There are no words to describe how much I hate putting away all of the Christmas decorations. I’m totally that person that gets the post-Christmas blues the day after. It never seems long enough! I can’t stand how bare the house feels once the decorations are gone, and I absolutely loathe untangling lights and fishing every last ornament out of the tree. It’s just no fun at all. Over the years, I’ve developed my own way to put away the decor without {completely} losing my mind.

Now, if you’re the type that is actually excited to pack everything up the day after Christmas, then you can ignore a good chunk of this post. I’ve learned that the best way for me, is to spread it out. I start putting away the decorations little by little right after new years, and finish within the week. I figured since the 12th day of Christmas isn’t until the 6th, my tree could at least stay up until then. {Mostly because my husband vetoed turning it into a Valentine’s tree, and then an Easter tree. I just really love my tree!}.

Gradually cleaning up the Christmas explosions serves four purposes :

1) It helps me to not feel that big rush of sadness once it’s all gone and cleaned up

2) The gradual cleaning helps the house to not feel so stark and empty once I’m finished.

3) I don’t lose my mind after a full day of cleaning and untangling and packing up. Blech.

4) I’m able to take the time to properly store and organize our Christmas decorations so that items aren’t broken and everything is easily accessible the next year.

Number 4 is a big one. It’s part of why pulling the decorations out the next year is so enjoyable. I know where everything is, nothing is broken, nothing is tangled. It’s pure Christmasy bliss, I tell ya. Pretty much all of our decorations get put into plastic bins. I usually grab one or two right after Christmas. They’re usually on sale at Target and I’ve bought bins that were any where from $4-7…a small price to pay for sanity.

I try to keep original packaging as often as I possibly can. Everything else gets wrapped up or repackaged and carefully placed in a bin.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to properly wrap your breakable items. Save yourself the heartbreak from losing a family heirloom and take the extra 10 seconds to wrap everything in bubble wrap, tissue paper, newspaper, plastic grocery bags…whatever you have laying around. Just make sure it’s nice and padded. A lot of my items, like the music box pictured above, will get wrapped and then put into a small box.

Ziploc bags are your friend. They’re awesome for bagging up little collections of things like picks or {shatter proof} ornaments that you set together in a bowl.

I cut up pieces of cardboard to wrap things like strands of lights or garlands around. This is such an easy, cheap way to keep things untangled. I think tangled up lights are what send people over the edge most. Am I right?

Just cut a couple of slits into the cardboard to slide the ends into to prevent your strands of lights or garland from sliding off. You can stack these into one of your bins and it will actually end up saving you a lot of room.

I usually try to save the spools from my ribbon, but occasionally they get tossed out or I have shorter pieces. I wrap these around empty paper towel rolls and secure with a straight pin. This will prevent wrinkled, tangled up ribbon.

My faux garlands get folded up into a bin. Any other greenery, like candle rings or small wreaths are carefully put into plastic grocery bags and placed on top of the garland.

The first time I tried this, I was nervous something would get smashed and ruined, but so far so good! Just do so carefully.

Every bin gets a label. I type up a list of what is in the tub so that there is no question. It’s incredibly easy to find what I need, and it helps me keep inventory of what I already have.

Once everything is put away, it’s all ready to head back to the garage until next year! {That’s not even half of it in that picture…. I may have a problem}. Once it’s all put away, I start “winterizing” and sprucing up our house. More on that next week!

So, are you the “get it all packed away first thing on the 26th” type? Or more the “let’s just add some hearts and call it a Valentine tree”? Or are you somewhere in-between? Do you have any special ways that you organize your things?

I hope you all have an awesome day! Tomorrow is already Friday! I love short weeks!