HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Okay, It's a situation. I am generally organized, and I know where everything is, and I don’t have too many secret things stashed away.
However.
Ribbon.
I cannot throw away ribbon. When gifts come so beautifully wrapped, and there is glorious real satin ribbon, or the kind that has wire reinforcements, or gorgeous plaid with lacy edges or silky, slinky different colors, that I would never buy, the wide kind, or the thin kind. And it is so pretty.
Oh, I think I will keep this! So I wind it around my fingers, and put a paper clip on it or a rubber band. And I put it in the bag of ribbon.
(Sometimes I just put it in the bag unwound. I admit it.)
Then I need to wrap a package and I think oh! My Ribbon Bag! It will have the perfect kind. And I will reuse the ribbon and save the world.
So I look for the ribbon bag, yes, there will definitely be a perfect piece.
But. The problem is that you can’t tell how long the piece of ribbon is, right? Not exactly, until you unwind it, or hold it up, and then, if it’s wrong, you have to wind it up again. Waste of time. Annoying.
And, sometimes, the ribbon gets wrinkly. Plus, it’s already wrinkly where the bow was tied so you can’t really reuse it instantly. Then you have to iron the ribbon.
Well, I don’t want to iron ribbon!
So, I always decide, I’ll just get out some NEW ribbon on a nice new roll, pull out exactly the amount I need, and it will already be nice and flat and perfectly sized.
And back into the drawer the Ribbon Bag goes. But I still can’t throw it away.
I’m not sure what to do about this. It is so gorgeous, and so luxurious. And so incredibly pretty and festive.
Maybe I’ll just… Get out the iron and iron the heck out of all of it, and wind it onto its own spools and make it be perfect. Yeah, I’ll do that. As soon as I finish my book.
How about you, Reds and readers? Do you save ribbon? And do you actually… here’s the key question…use it again ?
Hehehehehe . . . .
ReplyDeleteYes, to both; I save ribbon and I do actually use it again if it is right for my package. However, the really wrinkled satin ribbons get tossed in the dryer and run through the dewrinkle cycle . . . no ironing necessary :)
What? Really? That is life-changing! It doesn’t hurt it?
DeleteNo, I've never had a problem with the satin ribbons. I just put them in one of those laundry bags designed for delicate items and let the dewrinkle cycle do its thing . . . .
DeleteDewrinkle cycle? That is brilliant!!
DeleteYes, I save and reuse ribbon. The wired kind reshapes the best. Also I have used shorter pieces of particularly pretty ribbon as bookmarks.
ReplyDeleteYes, the wire kind is GENIUS! Oh, bookmarks! That's a great idea--so pretty and celebratory!
DeleteYes, bookmarks! Sometimes I'm even organized enough to save the ribbon as the marker for the book it was wrapping in the first place. Other times, it's just the un-wrinkled or otherwise OK part of a damaged bigger piece. If I leave a bookmark in a reference book long enough (including my Annotated Sherlock Holmes), sometimes I can even remember where a story or quotation is by getting a picture of the ribbon (or other bookmark) in my mind. (A cousin who knows me very well sent me a pack of five bookmarks for my birthday, and I made it six by saving the label.)
DeleteI do save ribbon. But I always save bows. Which is funny because I never put them on packages. I always use curling ribbon.
ReplyDeleteI do NOT save ribbon.
DeleteI love that curling ribbon! It’s so much fun!
DeleteI am guilty as well! I love ribbons! Thanks for the tip Joan. I’ll have to try the dryer!
ReplyDeleteIsn’t that amazing? I can’t believe that works… absolutely life-changing !
DeleteNo, I do not save ribbons or bows or gift wrapping paper or gift boxes.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's so--freeing, Dru! YOu are TOUGH!
DeleteI used to save ribbon - and paper! - before we moved to Portugal, when I thought, "Do I really want to ship this?" (I saved ribbon even when I went to sticky bows, which were so much easier.) Now that we're in Braga, I can see it starting to creep up on me again: For one thing, they don't have sticky bows here that I can find. What to do? :-) Although, I confess, I don't iron them. In fact, I iron as little as possible. When I shop, I try to find wrinkle free items. I really hate ironing.
ReplyDeleteIroning! We should talk about that some day...xoxo ANd hmmm..no sticky bows in Portugal? We could get RICH!
DeleteI realized what a "period piece" I was watching the other night when a seamstress was murdered by being hit -- with an iron. That smarts... and that removes a weapon from modern stories!
DeleteOh, dear Hank - I operate the same way! Except my ribbon is stuffed in with the barely used wrapping paper from carefully opened packages. Or it came mid-year on some random item and I throw it in the Kitchen Drawer (yes, that drawer full of tape and paper clips and playing cards and flashlights and batteries and...).
ReplyDeleteI remember my mother taking off a lampshade and running a piece of satin ribbon over a lit lightulb to smooth it out. I guess that's ironing, except you don't have to set up the board and the iron. Modern lightbulbs don't get hot, though. And, yeah - who has time to iron ribbon? I haven't even wrapped anything yet.
Good luck with your pretty ribbon!
Lightbulbs don't get hot any more. Whoa. I have never thought about that. (and it sounds like a clue...)
DeleteElementary, dear Hank. The curious problem of the heat from the lightbulb. But there was no heat from the lightbulb. (Chorus) That was the curious problem.
DeleteNo, ribbons on Nome Street are used as cat toys. However suggestions for the perfect ribbon that is too small for your package: hot glue gun. Find a compatible piece in your ribbon bag, glue the ends together and proceed with the wrapping. You have now created a masterpiece designed by YOU.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! First get a glue gun. I confess, I do not have a glue gun. I would be terrified to have one. (I could just tie the ends together, though...) (or tape.) (Or sew!)
DeleteWe do have a glue gun! thanks, Coralee!
DeleteMy best friend in high school's father owned the card shop. ( Remember those?) If she was around when we opened packages, she'd say, Rip the paper! Tear the ribbon!" After all, selling new paper and ribbon was the family business. We still laugh!!
ReplyDeleteThat is GREAT! And a marvelous lesson in point of view! xxx
DeleteRemember card shops? Of course! I'm surrounded by evidence. Meanwhile, a neighbor who has her own card-making business left out a lot of sample cards and card-making papers a few months ago, so I am ready to make "refills" any time I mess up a card a have an empty envelope to work with. It does wonders for the left-over envelopes I have when I've bought stationery with equal numbers of sheets of paper and envelopes.
DeleteFrom Celia: Yup, I save ribbon. I wind it up, secure with the paper clip. I can still remember ironing all the red Christmas ribbon and hanging it over a cleaners wire hanger. Obsessed? me? Oh no. I shall follow Joan’s example, thank you Joan. I also keep the gift boxes and any saveable paper. A sad example, that’s me.
ReplyDeleteYou know, that sounds very Zen, actually. Ribbon ironing. Easy and rewarding. Hmmm. Well, I don't save the paper unless it is pretty pristine. But I saw a video yesterday (research!) on how to make bows out of wrapping paper! SO now, who knows.
DeleteI definitely save ribbon and I have ironed ribbon and it *is* one way to save the world. Keep doing it, Hank!
ReplyDeleteYAY! I wouldn't have to take out the whole ironing board , either, just do it on a towel. I could do the napkins at the same time!
DeleteI learned from my grandmother to save all my ribbons. 🎀 I don’t think I ever used them until I had a child who lived to play with them. It was worth it.♥️
ReplyDeleteOh, adorable! WHat a vision.....xxx
DeleteRe: Unclear length: You could measure the ribbon before rolling it up and put a little tag about the length on it. I do something similar for clients when we're sorting through tablecloths and I hear "I just have so many different sizes and I don't know which size they are until I open it up fully". So we do. And we measure. And we put a note with a pin on it. And we fold it back up, with the tag visible.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay to collect pretty things. It's also okay to never use them. Refer to it as art, and not utilitarian, and you'll think of it differently. You'll also think of how much and where you store it - for instance, in a beautiful glass vase that's visible all the time if you love looking at them.
If you're only thinking of them as utilitarian, and then you never utilize them... well... you know what that means. :-) Happy Holidays, Hank!
(additional thought re: wrinkles - you could also iron them, hang them on a hanger with a binder clip, and they'd be pressed and ready to go with minimal folds -- if this is how you want to spend your time!)
DeleteUh oh, no joy! But they do bring joy--they are so pretty! And yikes, I am intimidated that YOU are reading this! You would never have a ribbon bag. A disorganized ribbon bag, at least. Because of you, though, I DID re-do a whole kitchen cabinet, and it makes me happy every day! You always give me the power to throw things away.
DeleteI have a cloth bag that once wrapped a leather handbag I bought at a huge discount. I didn't have a use for it, but nor did I have a heart to throw it away. I'm getting an idea now. Thank you, Jungle Red Writers!
DeleteI celebrate your organized ribbons, Hank! No judging! :-) I have ribbons I never use, too, but because of this post, the pretty one I just got wrapping a super cozy blanket I just received was given the heave-ho without a second thought!
DeleteI save ribbon, boxes, & bows. Colored tissue paper, don’t throw that out! I have bags of gift bags.The ribbon is the one thing that doesn’t get reused. But I don’t save wrapping paper because that is just silly. I have to draw the line somewhere! 🤣
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I don't get many ribbons so there's none to save. But I do keep gift bags to reuse.
ReplyDeleteGift bags! SO genius! And I just saw a video on how to make gift bags out of wrapping paper--very very clever.
DeleteThe gift bag invention and popularization really did a number on gift wrap, ribbon, and the dreaded "wait on line at the department store to ask them if they have any shirt boxes" pursuit. Fortunately, it's still just as easy to lose your scissors that you were JUST USING.
ReplyDeleteOh, my gosh--that happens EVERY time! I JUST had them, I did not get up, there is no way they could be anywhere else. But the scissors have disappeared. Every time! SO funny.
DeleteBeing left-handed makes me VERY defensive about where I keep my two useable pairs of scissors -- one for fabrics and one for papers. I may even still have my little snub-nosed "lefties" from childhood art projects. If you don't see the need for lefty scissors, try using your right-handed ones in your left-hand. It is not going to work. I am better at keeping track of scissors than my phone... but I have only one phone!
DeleteGuilty as charged! I also enjoy purchasing ribbon. Rows and rows of ribbon--patterns and sparkles and gorgeous colors! I have used and re-used ribbon--especially the wire-edged--in creating holiday and special-occasion centerpieces, as well as for packages.
ReplyDeleteThose big gorgeous rolls of ribbon are SO irresistible!
DeleteI save ribbon, but in a much more disorganized manner. I rarely re-use it. I also have been known to save parts of homemade greeting cards, in hopes of using them on future presents--also aspiration rather than reality. I've never ironed ribbon, but my mom used to reuse wrapping paper and sometimes would iron it to straighten it out.
ReplyDeleteWell, I save greeting cards, too, just the fronts. If they have nothing on the back of the front (you know?) I cut them into random shapes (or for instance, cut out the star or or the cardinal or whatever) , and use them as gift tags. Seriously, ,this is a GREAT thing, easy and gorgeous.
DeleteI have so many talented friends who make beautiful cards--great idea to use them as tags!
DeleteIn my days working at The Art Institute of Chicago, my Saturday treat (and workout!) was to pick up the weekly calendars from the copy center and take them to various places around the museum. (In about three years of that setup, I wound up leaving some in roughly five extra places than when I started.) One way I helped them was that when something was made with bigger paper than necessary, there was a box of blank paper left out for the taking -- long rectangles of various colors. Blank bookmarks, in other words! I tucked some into my notebooks almost every week, as was encouraged instead of throwing them out. From rubber stamps to newspaper ads to DVD boxes, I've made tons of bookmarks over the years. Next year, I might even run out of blank paper.
DeleteIf you are craft-inclined at all, you could become a ribbon artist, weaving those bright, shiny bits of fabric into placemats or wall hangings. In the 19th century women would save bits of ribbon to make really intricate quilt tops. You might also connect many different colors and lengths into a garland for holiday trees or wreaths, to wind up your staircase, or just make a pretty swag across the top of your drapes. As a quilter, I can throw away ribbon, but fabric? Never.
ReplyDeleteCan you come over? xooxoo
DeleteHANK: Just a thought...I was wondering about something like a sock organizer? Perhaps put all short ribbons together in one cube, medium sized ribbons in one cube and long ribbons in one cube?
ReplyDeleteYou are way better organized than I am! I often think about left over ribbons. At university, I recall one of my housemates handmade her own doilies for her bridesmaids for her wedding after graduation. She also had many ribbons. She was very smart and handy with crafts. She would use ribbons for different crafts projects.
For me, I like to reuse ribbons for gift wrapping.
Just had another idea. If you have too many same sized ribbons, perhaps you could collect your extra novels and put a ribbon around each copy? Walk around your favorite spots in your town and leave copies of your books like the book fairy? Charlie Mackeasy who wrote The Boy, The Mole, The Pig and the Horse picture book, has been leaving copies around his town in England.
And I loved ribbons for hair.
Diana
Oh, make the books into gifts! SO very sweet! Yes, hair ribbons, so old fashioned, but so lovely.
DeleteGrandma saved bows. She had dress and suit boxes in the attic labeled by size and after presents were open, the boxes were brought out so the bows could be sorted for next year and she did use the bows again. When she finally downsized the majority of bows all went into a dumpster. We did save one box, a mixed assortment.
ReplyDeleteIf they are used again, that is so great! And she sounds very organized--that is so cute. But sometimes downsizing MUST be done. ANd that's good. xxx
DeleteI do not. But The Girl does. She has made some pretty projects out of re-used ribbon, including a topper for our Christmas tree.
ReplyDeleteOh, so clever! xxx
DeleteGuilty. I save ribbon. And I reuse it. My "collection" didn't make the move, nor did the gift wrap so I'm starting from scratch. If it's wrinkled where the bow was before, well guess where my bow is going?
ReplyDeleteYup! The ol' wrinkle cover-up maneuver! xxx
DeleteI do save ribbon. I also buy remnants on sale. I used them on my homemade wreathes. Since I live in Maine, there's plenty of pine around and nothing smells better!
ReplyDeleteI imagine those are SO pretty! ANd I agree, that pine smells lovely and nostalgic. xxx
DeleteTalk about being out of my comfort zone. I've obviously fallen into a world here of package wrappers who use ribbon to adorn their packages. Opening packages is fun, and they look beautiful under the tree, and I'm not a complete mess at wrapping. But, well, gift bags. I'm truly thinking of those receiving the gifts. They can get to their presents more quickly with gift bags, so I have pretty much gone over to the use of gift bags now. Yes, I'm just a little bit shamed when I bring gift bags to my daughter's on Christmas and the other grandmother shows up with beautifully wrapped packages, complete with ribbon. She is untouchable in her skill, so maybe it's better that I just know my limitations.
ReplyDeleteI do save ribbon, Hank, but I have a ribbon tub, not a ribbon bag. I'd swear I've been reusing some of it for a couple of decades lol. I love the wired ribbon because it's easy to straighten out without having to resort to the dreaded iron.
ReplyDeleteA TUB! Nice. And yes, I am certain I have ribbon that was on our wedding gifts, 24 years ago. But I love that!
DeleteHey, everybody - Jenna has responded to yesterday's comments. She said her travel was followed by a blizzard!
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you Edith. As I was about to tell you all, Jenna is answering comments from yesterday! She DROVE from Boston to MInnesota, to avoid the storm chaos, and now she's in the midst of CRAZY ice and snow--go to her facebook page and see the photos! So she was battling the elements when she had planned to answer comments, but nature got in the way. But Jenna is a force in herself, so she's here's now! WIth some fascinating answers to our questions!
ReplyDeleteWe've saved a lot of ribbon over the years. It does seem to be such a waste to throw it away. If you've got a pretty ribbon bag, maybe the holidays are the time to hang it on the mantle, or put it under the tree, or wrap it up and pass it on to someone... Then again, maybe just leaving it in the drawer is best.
ReplyDeleteOh,so brilliant! The thing itself is all we need! xx
DeleteHi Hank,
ReplyDeleteI reuse ribbon, wrapping paper if it's in good enough shape. I'm learning to make junk Journals which I want to give to readers as contest prizes or to make a junk journal for each of my books.. Small pieces of ribbon fcan be used for scrap fabric projects you can make in a short amount of time.
Hope my suggestions are useful to someone.