1) Get in the right frame of mind. After all
of the excitement and activities of the holiday, the idea of putting things
away can be a little dispiriting. Breathe some life into this project by giving
yourself a deadline for putting
things away and reframe the task -
make the job part of the celebration with music, cookies and family
involvement. Take pictures of each
decorated area and put the pictures in the holiday notebook.
2) Spread the project out over time. You may
need several short sessions. Wash and fold the holiday linens one day. On other
days, dedicate each short session to working in specific areas throughout the
house.
3) Contain and label. Think about how you want
to take things out to decorate for next year. Contain decorations by where they
are placed. Label the container with the
name of the area the items decorate.
During this time of year the stores have are all sorts of specialized
containers available for storing decorations. Color-coding is an effective way to earmark the holiday decoration
containers from other containers. Egg cartons, shoeboxes and plastic zipper bag
are inexpensive tools to organize the
contents of a container. As you put things away, discard decorations that
are no longer used or enjoyed.
4) Put away cards and photographs. Enjoy the cards one last time. Decide what you will do with them and
follow-through. If you keep cards, only keep the ones with personal notes.
Spend a session editing the holiday
photographs. Toss the bad photos. Note
the names of the people in the photos. If you do nothing else to organize
your photos – at least keep them together by date.
5) Reflect and rejoice. Take note of what you liked this holiday season. What do you want
to eliminate next year? Add these reflections to your holiday notebook so you
can act on them next year. Plan a festive
meal for the day the last decorations are put away so everyone can share
the spirit of the holidays together one last time.
Check out
the Clear Spaces Pinterest Board for some more ideas!
No comments:
Post a Comment