It’s only taken me 20 years, but I think I have finally cracked the code for effectively putting away and organizing Christmas. I know. A mere TWENTY YEARS. And today, You Lucky People, I’m sharing it with you so you can maybe figure it out sooner than I did??

Let’s keep this short and sweet since you’re super busy. After all, you’ve made resolutions to eat better, exercise more, maybe go to therapy (wait, maybe that’s me?) so you really don’t have a ton of time to devote to this.

But I will tell you this much: give this process a few hours, and next November when it’s time to decorate all over again you will be thanking me. In fact, you can go ahead and thank me now. One less thing to do.

STEP ONE TAKE IT ALL DOWN

For this plan to work, you need to find  a central place where you can take all of the stuff from everywhere and put it in one place. It can be your dining room table (that’s where I assemble all of mine), a bed, your kitchen table, anywhere it will all fit.

take a hard look at what you used

What didn’t spark joy for  you this year? (yes I just Marie Kondo’d you). What’s broken? Which things have batteries that need to be taken out? Which bows have seen better days? Be brutal here. I know there is nothing that packs a bigger emotional punch than holiday decorations, but some of them are just broken and need to go in the trash. Take pictures if you need to so you have the memories, but ditch the stuff.

Now is also a great time to snap a picture of any vignettes you particularly loved. Because you think you’ll remember how you did it next year but you probably won’t. If you’re me, it’s super helpful to have a YouTube channel and a blog to look back on, but I do realize not everyone plasters pictures of their home all over the internet.

Now go through what you didn’t use (the stuff that got left in the bins) and get rid of it. You don’t love it or you would have used it. OK, go do that and come back. (PS allow enough time! This is going to take a few hours. At least it did for me.)

buy boxes that are easy to identify as christmas

I am normally a fan of just plain, inexpensive storage bins (preferably purchased on sale) but for Christmas I like to splurge a little. I bought a large ornament box a few years ago from The Container Store and just love it. I found this one for you on Amazon (affiliate link) and it’s very similar and much less expensive. Buy two if you’re worried everything won’t fit. You’ll love this when you go to decorate the tree next year and everything is in one place.

I also bought these gorgeous boxes from Amazon  (affiliate link) and they remind me of the boxes that Santa used to store the naughty and nice lists  in The Santa Clause (love the scene where they deliver all those boxes to his house). So they make me happy. You may want to order a few of those TODAY so you have them in time for your project. I had all my stuff on the dining room table for a couple days while I waited for them to arrive but that might annoy you.

PUT IT ALL AWAY

Take your time here. If you’ve edited well, the items you are storing for the next 10 months or so mean a lot to you, so don’t rush this process. Wrap delicate items in tissue and be intentional about how you are grouping items so they’re easy to put up next year. This part might make you a little tearful so having some tea or something stronger during this process can help. I cry every year when I put the stuff away. EVERY. YEAR.

store it somewhere safe

I am very blessed to have a climate controlled area in this house where I can keep it all (OK, it’s my office) but if you live in a really hot place, think twice about putting items in the attic, and if you’re storing them in a unfinished basement, make sure you consider moisture and if the climate conditions will affect your beautiful decorations. My other tip here is to try and store it all somewhere where you can access them without needing another person – ornaments put in the attic where only your husband can get to them means you have to wait on him to get started. In my house that leads to fights. Keeping it real, Friend.

I hope, as your storing away your gorgeous holiday decorations, you’re able to reflect on a season filled with memories, good food, family and great friends.

If this, however, was a horrific holiday season (yeah, those happen, because, you know, humans and stuff), put it all away with good intentions for a better time of it next year.

Because every Christmas is fresh with no mistakes in it.