The Fine Line Between Decorations and Clutter: How to Make Sure Your Festive Items Stay Organized

Happy Holi-decorations

Believe it or not, the holidays are just around the corner! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years are all coming in the next 100ish days! Fall and Winter are always my favorite seasons in large part due to the festive nature of this time of year. I love getting together with family and friends in each others festive, well decorated homes sharing food, drink, and a great time together. The only downside is that with all these holidays comes a lot of decoration. And I mean a LOT. It seems like every three weeks I am going back into the attic or storage room to get more decorations out and shove the used ones back into place. I know I am not alone in this experience. Come the new year I seem to have gained 10 pounds and a disaster in my attic or storage room. While all of the decorations are so beautiful, it is easy for them to get out of hand without a plan in place to handle it all. I have found in my years as a professional junk removal specialist in Cobb county and metro Atlanta, holiday decorations are one of the easiest categories of items to get out of control. Here are some of my tips for saving yourself an organizational nightmare come January 2nd!

It All Comes Out Anyways

For most people, it is hard to remember exactly which decorations they have in storage. Generally people will remove all relevantly themed decorations from storage and then decide exactly what they are going to use this season. This technique provides the perfect opportunity to get ahead of the looming organizational crisis. My recommendation is to get all of the decorations out with those who care most about them. This ensures no ones feelings get hurt and it creates a great family bonding time. At that point, let the family decide which items will be used to decorate the house this year. Once that is established, all that is left is to make decisions about what to do with the items that will go unused. This is where the holiday decluttering magic happens. Here are two questions to consider when making decisions:

Does it work?

This seems like it is an obvious question, however our team could tell you countless stories of hauling broken reindeer, skeletons, turkey decorations, and Christmas trees out of clients attic in the middle of the scorching Georgia summer. Not fun. Functionality is the first criteria for deciding if something should be kept. While some items can be fixed, in general broken items should be removed from the attic and discarded. Additionally, if an item could be fixed but hasn’t been touched in two or more years, it is probably time to let it go. A pro tip is to keep in mind a realistic view of just how committed you are to Christmas lights. Growing up my mom insisted that broken strands of Christmas lights could be fixed just by changing a bulb or two. The working lights were separated and hung with care while the broken lights were put back in the light box. Come January, all of the working lights were taken down and promptly shoved into the same box. While the lights could have been fixed, there was no commitment to do so. It would have been better to just recycle them and save ourselves the headache of detangling the web of working and non-working lights next year. Getting rid of broken decorations and items is always step one in maintaining a clean and organized storage area.

How old is it?

This is the question that always gets more complicated. There are plenty of decorative items that have been passed down for several generations. These items hold a lot of sentimental value harkening back to feelings of childhood wonder, the fond memories of someone who is now gone, or a time when life was simpler. Nostalgia is not a bad thing at all, actually it’s wonderful. However, the fact of the matter is that a crocheted doily adorned with Santa in his bathing suit probably looked better in your grandma’s sitting room than it does next to your kids newest Santa photo. Often smaller nostalgic items can be sorted and then stored neatly in sealing a storage bin. Larger sentimental items are harder to deal with because they are much harder to store. Generally, if an item has not been used in two or more years, even if it a sentimental item, it is probably best to get rid of it. While those nostalgic items were great during the time you used them, it is possible that they no longer serve you and that is ok. Even if the items are not sentimental but no longer serve a purpose for you, it is best to let them go to declutter and give yourself more usable space back.

What about the non-festive items?

Great question! While all of your most beautiful and festive items are out in all their glory, the spaces where they were stored are now much more accessable and easy to clean out. This is an excellent opportunity to sort out and declutter that dark corner of your attic or storage room. Once you have an idea of the non-festive items that need to be gotten rid of in the storage areas of your house there are two options on how to proceed. The first is to haul those items out of the basement or down the precarious attic ladder yourself, load it into your vehicle (or a rented vehicle), wait for an hour or two at the dump and then get rid of it, all while praying you do not get a nail in your tire. While this is probably the cheapest way to clean out, it does cost time, energy, and take a toll on your body. The other option is to hire a professional junk removal company that specializes in decluttering attics, basement clean outs, and shed clean outs. While there is always a cost associated with hiring a team of insured, background checked professionals, it is far cheaper than the first option when factoring all the time and energy it takes to clean out those difficult to access areas on a property without any help. Chores are the last thing many people want to spend their time doing around the holidays.

January is here: Now what?

Fast forward to January. Everyone just had a wonderful holiday season and now it is time to return all the festive items to their storage places in the house. While the storage areas are nice and clean, the rest of the house seems to have gathered a lot of clutter. There are boxes piled up in the garage, the Christmas tree is sitting on the side of the house, the old trampoline is sitting in the corner of the yard while the new one takes it’s place of honor in the center of the yard. It is time for the post-Christmas purge. Generally there are not a tremendous amount of items to get rid of, but starting January with a clean yard and garage is always a win. This is the perfect opportunity to start the year nice and tidy. An added plus of hiring a professional junk removal company is many companies, including Up Up and Away Junk Hauling, offer free Christmas tree removal with a minimum fee pick up. That is a great way to get rid of an unwanted Christmas tree without having to spend any additional money!

What a Whirlwind

The holiday season can be such a busy and even chaotic time for many people, but if done with a little intentionality it could be the greatest opportunity to declutter of the year. The holidays offer the unique opportunity to touch items that live in every corner of the house, from the attic to the basement, as a normal part of decorating and entertaining. Why not leverage that action to also declutter and reclaim your space? While it takes a little more effort and planning up front, the long term benefits and worth it. Not to mention the fact that your New Years Resolution to declutter can be accomplished by January second! Sounds like a win to me!