No matter how much I love my Christmas decorations, I am always ready to put them away once Christmas day is over. I think I anticipate the New Year coming, which automatically gets me in the mood to declutter and organize! I also can't stand how hard it is to dust my home with a bunch of Christmas chotskies sitting around.
Today was the day to get it all put away. I decided to quickly grab all decorations from every room, put them in a central location, (my dining room table) and bring the storage bins to said location. This made it very easy to see what I had, what I wanted to keep or get rid of, and easy to put into bins because I could see the size and shape of everything that needed stored.
Once I gathered all Christmas decorations from every room, I started to dismantle my tree. I actually have 2 trees. One in the living room that is considered our 'pretty' tree--this is the one I attacked today. Our other tree is a family tree downstairs, and that one we will dismantle as a family, as it is full of Hallmark ornaments that each need put back into its cozy box, one by one. That is a big, time consuming job, so I will let my family help me with that one tomorrow.
I took the ribbon off my tree and rolled it around the spool it came on. I took down all the decorations and Christmas balls. I rolled the lights up onto the handy plastic roller they came on. My Colsie girl helped me take the branches down and put them back into the Christmas tree box.
I have kept the original containers of most of my Christmas balls which has been great for protecting and storing them. Our
homemade marble Christmas balls are like new, 3 years later!
For the few that do not have a container, I use Christmas bins that come with cardboard dividers. These work GREAT for ornaments or smaller, breakable decorations --like candle holders.
I put all smaller decor away in this fashion, wrapping some in tissue paper if delicate. I started with small and worked my way into my larger pieces, using 3 red Christmas bins. I used our 3 fluffy stockings in between breakables, and tissue paper for the rest.
I got rid of decorations I did not use this year--2 bags worth! I went from 6 Christmas bins down to 4. Not bad, huh?
It felt so good to move furniture back to their pre-Christmas spaces, after dusting and vacuuming, of course. I did leave out a few winter type decorations. A couple small winter trees, a snowflake candle holder, and that big, crazy silver twig thing you see in the middle of my table. I love the texture of it and I think it looks wintry.
1. Collect all Christmas decorations from every room, put them in a central location. I used my dining room table.
2. Take ornaments off the tree
3. Take lights off the tree
4. Take tree down and box it
5. Sweep up loose pin needles.
6. Bring all Christmas storage bins to central location
7. Decide what to get rid of. Don't keep everything! Only keep what you love.
8. Wind lights up. Store. Mine came with a handy dandy plastic wheel to roll them on. I have also used washed out Christmas popcorn tins as light storage in the past.
9. Wind Christmas ribbon up if used to decorate the tree. I kept the spool it came on and used that.
10. Put Christmas balls back into original container, or use a bin that has cardboard separators. Here is also a great idea I saw on Pinterest.
11. Store small decorations in bins with separators. If you don't have them, wrap in newspaper or tissue paper and store in a bin.
12. Work from smallest items to largest. At least this worked for me. It was nice to get all the little chotskies out of the way and then work the large pieces into bins, almost like a puzzle!
13. Leave out some 'winter' type decor if desired. Just a bit. Leave room in one of your Christmas bins to store this once spring comes.
14. Sweep, vacuum and dust!
15. Light a candle, get a cup of chai, and enjoy the uncluttered atmosphere of your home!
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It is ok to break it up into days. If you have lights and decorations up outside, do them another day. I saved my basement tree for another day. Small steps are better than procrastinating until spring!!
