Like every holiday season, you have to dig through containers of jumbled decorations to find the ones you want. You search for holiday tableware in dining room drawers, kitchen cabinets and the basement, but never find all the things you know you have and put somewhere. Gift-wrap supplies are nowhere to be found so you buy new ones. Why go through that time-and-money-wasting, stress-producing chaos, year after year after year?
The good news? Your home looks lovely for the holidays. But every year you dread–more and more–the process of decorating.
What’s the secret to stress-free holiday decorating? Organization! While the holiday decorations you chose to display this season, others you didn’t use this time but may want to use in the future, and those you no longer want are fresh in mind, the perfect time to organize it all is at the end of this holiday season.
For decorations, tableware, gift-wrap supplies and the rest, the organizing process is basically the same. Here’s how.
- Pick a spot to work with enough space to spread out.
- Gather all items.
- Decide which favorites to keep, sort them into broad categories (decorations, tableware, bakeware) and set aside the ones you no longer want.
- With a large category like decorations, sort into smaller categories (candles, ornaments, lights).
- You can sort by holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, Kwanzaa), room, inside/outside or any way you like.
- To store the items, use containers that are the correct size and shape for what is being contained.
- Label all containers.
- Try to keep all holiday items in one area, such as on basement shelves.
- Donate, recycle or toss the rest.
From now on, your favorite holiday décor will be super-easy to access and put away. It’s an investment of time you make now that will pay off for holiday seasons to come!
All my best wishes for a happy, healthy and organized holiday season and throughout 2018!