With four kids, you can imagine how creative my parents got with saving money.  There was a special closet in the hallway of our house growing up.  In most homes, it’s called a linen closet.  In our home, it was called the gift closet.

What is this gift closet?  It’s the designated area where my parents stored gift-wrapping supplies and – you guessed it – gifts.  My mom would always find toys on clearance and store them in the gift closet.  Some were for us. Some were for us to give to friends at birthday parties.  We even had “emergency” gifts.  These were gifts that we could grab if we forgot we needed a gift for someone or if an event came up.

When Weston and I got married and bought our own house, it only seemed logical to turn the hallway closet into the gift closet.  Where else would I store all my gift-wrapping supplies??

Here are the three things we store in the gift closet:

1. Wrapping paper

We usually pick out one or two rolls of wrapping paper each year.  Since we still have plenty, we weren’t planning on buying any new rolls for a while.  Of course Target had to sell flamingo wrapping paper this year, so we did end up buying one new one.

I love buying wrapping paper (like, it’s embarrassing how much I love it), but there’s simply not enough room to keep buying more.  And there’s no way I’m wasting it, so I will just have to be content until we use up what we already have.

2. Gift bags

I don’t care if it’s lame, but I totally save most of the gift bags I receive.  Do you want to know how much money I’ve spent on gift bags in my lifetime?  Maybe $30 – and I have given a ton of gifts.  I reuse the gift bags so I don’t have to waste money.  I may never have to buy another Christmas, wedding, or baby shower bag because we have so many that were given to us!

3. Gifts

We sometimes find great deals on Christmas gifts throughout the year.  Instead of storing the gift in a random spot, we know it is safely tucked away in the gift closet for when it’s time to wrap it.  We also keep Dirty Santa gifts and any other gifts in here.  I imagine we will start storing toys in the gift closet as Camryn gets older and has to go to a ton of birthday parties.

Do you have a gift closet or special place to store all your gifts and gift wrap?  Tell me about it in the comments!