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So many of my favorite childhood memories have a Christmas tree or a candy cane in the background of the picture that exists in my mind.
As a mom, I ache to create the same kinds of Memory Tableaus for my own chi
ldren. But if you’ve ever shoved clutter out of the way to capture a magical moment with your camera (only to see a dirty sock in the background AFTER the picture is developed), perhaps you understand the frustration I felt when I looked up from my mug of wassail to realize that the gifts and the clutter were just one big pile.
One of the goals of my quest for order has been to move effortlessly into the holidays. I want to enjoy the little moments.
The ones that just happen.
When my kids make a spontaneous craft . . . or we decide to add peppermint to a random recipe . . . or my last not-yet-an-independent-reader asks that I read The Grinch to her one more time.
Those are the true holiday comforts for this Mama’s heart.
But it’s hard to get crafty when you can’t get to the table, or experiment in the kitchen when the sink is full of dishes.
Now that a lot of those day-to-day issues are better under control, I can focus on the tableau background of my dreams.
Decorating for Christmas is a big job on its own, but pre-blog, I had two choices when November rolled around: I could exhaust myself digging out of the mess, or . . . give up on the dream and find reasons to schedule all celebrations at someone else’s home.
In this third holiday season of my deslobification process, I’ve found ways to use the decorating process as a way to declutter, not just as a reason to despair.
My best trick? I pretend that I’m moving. Moving is probably the biggest fear of organizationally challenged people, but when forced . . . it’s a relief to have a reason to stop and analyze each item.
I remove all of our 11-months-of-the-year décor and pack it away in the Christmas boxes for December. This helps free up the space for our Christmas items to really shine and also gives me two chances to make some decluttering decisions. First, as I put something into the box, I have a chance to decide if it’s even worth storing. I’m amazed at how an item can sit on a shelf for years and I never even notice how much it gets on my nerves . . . until I pick it up. If I don’t love it, I don’t pack it.
When it’s time to transform my home back into its year-round look, I put out my favorite items first. If I take a little time to tweak my displays, I usually find that it looks good well before I’ve returned all of my tchotchkes to their former homes.
And of course, the big key in all of this? Once I decide that an item isn’t going back, if I can’t immediately think of a perfect place for it . . . I deposit it in the Donate Spot. Right then. There’s nothing worse than finding last year’s clutter mixed in with the Christmas decorations.
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Since I move every two years, I highly agree with you! Moving is the best way to simplify, because constant unpacking and repacking will cause you to lose sentimental value to all but the most important of chotchkies. We always do a huge purge right before a move, and yet, every time I unpack the boxes, I wonder, “Why in the world do we have this?”
Oh, I don’t envy you having to move every two years!
I love your idea of packing away regular tchotchkes when you put up Christmas ones. Even if you don’t end up decluttering I feel like it would make you appreciate both the Christmas decorations and the regular ones more.
Trying to squeeze Christmas stuff in and around normal decor can be annoying, plus it gives you time apart from your regular stuff, and absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Exactly! Since things become invisible, it helps so much to have the opportunity to miss it!
LOVE this idea!!
Preach it, sister! I have been lamenting lately that we haven’t moved – not that I love moving, but because that’s when I declutter and (ahem) clean. It’s amazing how little cleaning a single girl who is careful has to do. And when she marries a farmer? Whoof. I also take things down for Christmas and then tend to not want to put them back, but your Thailand is my Latin America (though my trips were more spread out instead of living there for a period). Hard to get rid of that stuff…
Putting away the tchotchkes is a great idea! Why haven’t I thought of that? I don’t have a whole lot out (I have no end tables, coffee tables or book shelves) but the few things I do have could certainly be put away to showcase my Christmas stuff. Great post!
Oh my goodness – I thought I had to be the only one on the world who did the “moving” game!! My honey thinks I am insane when I say that – actually it is probably more that he does not want to help me declutter.
Great post!!
Oh and I pack up my regular decor in my christmas boxes, too. My sister puts her regular decorating items in boxes and wraps them and puts them under her tree. Then in January she opens them all. She is so forgetful that some of them are actually surprises when she opens them.
Clutter steals all the joy out of me. My plan was simple. Colour code my seasons. Winter – blue, Spring – pink, Summer – (I honestly can’t remember – wow), Fall – Orange. Those are the colours of my bins that contain all of my seasonal, what did you call them, tchotchkes << new word for me, had to look it up 🙂
So instead of having things year round, they were seasonal and it worked well for me until we moved in a home with a clutter room, errr I mean, garage. I can barely see my lovely stacked, colour-coded bins over the mountain of never-ending mayhem.
Our tradition is to decorate the house right after the Christmas parade. The parade is this Saturday coming – two more days. And I am stressing over the thought of trying to find my Christmas bins. I know they're in there somewhere but just how far down do I have to dig is the question! 🙁
Someday, I'll have control again… someday!
Thanks for the inspirational post!! I used to do exactly what you describe, but over the years, I kind of lost the habit. I think this is a good year to re-start this tradition!!
I also discovered that decluttering my Christmas boxes/bins in July was more effective than in December. In December, I tend to get too sentimental where as I found in July, my thinking was more “clear.”
Thanks again!!
omg I am so doing this next month(eeekkk) I just stumbled on this post and it will work great cuz my little man will be 1 at the start of December so I can display some pictures as well I just need to get my husband on board lol
okay, now imagine *actually* moving in the first week of december. welcome to my life. this is the first time i’ve moved a whole house, and i’ve definitely just learned the hard way what a terror it is for slobs like us. but it also definitely has forced me into some decision making… like… do i really need three rubber spatulas or four slotted serving spoons?