You know that question people like to ask as an icebreaker of some sort-the one that asks if you could only save one thing from your burning home (apart from your family or pets of course) what would it be? Well, after all these years I finally have my answer: My Christmas ornaments! They represent years of curation and too many after Christmas sales to count! They would not be quickly or easily replaced. Some of them I’ve even made and with the passing of years they become even more special.
It’s so exciting when it’s finally time to pull out the Christmas decorations, but it’s always mixed with the dread of pulling out tubs that you have to lug into your house in order to get the party started.
Because Christmas can be my busy season work-wise, I find if I don’t have everything up and ready by the Friday after Thanksgiving then I am playing catch up all season long with my decorations. Tubs stay in the house longer than they should and add to visual clutter that stresses me out. Like this year- you can read about that in the previous post called that tree.
I like to think of ways to streamline holiday decor so it’s easily accessible when next year rolls around. I used the Marie Kondo method to ruthlessly clean out my clothes closet and I was left with half a closet to store things. I use part of it to keep my small fake holiday trees and Christmas ornaments tucked safely away and in a climate-controlled space, unlike my garage. It’s so much easier to reach for this from the top shelf of my bedroom closet:
or even this:
Find some small storage bins that you like the look of. These are fabric-covered, but they don’t have to be. Make sure they have lids so you can stack them if needed. They should be larger than a shoebox-otherwise you’ll need too many to fit your ornaments. They should be small enough to fit on your shelf (12'“-18”). Then I put all of my delicate, breakable ornaments on top of each other. I group like items together and I don’t wrap them all up in tissue paper like I used to. Because they are packed snuggly, they aren’t moving in the box and because you know right where they are, you don’t have to worry that they will be carelessly overturned in an attic or garage when people are looking for something (make sure you don’t stash them somewhere that your kids plunder-that would be a mess!). Surprisingly, the metal hooks don’t get any more tangled than normal. Pulling down a small box filled to the brim with beautiful ornaments is a much better way to start off your holidays. I have three small boxes for all of my ornaments and garlands. I still use my tubs for my lights, my kid’s tree with its ornaments, and odd-shaped Christmas decor that would take up too much room inside. All I need to fetch from the garage to get Christmas rolling is a clear tub with my lights, stockings, and advent calendar. My tree stand and collar sits right on top of the tub. Sometimes it’s fun to think out of the box about your boxes. *No owl, walrus, or wolf was harmed in the packing of this box* SM
