Christmas morning, two years ago. My living room floor was buried under a mountain of torn wrapping paper, ribbons, and tape. It filled two trash bags. Two full bags, just from opening gifts for four people. I looked at that pile and thought: we wrap things in paper designed to exist for thirty seconds before heading to a landfill.

The next year I switched to reusable and recyclable wrapping. Everyone said the gifts looked nicer than before. My trash output on Christmas morning dropped to almost nothing. Here is what I use now.

Brown kraft paper (recyclable)

A roll of brown kraft paper costs about five dollars at any craft store and lasts for years. It is fully recyclable — unlike most glossy wrapping paper which has a plastic coating that makes it unrecyclable garbage. Kraft paper looks rustic and elegant on its own. Pair it with natural twine and a sprig of pine or rosemary tucked under the bow, and it looks intentional and beautiful rather than cheap.

Kids can draw on it. Adults can stamp it. You can tie it with fabric ribbon that the recipient keeps and reuses. Every year I get comments on how nice the presents look, and it costs a fraction of what I used to spend on wrapping paper that ended up in a trash bag.

Furoshiki (fabric wrapping)

Furoshiki is the Japanese art of wrapping items in fabric. You can use scarves, bandanas, tea towels, or any square of fabric. The wrapping becomes part of the gift — a scarf wrapped around a book, a tea towel around a kitchen gift. There are dozens of folding techniques online. Most are simpler than wrapping with paper.

I keep a drawer of thrifted scarves specifically for gift wrapping. They cost fifty cents to two dollars each and get reused year after year. My sister-in-law now wraps all her gifts this way and says she has not bought wrapping paper in three years.

Newspaper and old maps

The travel section of a newspaper makes gorgeous wrapping. Old road maps are even better. Both are recyclable, free, and give gifts a vintage feel. I collect interesting newspaper pages throughout the year — the comics section for kids, the food section for kitchen gifts, the arts section for book lovers.

Tape-free wrapping

Most wrapping paper cannot be recycled because of the tape stuck to it. Learn to wrap without tape using the diagonal fold method: place the gift diagonally on the paper, fold corners in and tuck them. Ribbon or twine holds everything closed. No tape means the paper can go straight into recycling.