The holiday season is upon us! Even with our social limitations of the pandemic or maybe even because of our social limitations, the urge is there to festively decorate our home with our holiday home décor.
While I do not go all out decorating for Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating means a lot to me. I pull down box after box after box of holiday home décor from my attic. My husband rolls his eyes and keeps muttering “less is more”. And perhaps he is right (to a point).
What Is In All Those Holiday Home Décor Boxes?
One box is marked creche. I know that this holds the creche I bought in Germany when the boys were little. I have some lovely pictures with them looking at the creche. However, since I moved to this house seven years ago, there is no safe place to put it. I tried a couple of spots, but it just did not work. My boys are grown men and have no interest in it anymore. However, I found that my nephew would love to have it! Problem solved. I will release it to his care.
Tree Decorations
In the box that holds tree decorations there are many that the boys made when they were little. Some of them are literally falling apart. There are a precious few, like the one paper ornament with the poem written on it that I will keep as a memento but the clothes pin angel whose wings and halo are coming apart – no. I also have a lot of apple decorations given to me by students when I was a teacher. Those can go. The 12 days of Christmas felt ornaments that a friend made for me are already down to about three and they have teeth marks from previous cats. Gone!
The past few years I have had a slightly smaller tree and these ornaments have been pulled out but not placed on the tree. Some are just too tired to be anything but trash. A few can be donated.
The wooden reindeer with the broken antler – gone. The pinecone tree decorations that are looking sad – gone. Some of the generic ornaments that have no real meaning – gone.
Changing Your Holiday Home Décor
When you downsize or your lifestyle changes, then your holiday home décor should change too so that it reflects who you are now.
I will still have my tree with fewer ornaments, but each ornament will have a special meaning. I will still have my wooden advent wreath from Germany – just not the creche. The tree will be my main focus and the rest of the holiday home décor will have just a few accent pieces.
The wonderful part of knowing when to release and recycle that excess holiday home décor is that after the holidays, it is so much easier to pack up and put away. My home will still look holiday festive and the holiday home décor that remains will be noticed even more.
Jonda S. Beattie, co-owner of Release Repurpose Reorganize and owner of Time Space Organization, is based in the Metro-Atlanta area. She uses her listening skills, problem solving skills, knowledge of different learning techniques, ADHD specialty, and paper management skills to help clients tackle the toughest organizational issues. Jonda does hands on organizing, virtual organizing, and moderates a Zone Plan Teleclass for those who prefer to work on their own with organizational coaching. Contact Jonda to learn about organizing support services.