Episode 125 - How to Easily Put Away and Organize Your Holiday Decorations to Reduce the Overwhelm Next Time You Get Them Out to Decorate - Intentional Edit

It doesn’t matter if you love to put up decorations for the holidays or dread it, a little organization when taking everything down this year can go a long way in reducing the stress and time it takes to decorate next year.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

Whether you love to put up decorations, get everything out, and make your home super festive for the holidays, or if you dread it a little organization when taking all of this stuff down this year can go a long way and reducing the stress and time it takes to decorate next year. Hey, moms, welcome to the Intentional Edit podcast. Do you wanna stop feeling overwhelmed and finally get your home organized? Do you find yourself up late at night worrying about how you are going to get everything done and not drop the ball? You are wondering where to start and what to do. There is never enough time in the day the piles of laundry are building up and it’s already time for after school activities, homework, snacks, and carpool. Again, I’m Lauren. I too want an organized clean home where my family can make long-lasting memories and be present in the moment.

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Feeling like there’s never enough time to complete all the daily tasks is exhausting. Simplicity all around a healthy meal on the table at dinnertime and a family that contributes to the chores really is attainable. Stop telling yourself that you have to do it all or it will never get done, or that picky eaters will never allow for a complain free dinner. In this podcast, you will learn exactly how to declutter, implement systems, and maximize routines that remove the overwhelming unorganized parts of life, bringing simplicity to your life and home. Come on, it’s time to create a life you love. Hey friends. Welcome to episode 125. Today is a Tip Tuesday episode, and I had actually planned on answering a different question for this Tip Tuesday episode, but when this one came in, I knew that it was timely and so many of us struggle with storage for holiday decorations that I really wanted to answer this for you guys because it is significant to this time of year and the struggle and overwhelm that comes with getting the decorations up and taking them down and storing them properly.

(01:54):

The question that just came in for this Tip Tuesday episode is we just got the tree out and decorations up and barely put any lights on the house, but I’m already dreading taking them down. It’s always such a mess and each year I seem to get less out, but still have so much boxes of stuff. What should I do with it? There was a time I was excited about decorating, but now it’s so much, I’m not that into it. That is a common scenario and you might feel exactly like the person that sent in this question. For many people, decorating can be fun and they love to get the decorations out super, super early and really maximize the holiday season, and for some people that is just not the case. The decorating for the holidays is stressful when there’s already clutter in the home. Adding to it can be a lot to manage if you have little ones, the fragile decor just means an added stress because something else to watch and to look out for or even to baby proof.

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There is a lot that goes on with holiday decorating, and I will say I don’t think there is a right or a wrong in terms of that. Go listen to episode 17. It’s an episode I recorded last year about holiday decorations and if you wanna go all out, that’s definitely not a minimalist mentality, but if decorating for the holidays is something that you can manage and it brings you joy, you love doing it, and it’s not adding to your stress and bringing you down and causing you frustration and resentment, then that is something that is a positive for you. For a lot of people, that’s not the case. If you are on the other end and you want very few things, that’s totally fine too. We feel best in our home is when we have clean clutter free environments and are surrounded by things that we actually use, want, need, and love.

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We can eliminate the rest of the stuff and we will feel better with the holiday decorations. If you wanna go in, if you want to hear more about the different examples I give for all of the holiday decoration ideas, go to episode 17, listen to that, and then let’s focus on what about storage. So this is a common scenario because we tend to get out less each year or we tend to have things that we store and we never use. Maybe they were gifts, seasonal cookie jars, decorations, trinkets, picture frames, and it’s not part of our aesthetic. It’s not something that we like, but we’re holding onto them and you have to look at why are you holding onto these things. They really take up a lot of space, valuable storage space in your home if they’re not something that you use on a regular basis and holiday decorations are not, why are we keeping these things if they’re not coming out and if this is a pattern year after year, these are things that you should get rid of.

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What I am going to recommend in this case is before you take anything down that you put up for this season, go to your storage location, get out your bins, boxes, baskets, containers, anything that you have that is for this holiday season that you could put up, get it all out and take a good look at what you have. Open those containers. When you take off the lid, what is in there? If you have ornaments that are not making it onto a tree, or old strands of lights that are partially burned out and you find that year after year after year, these things are just not making the cut. They’re not going up. This is the time when you discard these things. Sometimes we hang onto things because they’re broken and you think, oh, I’ll just glue this back together, but now it’s been five, six years and they still haven’t made it out.

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That is something that you can toss or donate, get rid of. The thing is that you are not bringing out, if you had decorations for a different home and they don’t fit in this home and it doesn’t make sense, don’t hold onto these things just because they worked at one time, and please don’t hold onto these things because of the guilt. I want you to take a deep breath right now, release that guilt, breathe in, breathe out, and release the guilt around these things and tell yourself that it is okay. It is truly okay to let go. Donate these and let someone else that doesn’t have the holiday decorations or that loves that style or that collection, put those things up. Be ruthless with your decluttering. You can use the same tools that you use to declutter in your home and ask yourself the questions, is this something you love?

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Is this something you need? Is this something you use? Is this something you want? If it is not and it’s not going up, it doesn’t make the cut. Get your boxes, get your bags and put those things for donation. Those things are going to be donated now. You do not have to worry about it next year. You don’t have to have the stress next year, and now you’ve just allowed yourself to have more space in your home in terms of the decorations that you did put out, the things that you do love when you put those away, put those away in a way that makes sense. Sometimes we have really big odd shaped items that have to be stored in a precarious way, and that’s fine. We can deal with those in a different way than the traditional way of storing things, but I recommend getting the same size containers, containers, big plastic bins that can easily stack on top of each other so that you can put ’em away.

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You can maximize space so they don’t have to all have their own shelf, they can easily stack. The other thing is when you take things down, package them carefully and put them away. If you can do this with things that are not enormous and a weird size, if you have the decorations for your mantle all in one container, and anything that goes for that space or that particular room can go in one container or two containers and then you can label it and then you move on all your decorations for your kitchen and dining area that goes in another container and you label it the holiday that it goes to and the room that it goes to. Then if you are feeling in a slump next year or it’s last minute and you still haven’t decorated, you don’t have to go to the extreme of getting everything out.

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You can just take out the areas that are the most important to you just because you have it, it doesn’t mean that you have to go to an extreme every single year, but if you find yourself not using stuff year after year, that’s when you wanna discard it. You want to donate it, get it out of your house. Your storage space in your home is valuable. It’s better to have empty space than to have too much stuff and a cramped closet, garage, basement, attic, whatever that is that you find yourself storing these things in. Be ruthless with your decluttering of these things and don’t keep something out of guilt. Don’t keep these things because you think this is something that you should do. If they are not coming out, they are wasting your space. They’re wasting your time every year when you have to look through these boxes and there’s no point in keeping them.

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So it’s time to get rid of them and then organize the things that you are keeping that are important, decorations that are meaningful to you, that you enjoy and you want to get out every year. Take time and putting those away in containers so you can get that one container out for a specific space. Decorate that and then go to the next one, and then you’re not looking for things going through rummaging through boxes of stuff that you’re not going to put up because you are left with your favorites, the best things that your family and that you truly enjoy for the holiday season. I hope that helps you and I hope you get to enjoy the upcoming holidays if you’re celebrating. I will meet you back here later in the week for another episode. Thank you for listening to the Intentional Edit podcast. If you found today’s episode valuable, tell your friends about it by taking a screenshot, sharing it on social, and tagging me at intentional edit. I’ll be back soon with another episode. In the meantime, find me@intentionaledit.com and be sure to follow intentional edit on social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. To ensure you catch future episodes, click the subscribe or follow button now. I am grateful for a five star rating and review from you. Be sure to let me know what you liked about this episode and what you want me to cover in the future.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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