I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with your family. Ours was filled with lots of laughter, excitement, bubbles (of course!), and presents galore from our extremely generous family….stay tuned for some toy organisation posts!
We always head down to my parents’ beach house on Boxing Day, and it is wonderful to get away for a week or so for some quality family time. Usually we spend the night at my parents’ house on Christmas Day and go straight from there to the beach-house. Which means that when we return 10 days later, we are greeted with all the Christmas decorations and a very smelly (and very dead!) tree that has shed its pine needles everywhere.
Needless to say, this year I was not up for that added fun upon our return, so we decided to pop home to quickly 'de-Christmasfy' the house and put away some of our new loot before we hit the road. Best decision ever! It took us around 2 hours but I’m so happy we don’t have to go home to that next week!
So here is how I organised our Christmas decorations so that everything was packed away neatly. I re-organised the box quite a bit this year…this is what I started with when I opened it at the start of December. It was ok, but a lot of things were just shoved in the big plastic storage tub.
Firstly, I collected all the Christmas decorations from around the house. We don’t have heaps, but certainly enough to spread Christmas cheer throughout the whole house! As I collected, I put it into groups - tinsel, felt decorations, baubles, special tree ornaments, house decorations, wreaths.
Then I started organising and putting things away. I use these large ziplock bags as I find it easy to lay them nice and flat within the storage tub. Some people use egg cartons or special containers for their baubles, which is a great idea, but mine are not that precious so they just go in a zip-lock.
We use hooks to attach baubles to the tree, as we find them easier for the kids to use than looped string. I took all the hooks off the baubles and put them into the little bag to keep them all together.
Two bags of baubles packed (with one random blue bauble hiding in amongst the metallics!)
I then placed all the house decorations in labelled ziplocks too. These go at the bottom of the box as there are some heavier objects inside.
I went through a phase of making little felt ornaments, so they all have their own bag too!
The star for the top of the tree and another large star get nestled in between the stockings so they have some cushioning.
We do have some more delicate decorations that I like to keep separate to prevent them being damaged.
I use little muslin gift bags to store these. I think it is more exciting for the kids to open up each bag to see what is inside, and it adds to the feeling that they are a bit more special!
I also collected the envelopes and activities related to the Advent Calendar, and put them in a little gift bag too.
These were all placed on top of all the other bags within the storage tub. Here is the box with all the decorations inside. I also placed the Christmas binder in here so it is all ready to go next year.
I wound the fairy lights around an old passata jar, which helps prevent them getting tangled. The plug goes inside the jar so it doesn’t untwist.
The jars get laid on top of the tinsel (which has its own tub) so they have a bit of cushioning too.
We have a door wreath, and the bauble wreath that I made this year, along with some ‘Merry Christmas’ bunting, which I just placed in a large bag. I didn’t think they needed their own tub, as long as they were stored flat.
Here is everything ready to get put into our storage cupboard. The only thing I couldn’t fit in the tub was this candle centre-piece! The wreath and centre-piece get put right in the corner of the cupboard, and the Christmas tubs get placed in front.
So glad to have Christmas all packed up! There will be enough to do on our holiday return, as I know all too well! I’ll be back to more regular blogging after our little break, but for now, hope you’re all enjoying a bit of time off too and recovering from your Christmas celebrations!