Year after year, you want to get all your holiday stuff organized completely. At the end of the holidays you are tired, life gets back to usual busyness and holiday items quickly get stashed away. Here are Top Shelf Home Organizing’s tips to get your holiday items organized and packed away properly. Organizing holiday items really is not different than organizing any other category of items in your life. Gather, sort, purge and store.
1. Gather
Retrieve all items from storage including the attic, basement and storage unit. Gather all items that were put on display this year. Unwrap, touch and hold each item.
2. Sort
Sort each piece into categories:
- Tree Décor
- Interior décor by room
- Exterior décor
- Holiday cards received
- Food storage
- Other
Within each of these categories, you will sub-sort items as:
- Used this year and will use again
- Used this year, but will not use again
- Did not use this year, but will use next year
- Did not use this year and I never want to use these (this includes defective lights and broken items)
- Do not use these and will not use next year, but they are family heirlooms, I must keep these items forever
3. Purge
Remove the items you have classified as “Did not use this year and I never want to use these,” and “Used this year, but will not use again.” These items can be donated, offered to friends and family or potentially recycled and disposed of.
4. Store
After the sort is done, plan for storage. Create ample space in one location to store holiday items. This is when you purchase storage containers and shelving if needed. Clear, small- to medium-sized containers that stack and nest well, work great for these delicate items. A shelf dedicated to holiday décor keeps these items organized and together. These items are readily available at most home goods stores immediately after the holidays.
Keep track of your categories created. Items should be stored and labeled in the same manner to keep next year’s decorating as simple and organized as possible. Holiday lights can be neatly wrapped individually for ease of install next year. Ornaments are carefully wrapped and stored. Carefully pack up the family heirlooms that you want to keep, but will not necessarily display often.
Top Shelf home Organizing loves to organize holiday décor. Contact Jayme to see how Top Shelf can help.