And further more...: Who wants to take my addiction? It's Free.

There's probably not a person on the planet who doesn't have some sort of addiction. Or multiple sorts of addictions. Some are more obvious than others. Some are more socially acceptable than others.

My most obvious acceptable addiction is wrapping paper. Yes wrapping paper.

So here I am standing before you publicly declaring, "My name is Liana. I am a wrapping paper addict."

I'm not even sure where it started. Probably somewhere in the early 90's when gift bags made an entrance. While they were a Godsend for the uncreative crowd, there were those of us who could never fully embrace them, feeling like using one was somehow 'cheating." On who or what, I don't know.

And so began my wrapping paper journey...

Well, let's back up a bit. As gift bags eliminated the dilemma of what to do with a misshapen package, I, not willing to cave to the gift bag craze, began to collect boxes of various sizes to put misshapen gifts into before wrapping. When we sold our previous house almost 13 years ago, I had a floor to ceiling stack of "perfect boxes" waiting for the perfect opportunity to put a misshapen gift into before wrapping. I couldn't really justify packing up a stack of boxes and moving them. so they became fire starter for the giant "redneck-we-lived-out-of-city-limits" bonfire. And since moving, I have refused to collect boxes. Yay me.

However, I still refuse to wrap misshapen gifts as is. But I no longer save and collect empty cardboard boxes. Now, I don't like to put confessions in writing, but I may or may not have gone out and bought a new pair of shoes a time or two simply so I'd have an appropriate box to wrap a gift in.

In my obsession, not only do gifts have to be rectangular in shape, if there are more than one, they must coordinate. Each year at Christmas, all my gifts have a theme. Well, the gifts aren't themed but they are wrapped in a theme. In rectangular boxes.

And this has led to a new addiction: wrapping paper. Every January I buy a ridiculous amount of themed wrapping paper for the following Christmas. And if I change my mind before November, those purchases go into storage, and I buy more.

I'd like some input here... how many rolls of gift wrap do you have on hand?

Moving along...

With our current renovation, I feel like I have a new home. A beautiful non-cluttered living space. And we over-calculated the flooring purchase. So we have enough flooring to cover the concrete basement floor in the laundry/storage area. ( I do publicly confess that it wasn't really an "over calculation" on my part but a bit of an intentional buying enough so we can actually finish the unfinished part of the basement)

And as such, I need to clean off the "junk shelves" so we can move them and install the flooring.

Cleaning out this area of our basement has meant going through my boxes, bins and random stacks of wrapping paper, ribbon other assorted paraphernalia associated with gift-giving.

Oh. My. F.... fancy frickin' flip.

I shocked even myself.

How many rolls of "curling ribbon" do most people own? Please tell me it's somewhere over 40.

How many rolls of wrapping paper do you have? Is it nearing 100?

Oh gawd. I think I have a problem here.

And gift bags? I don't even use them!!! Why would I have dozens of wine gift bags?? I don't use gift bags! And I sure as hell don't give wine away!!!!!

But in my purging of the basement, I drank the wine. And sorted. And got ruthless.

I kept about 30 percent of the wrap. Less than 30 rolls. (Gawd, that still sounds ridiculous as I type it out)

I couldn't part with more than 25% of the curling ribbon. Do I really need 30 rolls of ribbon, including 6 shades of purple? Apparently.

I put the remaining ribbon, bags and rolls of paper - some partial rolls and some still new, into boxes for "donation."

My track record for actually donating crap I no longer want is rather dismal. Generally it sits around for a couple of months till hubby does the next dump run.

So... if you want my addiction, it's yours. If you ask and pick up before the next dump run. Please.