Tissue Paper Storage

We're in the process of adding built-in bookshelves in the living room so we moved the old stand-alone bookshelves from the living room into my home office. During those changes, I decided to re-think how I'm storing/organizing some of my STUFF. This post is specifically about an idea I came up with on how to store tissue paper.

All my rolls of wrapping paper are stored very neatly by standing them up (cheek-by-jowl) in a tall open box. But how could I neatly store all those different packages ... and partial packages and single sheets ... of tissue paper? I happened to have a couple of empty cardboard cores from bolts of fabric -- that says something about how much fabric I have! -- and I decided to open the bolt cores up and use them for storage. I used 12 buttons, perle thread and the empty cardboard core and VOILA' - tissue paper storage!

For snug closure, I put buttons in the center and at each end of the container. To keep the buttons from tearing through the cardboard, I put a button on each side -- sort of inside and out, back to back -- and sewed them together right through the cardboard.

I just put all my lovely tissue papers inside - down the center, fold the sides closed and secure them and then fold the top and bottom flaps and secure them.

Each button-closure arrangement has 4 buttons -- 2 that are showing and 2 that are inside the cardboard container. The perle cotton is tied permanently to one of the top buttons and has been knotted on the very end so it won't ravel. I wind the string in a figure-8 around this button and that button and back to this button a couple of times and it holds very securely. It's a lot like those intra-company envelopes that large companies use.

It's not necessarily pretty -- I suppose I could have covered it in pretty paper or fabric -- but I was in a hurry and it works just fine for me.

And now I can stand it up next to the tall skinny box of wrapping paper! I love it!

It's another necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention kind of thing.