I was so happy to drink from my favorite Christmas mug again yesterday!
It’s the perfect size, has a curved lip (which for some reason makes the coffee taste better), and I just generally love it.
LOVE it.
So . . . what exactly makes this mug post-worthy?
Well, it was featured in a post last year when I convinced my husband that his beloved Christmas mugs must submit to the One In One Out rule.
This year, he actually explained the rule to my daughter.
We packed up our every-other-day-0f-the-year mugs in the box that stores Christmas mugs for the other 11 months. And magically, because of the switcheroo/one-in-one-out process, there’s plenty of room in the cabinet to hold all the mugs we need for the holiday season without even needing to stack or shove or strategically arrange.
(Magically, but not magically at all.)
And I’m reminded again how wrong I used to be about the way I valued stuff. I thought I valued it because I kept more of it. Turns out, I appreciate “stuff” so much more when I purge down to only the pieces I truly love.
Who woulda thought?
bch
--Nony
Brilliant about switching out the mugs for Christmas time! I would never think to hide away the regular ones to make space for the others. But it makes perfect sense!!
Fab advice, we don’t have enough to completely switch over but definitely taking out as many (if not more) than go in . Just need to get the Christmas stuff down from the loft (but at least this time I know where to find it 😉
I don’t own any Christmas mugs, but I would definitely do this if I did. When we put the stockings on the mantel I took down the black candle holders with creamy yellow candles. I put them right in the bin where the stockings will be stored after the season.
Turns out, I appreciate “stuff” so much more when I purge down to only the pieces I truly love… I SO love this.. It reminds me of something once heard Peter Walsh say, “If everything is important then really nothing is important.”
Okay, I’m going to switch out my drinking glasses.
The simpler the better! My daughter and I will be going over the one-in-one-out rule tonight. Thanks so much
I do this with with not only my mugs, but with my Christmas dishes. I have an entire set of plates, bowls, tea cups and saucers that I switch out. I started doing this last year… guess where I got the idea 🙂
Thank you for making my cabinets (and me) happy.
i get the one in one out thing. what i don’t get, is if you love the mug so much, why not drink out of it all year long?
I don’t know about Nony, but while I love Christmas lights and the tree, I don’t want them all year round. It would just feel wrong in the off season. Also some things are just appreciated more when you only experience them for a short time each year. If you used your holiday items all year round, how would you celebrate the holiday as something special?
I agree, Jenny. That’s why we only do pumpkin pies at Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s also why I keep telling my kids that candy isn’t fun anymore. When I was growing up, there were special candies you would get for each holiday. It was the only time of year you could get them. Now, all of the normal candy you can find at every checkout, every day of the year, is just repackaged to look festive. Not the same. That’s why I’ll never use my Christmas stuff outside of the holiday season. It would then just become another ‘Snickers’ or ‘Milky Way’ bar. (not that I’m saying there’s anything wrong with those – I happen to like them – but not for holidays). 🙂
I think I love it so much because it’s only out for those times. I have two others I love as well that are all-year-round mugs.
I don’t want to micromanage, but the correct grammatical dangling participle-garand (sp.?)-declaratory phrase is … “Who woulda thunk?” :))))
I do this when I’m in a holiday decorating mood — one in one out. Hadn’t thought about it really unti reading this- but I thought I didn’t like the extra clutter– honestly though, since I’ve not put up a tree in a few years I’ve realized just now, that it’s because if the accumulation of year round clutter!
YUCK! Not very Merry is it?
We try to wus this for everything we buy. Except A whole box of shoes and clothes went out the first time. We purge clothes every season. No more waiting until we “lose weight” etc.
I laugh every time I see this because it’s so simple. Obvious, even. And yet it NEVER occurred to me. Thank you 🙂
Wait People have mugs that they pack away and only bring out at Christmas time?
I do the switcheroo with a few small things at Christmas time, kitchen towels & table linens, some framed pictures, but never thought about doing it for dishes or mugs?! Genius!
Having just gotten an adorable set of Christmas mugs for the kids last year and getting one for me this year, I was just wondering what I was going to have to get rid of in the top shelf of the cabinet to make them fit and now instead I will pack them in the Christmas boxes for storage. I will say it again: Genius!
This post, out of the many I’ve read in the last 3 months since finding you on YouTube, is the only one to which I have internally responded, “Well yeah. Doesn’t everyone do that?”
I’ve always switched regular mugs out for Christmas mugs. Once upon a time I also had Valentine’s mugs and Easter mugs. There is such a thing as too many seasonal decorations/mugs etc. I long ago decided that included mugs. I just don’t have it in me to switch them out that often. So now I only keep Christmas mugs and all-year-long mugs. I switch them Christmas ones in the week after Thanksgiving and back sometime around the New Year.
This is evidence that somewhere in my psyche the “one-in-one-out rule” actually existed. Apparently I just needed your help to apply it to everything other than Christmas mugs.
Thank you so much for that help. You are changing my life one clutter pile at a time.
When i first moved out on my own my best friend gave me a set of Christmas stoneware dishes. I still have those dishes- almost 40 years later! Her mother would switch everything out for Christmas and so when she moved out she did it too and gave me the dishes so that I could start that tradition in my own home. I also prefer a certain shape/feel to my mugs as well and purge any mugs I get that don’t fit my ‘criteria’. And I agree with one of the early posters that having seasonal items/food out year round does take away the specialness of them. Although in some places it is considered good luck to leave one Christmas item out year round. So, for me, there is usually at least one item that i forget to pack up so i just count it as my good luck charm for the year.
10 years after this post…
Today as we are home because there’s no work today, I had kids look with me at the gifts they got from the Holiday, and the space we had to put them. Shocker, something had to go!
But we’ve been consistent and diligent to do this regularly & often, since I’ve done so much decluttering of my stuff & neutral.
Thank You so much! It was practically painless 🙂
We still have more to go. I’m actually excited this year, because I’m so close to getting the seemingly never ending pile of new gifts down to nothing!!
I keep everything new in my living room, because it’s close to where we come in, but I know I will forget about things or not deal with them if they’re in the bedrooms, or somewhere else less noticeable.
My strategy of working on visible space, starting with the kitchen, cause that’s OUR entrance, has now shifted to mostly the living room.
It feels like ever so steadily I AM seeing progress 💜