Christmas is Over…. Now What do I do?

I hope you had an amazing Christmas. We sure did! I am in the process of taking down all my Christmas decor and I thought I would give you a couple tips.  I’m going to explain how I take down my decor and how I organize my own in storage. We’re working together to get it all done in a timely manner.  There are obviously several ways to do this.  I’m just showing you what works best for me.  Take into consideration your space and what works best for you.

 The first thing I do is have a plan of action.  One thing you can do is set aside a day you are actually going to take down your decor.  Then it’s almost like you’re gearing up for the big day.  Then set aside a block of time to take down your stuff.  You may have a couple of hours that you can devote to taking down your decor.

Analyze your storage area.  You want to know this area very well.  You will want to get clear organizing bins or tubs if you can.  You may not be able to get them all at one time.  But try to get tubs that are pretty common so you can add to your collection from year to year.

 Being a blogger I take a ton of pictures to document all my decor.  You may want to take pictures of your Christmas decor before you start taking it down. It comes in handy for several reasons.  It helps you remember what theme or colors you used over the years.  You can also look back at where you placed everything.  The best way to do something new to your decor is to move it to a new location.  So snap a couple pics before you start to take down your decor.

You definitely want to take things off the outside of the limbs first and work your way into the middle to inside of the tree last.  Think of it as the last things you put on should be the first things you take off.  This way your items shouldn’t get broken as you take off each layer.  Put the hooks in baggies at the top of the tub so they don’t get lost or scratch your ornaments.

Don’t use the wreath circle storage containers or the containers that have the ornament slots that look like hashtags. These organizers aren’t the most practical.  They take up a lot of space and these organizers don’t give you the bigger slots for your large ornaments.  I have a great system to hang my wreaths.  I hung nails in my attic so I could have my wreaths out so they don’t get squished. I haven’t had trouble with them being dusty but if they were I would cover them. If you didn’t want them displayed in your storage area you could put them in a plastic bag and hang them on a bar or clothing rack.

 I organize my ornaments in tubs by color.  It is a lot easier for me to find things that way.  I put all the filler picks, ribbon, and themed things together.  Lets say the white ornaments have become overwhelming and just need to be sorted. You can organize them even further into categories such as furry/fluffy, bling, and clear.  The goal is to be able to find things easily the next year.  Because some tubs won’t even be brought down if they aren’t in your color scheme.

 Lastly, I try to put the boxes in a way that are easy to get to for the next year.  If I know my theme for next year then I try to put all those ornament boxes in the front and on top.  The other ornaments I will try to place toward the back and the bottom.  It is a great system if you are fortunate enough to know what you’re doing ahead of time.

I Hope this was helpful and gives you a couple tips when you go to put away your Christmas decor.  If you have any helpful tips please comment below.  Happy New Year!