How Much Wrapping Paper (Size and Measuring) Do I Need?

When it comes to wrapping gifts, many of us don’t like to admit how much wrapping paper we end up wasting, either because the gift is larger or smaller than we anticipated. Good news is, there are easy ways to ensure that you’ve just the right amount of wrapping paper per gift, regardless of what kind of gift you are trying to wrap.

Wrapping a Square or Rectangle

First, let’s talk about wrapping square or rectangular gifts, including soft gifts like sweaters that are folded into a rectangular shape.

Unroll your wrapping paper onto a flat surface, with the roll farthest away from you. Now, roll a good amount of paper out, decorative side down, and place your gift in the center. Without cutting the paper, fold the end closest to you over the gift, with about an extra inch of paper hanging over. Once you achieve that, you can cut at the roll.  

Now, pull each side up to make sure there’s enough wrapping paper to cover three quarters of the way up the gift. If there is, you’re all set. If you need to move the gift closer to the left or right side of the paper because there’s too much excess, then do that to avoid ending up with wasted strips of paper that you’d have to trim later on.  

Once there is enough paper on the edge to cover three quarters of the gift, measure the width of that excess amount and cut on the other side to match.

An Alternative Method for Wrapping a Square or Rectangular Gift

While the above method is perfectly effective at getting the measurements just right, we’re going to offer an alternative method that does just as good of a job.

First, you’ll want to measure and cut the width, which should be the same width as the width of your gift, plus twice the height of the gift. In other words, if you’ve a box that’s 7 inches wide and 2 inches tall, you will need to cut 7+2+2 inches, or 11 inches.

Then, you got to measure and cut the length. To do so, grab a piece of measuring tape ribbon and wrap it around the length the box, and then add an inch to that to determine what the length of your wrapping paper should be. By adding an inch, you’re creating a small overlap when you eventually fold the wrapping paper over your box.

Wrapping an Unusually Shaped Gift

If you have an unusually shaped gift, like a cylinder or a ball shape, then follow the same steps above up to the point of placing the gift in the center of the unrolled paper. Fold the paper over, from the edge that’s facing you, to make sure that you can cover the gift and still have an inch of overlap. Cut at the roll here. Then, with each side that’s leftover, fold it up to make sure that it can fully cover the sides of the gift. If so, then go ahead and cut. If there’s too much excess on either sides, reposition the gift closer to the edge until the one edge can fold enough to just cover the one side of the gift, and measure out the other side to match the width of the edge’s side, before cutting.

Stop Wasting Wrapping Paper with These Easy Methods 

When it comes to wrapping gifts, you want to waste as little paper as possible – especially if you have a lot of gifts to wrap at one time. Fortunately, these methods will make sure that you don’t go through any more wrapping paper than what’s necessary. At Waterleaf Paper, we encourage our customers to measure their gifts using these techniques so that they can get as much out of each roll of our wrapping paper as possible, to avoid waste.