Getting ORGANIZED 2011

Isn’t there just something about a new year that makes us desire a fresh start? After all the eating and shopping and lazing around of the holidays, come January 1, I’m always ready to edit, purge, clean, and organize! Something might be wrong with me, but I really look forward to it!

This month I’ll be running a series of posts dedicated to getting organized for the new year. Some friends will be joining me in providing you with simple and practical solutions for controlling the chaos, and creating an organized home that you can relax and unwind in.

I can’t believe I made a button! :)

But first, we have to put away Christmas! Considering how long it look me to put UP all the holiday decor, I kinda dreaded taking it all down and storing it away. But I knew I’d feel like I’d lost 10 pounds when it was done, so I spent the better part of New Year’s Eve tackling the project. Here’s a peek at how it ended up! I like the green 30-gallon plastic storage bins with the red lid from Target because they signify “Christmas items in here!”

My motto was divide and conquer. I divided up the job into two parts: 1) Ornaments, and 2) Decor. I figured if I could get those two categories of items into two giant piles, I could see what I had (including what I didn’t use this year) and decide what to edit out and how much storage we’d need. Luckily, we have a good size attic to store the Christmas bins.

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

STEP 1: I emptied the tree and vignette of all ornaments and lay them on our dining room table, sorting them by color.

STEP 2: Some ornaments were lucky enough to find a home in their original packaging, but many were not. I found that shoe boxes, wine boxes, and plastic spinach containers worked well as new homes.

STEP 3: Then it was time to pack them up into the bins by color.

STEP 4: Then make labels so the contents are easily recognized. I like to label three sides of the bin so that you can see the label no matter how they are stacked.

DECOR

Now onto the explosion of Christmas decor! Wasn’t it fun to start to remove all that garland? But I have to say, taking it down went about ten times as fast as putting it up!

I piled everything into what is supposed to be the “media room” but is more like storage central, and grouped like items together.

Can you believe all of THAT fit into THESE?

I think I’ll be so happy next year when it comes time to decorate again!!

Did you do something similar with your decor? Is it still up? :) We doubled our bins this year, but I think it’s still a manageable amount of holiday decor. Oh, minus the big box that the nativity scene goes in and two wreath containers. What do you think?

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Here’s the line-up for the next two weeks! I’m super excited about tomorrow’s post authored by Simply LKJ. You will seriously be blown away and hopefully, inspired, by her amazingly organized KITCHEN!