Decorating + Organizing = A More Peaceful Season

Photo: GaborfromHungary via Morguefile

Does the thought of decorating for the holidays give you a headache? At our house, all of the decorations (at least the ones I'm responsible for) are in the crawlspace. When my daughter was still small, I came up with a great storage solution, but since then, ten years' worth of collected treasures (which tend to pile up in front of the lovely, clear drawer units housing the decorations) have created a barricade that triggers procrastination every year.

Every year seems to be busier than the one before, and this year, I decided that the only way to keep my Christmas spirit (and my sanity) was to do things a little at a time. In addition to keeping things manageable, this approach promises to help me reach some organizational goals as well, namely re-evaluating both my Christmas collection and my organizational system.

Each year, I promise myself I'm going to weed out my Christmas decorations, but so far, I've only managed to eliminate a few stray ornaments. This year, because I'm only taking out a few things at a time, I can make a decision now, instead of after the holidays, about what's worth keeping and what isn't. If I have no place to put it, perhaps I should reconsider keeping it. If reduce my collection now, I'll have less to deal with later.

As for my storage system, it's great for an I need to see it person with a drop and run organizational style -- plastic drawer units with clear drawers that open and close easily, even when I'm hunched over in the crawlspace. What I need to re-evaluate is its capacity, along with the value of the barricade of treasures between the door and the drawers. If they're truly worth keeping, they need homes -- potentially in the existing drawers, if I weed out my decorations sufficiently. If not, perhaps it's time to let them go.

Decorating mindfully helps me to enjoy not only the decorations, but the process itself. Reducing as I reuse promises that clear space is in my immediate future, and helps me to feel organized as I begin a season full of surprises.