10 Tips for Post-Christmas Organizing

I’m feeling like a little kid crying “It’s overrr!” Christmas arrived far too soon and now it’s gone for another year. How does that happen?

So now the hard part begins—un-decking the halls. I always find this not only sad, but more actual work. Then I remind myself that organizing as I go will make everything much easier next year when the decorations come out for another celebration.

Here are my 10 best tips to help with this:

1. When un-decorating your tree, start with the smaller hanging ornaments. Remove them, take out the ornament hooks, carefully dust the ornaments, and store in egg cartons to protect them from rubbing against each other. Place these in the bottom of a red and green plastic bin.
2. Next, remove the medium sized ornaments, clean and wrap in tissue paper and store in the red and green plastic bin on top of the egg cartons.
3. Large ornaments are removed last, cleaned and wrapped as the other ornaments, and placed on the top. When it comes time to decorate next year, these will be the first ones to hang.
4. Remove the strings of lights and verify that all the bulbs still work. If not, replace them with the spares you have with your decorations. Then wrap the strings around pieces of cardboard or loop them and twist-tie each string. This way, they won’t be tangled when you need them next year.
5. Wreaths can be wrapped in clear plastic and stored in boxes, hung in your storage room, or placed in a bin made for wreaths.
6. Centerpieces—wrap in clear plastic and store in a box just for them. They don’t have to be dismantled and will be ready for next year.
7. Put away holiday baking equipment together: cookie cutters, Christmas cake pans, anything else you use only for the holidays.
8. Store holiday china, mugs, serving dishes, etc. carefully wrapped and in a plastic bin.
9. Christmas linens can be likewise stored in a plastic bin after they’re laundered. Don’t bother ironing them as you’ll need to do this again next year. Be sure to layer white tissue paper between the layers of linens. Add a sachet of potpourri to keep them smelling pleasant.
10. Do a final visual sweep of the house to be sure you’ve packed everything away.

Now you’re organized for Christmas 2015!

Do you have any tips to add to these? I’d love to hear them—simply use the comments section below to join the conversation.

Moreen Torpy is the De-Clutter Coach, a Professional Organizer, Author, and Speaker. Her new book is Going Forward: Downsizing, Moving and Settling In. See http://GoForwardDownsize.com for more about the book and http://decluttercoach.ca to access a FREE Report and learn about her organizing services and other books. Christmas Workbook: how to plan and create a more meaningful Christmas is available there as well.