It’s the tradition in my home. The day after Thanksgiving I start pulling out the Christmas decorations. Then I take the rest of the day off and save the actual decorating for Saturday.
I absolutely love the day of Christmas decorating. A hot mug of coffee, Christmas music playing and my living room is transformed.
This is also the perfect opportunity to get in some cleaning. Because I have to move furniture in my living room to fit the Christmas tree, I take advantage of this by wiping down the baseboards and getting on my hands and knees to scrub the floors.
The furniture gets moved back and I finish up cleaning by wiping down the ceiling fan and dusting shelves. I also have a system that helps me to decorate and put away without creating a huge mess.
When I bring up all of the Christmas decorations, they are put into one pile in my attached dining room. I leave space on the dining room table for the items I am going to take down and put away until Christmas is over with.
This allows my living room to be completely cleared out. So as I start adding decorations and boxes are being emptied, I fill them up with the items I normally have out all year long.
Once a box is filled, I immediately take it downstairs. Then I move onto the next box and eventually the year-round decorations are packed away and the Christmas ones are up.
This system works when Christmas is over with and I am ready to put it all away. It actually saves time because there is less chaos and clutter.
One last tip…while you are taking out your decorations, it’s the perfect time to throw away broken ones or give away those you no longer use. Every year I add at least one new item to my collection. But in turn I also get rid of one item.
What Christmas decorating tips do you have?
Related Articles:
Kitchen Organizing for the Holidays
Holiday Preparations: Planning
Holiday Preparations: Cleaning
Photo by Jackie in Flickr