Decorating for the holidays can take up a huge amount of time, money, energy, everything! Let’s get down to brass tacks so you can make it manageable, and enjoy your holiday season more. 

fall table

Do what you have time for

Plan a time to put up your holiday decorations and a time to take them down. A friend of mine got out all of her Halloween decorations 3 weeks beforehand. They’ve been taking up her dining room table for more than a week now, and she’s super busy this week. Guess whether or not she’s going to get her table back this week?

If you have to decorate and you don’t have much time, be judicious about the items you put out. Choose only the ones you really love (and consider giving away the rest). Consider focusing on only a few areas of your house. For example Halloween, you might only decorate your front porch for trick-o-treater’s, no one is going to see your bathroom!

Manage the number of decorations you have

If you’re building up your decorations, it’s fun to add one or two new pieces each year. Maybe you already have plenty of decorations, but can’t resist buying just one more cute thing to put up. In that case, consider the old refrain, “Out with the old, in with the new.” That’s right, live by the following rule: let go of one thing, and bring one thing in. If you really have too many decorations, make this rule: let go of five, and bring one in!

Storing decorations

If you have no room to store holiday decorations, the solution is easy – give them away, recycle them, donate them, or sell them. If you have room to store decorations, choose clear bins to store them. You’ll be able to see the contents and keep the dust out. Put all the decorations that go in each room together. That way it’ll be faster to put them up the next year. Clearly label the outside of the bins. If you have a separate bin (or bins) for each holiday, store them in a relatively inaccessible place. After all, each holiday only comes around once a year. If you have all your decorations in one bin, keep the bin handier because you’ll be accessing it more often.