With the holidays just around the corner, there’s a flurry of gift buying and wrapping that feels like it will never end. But once it does, and you’re left with torn up wrapping paper and enough tissue paper to last you a lifetime, it never feels great to just throw it all away.
So, we asked an event planner what she does with her leftover tissue paper at the end of the gifting flurry, and it turns out the possibilities are endless. We gathered five of her best tips so that you can end the holidays knowing you got the most life out of your gifts and their wrapping.
Meet the Expert
Colleen Kennedy Cohen is an event designer and creative director based in London.
Packaging Softener
As the glow of the holidays begins to dim, gifts are all unwrapped, and the decorations start coming down, this is the perfect time to put everything together and kill two birds with one stone.
While packing away delicate ornaments and other holiday decor, wrap up the fragile items in some used wrapping paper. This will save cost on bubble wrap or other softening package material, and add to some of the cheer when you go to unwrap these same items next year. Plus, by reusing tissue paper in this way, your supply just refreshes itself every year.
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Arts and Crafts Projects
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There are so many crafts to be done with leftover tissue paper, and you can get as creative as you like.
“If you have little ones like me, there are so many fun art and craft projects utilizing tissue paper,” Colleen Kennedy Cohen, an event designer, says. “Allow them to tear, cut, fold, crumple, and let their imaginations run wild.”
Consider making confetti to be passed and tossed around on New Years Eve, cut it up to make some papel picado for a Cinco de Mayo party, or string it up to make some chic festive garland decor for any event. The possibilities are endless, for both child and adult crafts.
Make Some Ornaments
If you have empty ornaments or just some outdated ones that need a bit of a facelift, try making your own by filling them with used tissue paper. Curate the designs and colors inside, and consider adding some design elements to the outside, too.
This is a great activity to do with friends or children as you wind down the holidays and add them to storage with the leftover paper. Nothing will be more exciting next year than seeing your new creations again and getting to hang them around for the first time.
Save for Another Gift
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If the designs or colors are just too cute to put away or cut up, try reusing them in a gift. But don’t use it as tissue paper itself, as it could look too wrinkled and disheveled.
“A great way to reuse tissue paper while maintaining aesthetics is to crumple the tissue at the base of the gift bag to help prevent your present from sliding,” Cohen says. “Add a fresh piece of tissue at the top for visual appeal.”
If you can’t quite master the casually crumpled look, shred the paper and use it for filler in a box gift instead.
Compost It
If all else fails, tissue paper can find a second life in a garden or compost bin. Because it is so thin and made of lower-quality fibers, it is prone to decay.
“Tissue paper is usually compostable as long as it’s free of glitter, foil, and any special coating,” Cohen says.
You can add it to a compost bin, but a more seasonal use for it (if you live in cold weather) is to add it to plant bases as a mulch or winterizing agent to protect roots from the biting cold.
