YukiIt took me a few minutes to think of what to write this time, but I finally decided on this:
21. Gifts
20. Traditions
19. Music
18. SNOW
17. Storage
You put up the decorations…and then, after a month or so, you have to take them down. Especially if you’ve bought new decorations and perhaps can’t store them in their original boxes, you need somewhere to put them…and then they get packed away in the attic, garage, or closet.
The dismantling of Christmas decorations is probably my least favorite part of decorating. Well, it’s not the actual ‘taking down’ that bothers me because we do it really quickly (or at least I do); it’s the ‘putting back’–putting everything back into their boxes and carting them off to the attic (which I don’t do because I don’t like climbing up and down that ladder…). The tree always fits back into its box, but often everything else ends up in different boxes than the ones they came from, and sometimes that means they don’t fit. So you have to unpack a box somewhat, fit the item in, and then maybe another box doesn’t close completely… It’s annoying. Haha.
Today I’ve been on a bit of an organizational journey through the pages of the website http://www.containerstore.com/, which was recommended by Elle (allthatglitters21). Even before watching the video, I waved goodbye to my dad as he left for work, and then turned to my right, facing his giant pile of papers, outdoor gear, and miscellaneousness heaped upon three tables and strewn across the floor. It has been bothering me for months.
I could take it no more.
I attacked said pile with the intention of not truly cleaning the surfaces, but of merely organizing them into much smaller piles based on the category of the items within each pile. I used the entire room to lay stuff out, and ended up with MANY piles; some of which really should go elsewhere (like the clothes).
I really didn’t touch the two smaller tables because the stuff on them was put there more recently and it looked important, but I did clean up some of the things on the floor and I saved one of our chairs from the pile that was starting to grow on it due to a lack of available surface space. Right now, I still have the piles sorted all over the room, and I should probably move some of the stuff off of the couch because no one can sit on it at the moment, but again, the idea is that my dad can easily see which pile contains what, and he can put it where it goes without just tossing it back onto the table again.
My mom has declared that we must de-clutter this weekend. I agree.
So, to get back to the Christmas decoration dismantling, on the Container Store website I found lots and lots of great storage solutions that would be great for storing not only stuff around the house, but also decorations too. Naturally, everyone thinks of the large, plastic bins, but what about the smaller items, like ornament hangers and even lights? Lights can be wound back into their circle shape and then put into a small, shallow box so they don’t get tangled up with other lights. Or perhaps a tall box…store several strands of lights in one box.
The website provides lots of storage solutions for display as well, like wall shelving (including floating shelves) and Command hooks. I’d definitely recommend checking it out! A lot of the stuff on there is pretty affordable, and looks great too~
Since we didn’t put up a lot of decorations this year, we won’t really have to worry about the mess that comes with putting them away, but I am putting together a list of some things that we could definitely use around the house to help with storage and keeping stuff organized! Also…if you still need any gift ideas… *points to the website again* Get a box set! XD Or you could get a box and then fill it with smaller things~ I like things like that, because it feels like you’ve gotten a zillion presents all in one. >w<