What to consider as you decorate for the holidays

The holiday season seems to bring an influx of everything. From the decor that gets pulled down from storage around Halloween, the food and extra hosting commitments that start around Thanksgiving, and the holiday parties and work events that spike around this time of year, it can be a lot to handle!

When you really break it down, organization plays a huge role in each aspect of the holiday season. Whether it’s how to get ready for overnight guests, how to prep your pantry and fridge for upcoming events, or how to declutter your kids’ toys before a fresh round of items start arriving this holiday season, organizing is a critical piece to getting each of these tasks accomplished.

It might be surprising to hear, but there is a huge category that often gets overlooked when getting organized this time of year: holiday decor. Chances are, this category is actually the culprit for a lot of your storage room clutter, yet it’s an easy area to tackle.

AN EASY ORGANIZING TIP TO CONSIDER THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

When you are dealing with holiday decor, first and foremost the most important thing to do is to categorize the contents. Just like any area in your home, categories make all of that “stuff” easier to manage and help to give a visual for how much of each category that you have. So, Christmas should be with Christmas, Valentine’s Day with Valentine’s Day, and so on. That way, when the holidays roll around you can easily navigate to the designated bin, and when it’s time to bring down the decor there is a clear spot for those items to land.

Okay, but there is a crucial step to making sure your holiday decor doesn’t turn into clutter, and by clutter I mean the items that sit unused or collecting dust in your storage room. As you pull out your decor for each holiday, take note to the items that don’t get used. If there is something that you aren’t using as decor, why?

With my clients, oftentimes the items that aren’t being used fall into one of these 3 categories:

1. It’s broken. If there is decor that requires repair, consider whether or not you are actually going to take the time to get it fixed and weigh whether or not it’s worth holding on to. Instead of purchasing new Christmas lights every year and adding to the bin of other lights, dispose of the lights that are no longer working.

2. It’s not your style. If you were gifted decor or are holding on to decor from your first apartment, it doesn’t make sense to keep taking up space in your storage room. If it’s in good condition then donate it for someone else to enjoy!

3. It’s too time consuming. Fact: there are no laws that make it a requirement to decorate for the holiday season. Pulling down the decor and putting it up in your house (not to mention later taking it down and putting away) is a time commitment, so if you find yourself avoiding it then ask yourself if it is worth keeping all of the decor “in case” you feel inspired to finally decorate.

The thing is, these tips can be applied to all areas of the home. During this holiday season, as you decorate your home (or not!), ask yourself the following questions: (1) Am I using this? (2) If not, why? (3) Do I want it?

Don’t let your holiday decor take over your storage room for another year! Trust me, this is a quick category to review and declutter, and it’s worth the adding space that you will gain as you let go of the items that you no longer need, want, or use!

I’d love to know: when do you decorate for the holidays? We (intentionally!) have a small bin for each holiday so that it remains manageable!