I find that after certain big events like a wedding, baby shower or Christmas you are left with a ridiculous amount of gift bags. They have been used once and then what? When I had my first son I must have received over 30 gift bags that were all perfectly good. I don't think I'll be able to reuse that many baby bags. I'm also a teacher so at Christmas I get 10-20 gift from my students usually in pretty gift bags. It seems a shame to throw them away or recycle them. I keep them in a closet to reuses them but I find my collection just keeps growing. What do you do with them?
I do exactly what you do, keep them in a cupboard. From time to time, I'm able to recycle them them and use them for gifts I'm giving friends and family. -especially if I struggle to find one that I like in stores. Of course, the trick is in ensuring that you don't use it on the person who previously gave it to you LOL That would be embarrassing.
I keep all of the gift bags I receive if they make it home in decent shape. I reuse them for gifts that I give. Most of my family members do the same thing, so they are not offended by my frugality. I also have a ton of baby shower gift bags, which I plan to use for my son's Christmas gifts! He is too young to know the difference between a Christmas pattern and a baby shower design, and will most likely be pleased to have something to rip into! As an added benefit, reusing the bags cuts down on waste and is better for the environment.
I keep the bags that are still in good condition folded into a box and use them as needed for other gifts. If I have more than enough bags I will donate them to the Goodwill store so that they can be used by someone else.
I generally re use them. I have a collection here with my Christmas stuff. They come in handy at holiday time. Another thing you could do most likely if you have more than you need is to turn them into a local Santa Council, or holiday giving center for the needy in your community., My guess is that they would make good use of them.
I just keep all of them for later use, though I have to admit I accumulate a lot more than I am able to use. Sometimes I use it to transport items as it serves as a nice bag I can bring that I could leave anywhere at the same time. If I'm going someplace and bringing food or clothes that I plan on leaving, for example, I'd just use the gift bags I have instead of actual bags I'd have to take back home with me.
When the gift bags were not in fashion yet, I would be keeping the wrappers of the big gifts that I can still use for the next year's gift giving. But in the last decade, fancy gift bags became popular. What I do is to carefully take off the sticker tags. But for those gift bags where the writings was on the bag itself, that goes straight to the stock room for use with other things. The good ones are recycled. Imagine the money I can save with those used gift bags.
I always keep them and reuse them. They are also just handy to keep bits and bobs in if you can't reuse them because they are slightly torn and I store things in them such as pens and sticky notes. Now that there are less plastic carrier bags around, most people aren't too fussy about a bag and what it says on it.
