If you celebrate Christmas and like to decorate your home for the holiday, then this is a busy time of year for you. You’re pulling down the boxes of ornaments, testing the strings of lights, trying to figure out what you need to add to your decor and perhaps, wishing you had a better way to organize all the decorations. Here are three ideas to keep in mind while decorating this year:
1. After you’ve put up the decorations that you’re going to use, take a good, hard look at what’s left in the boxes. You’re not using it this year, or you would have put it up by now. Did you use it last year? If not, then it’s time to donate it or give it to someone else. This is the BEST time of year to get this kind of organizing done, so seize the moment! If you attend an annual ornament exchange or white elephant party, you may be able to put your unwanted items to use as gifts. If you decide to donate the items, please make sure they are something somebody else would actually want on their tree. Toss the broken, faded, torn, beat-up and just plain hideous decor.
2. If you like how your decor looks, take photos of your decorated space and place it in the appropriate box as a reminder of what goes where next year. No more trying to remember what you did to make your mantle elicit so many compliments.
3. Save the original packaging for any fragile new decor you buy. I’m not usually a fan of “saving the boxes,” but in this case, when the item spends most of the year in storage, it’s at its safest surrounded by that custom-cut Styrofoam block that it came in.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. As we get further into the Christmas season, I’ll post more of my favorite holiday decorating and organizing tips.
