looks like a beautifully wrapped gift.

Before

2. I used an old diaper box. Use any box that will fit the things you are looking to cover up, or use multiple boxes.

3. Fold the flaps inside the box. Tape them down if they are stubborn. Wrap the box in whatever wrapping paper you prefer. I did a silver sparkly paper to match the “White Christmas,” theme going on in my front living room. If you use a foil type paper, it will give it a clean look. I also learned from my years of gift wapping in the retail world to run your thumb and index finger down the coroners to give it a crisp edge.