IN EACH ROOM â—½ HOME
It might be your attic, a designated closet or two, special boxes, or somewhere…and it’s the place where you keep all your wrapping paper and ribbons and bows, it’s where you place your holiday décor until next December, or it’s where you store all of the new items you bought after Christmas on sale that you can’t wait to set out when Christmas rolls around again.
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It also might be that you are the type of person that is so organized that everything is perfectly in its place by January 1 and your home is in order, every closet and attic space is labeled, and things are put back together beautifully like a magazine page…
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BUT…
If you’re like me, I don’t want to do all of that organizing right after Christmas. I’m tired from the lists and the wrapping and the baking and the doing, so trying to make sense of all the chaos right after the holidays is not what I want to spend my time doing!
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I have come up with a system that works for me, and gives me fun all year long, as I tackle each task in each room:
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All of the wrapping paper, ribbons and bows, scissors and tags are in a specific closet and the mess from Christmas just gets stacked and placed in that closet until July. July is the month where I organize and go through all of what I have, make a list of what I need, and I’m in the mood – because it’s hot outside and I’m
excited that the fall is sort of near! July is closet time for organizing wrapping paper, etc.!
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All of the seasonal dishes and towels, etc. are also just stacked away in this big storage unit I have in the garage, and I do not want to tackle that either…right after Christmas. So, I just take everything out there, place it somewhere on the shelves, and then pick another month for this, as well! It’s usually sometime in the spring when I’m in the mood, on a rainy day. I step out in the garage and empty the whole unit, and I stack and donate and organize to my heart’s delight.
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All of the Christmas décor like tree trimming and wreaths, and yard décor, etc. does get put into boxes when we take it all down, but it’s not neat. We’re usually tired of taking it all down and we just want it out of sight. However, this IS the one thing we spend a bit of time looking at before we place the boxes away. And that’s because we need our fresh memory of how we liked this or that, if it worked or not, etc. So we take a Saturday and wind up the lights, label the boxes, make room for all the stuff...
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BUT…
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We leave these boxes down through about mid-February because of all the after holidays sales. I must say I take great delight in shopping the sales all the way through mid-February, because I often find a brand new wreath 75% off, or the cutest manger scene or snowman, or a great set of tea towels, etc. – and I want to have a spot for these in the boxes! Then…the boxes are put away.
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And then…when Christmas rolls around and I’m ready to decorate, the boxes are opened and I am so excited as I see those new things once again!
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Maybe you have your own system and places and how you do things. Awesome. But if you don’t, consider planning and waiting and doing what you can do, and want to do, and then picking a time later to finish…it’s okay to do that! And it’s quite fun.