Organizing after Christmas

I purchased a few new things for Christmas this year, but I'm not home to put them away yet.  They are stuffed in a closet until we can get them home. 

At home I've got shelves full of Christmas décor and barely an inch or two of room left to squeeze anything else in, so when I get home it's going to take some organizing and re-organizing to put all the new with the old. 

Luckily we were in a small apartment for Christmas 2013 so we don't have a lot of new décor to add, but any little bit is more than the room I have at home.  
  

My hankies and elves will not take much room.  
This snowman is a bit larger, but he is skinny so maybe he can slide in somewhere. 

And the wreath could be a tricky fit. 
I have a few other things and will probably stuff them somewhere until Christmas 2014 so I don't have to go through all the boxes to find the proper place and fit.

Ill have to remember to be prepared with extra boxes and things to use when I do put them exactly where I want them.  

I use a lot of Rubbermaid or similar type boxes. Those from Costco are great.  I love the clear containers so that I can see through them and I don't label much if I can already see what's inside.

It takes up extra space to put small boxes inside of large boxes, so I don't do a lot of that.  I usually just stick all the small boxes on the shelf unless they are really small boxes.  

I don't have to climb to an attic so packing in and out is not too hard.  If I keep gathering things I might have to start preparing a place in the attic.  No, I will just have to find another space because I'll never be able to climb up and down from our attic with large boxes full of delicate and fragile items.
 

Maybe I will go through and organize everything in my house and maybe I'll be able to get rid of things easier since I haven't seen or used them in what will be about 5 or so months. And maybe that will then give me more room.

Those are big maybes!  

It's always hard for me to get rid of things, so it will not be easy, but I'll give it my best shot. Some people say to Purge Until It Fits, but that is truly a difficult, if not impossible, task for me.  I don't purge like items so the space I free up doesn't always allow the new item to be put where the old item came from. My bad!

I'm an Organizing Junkie has a post about organizing through the year - Popular Monthly Organizing Posts of 2013.  Her goal is to keep the posts coming for this new year - Creating Peaceful Organized Homes in 2014.

I Heart Organizing has a few great ideas too, including one for my wreath (except I don't have a door I can do that with - mine are French doors).

And more: 52 Weeks of Organizing, HGTV Organizing, and of course you can click on the Organizing label in the labels list to the right and find a few more ideas and looks, and even a fun quote or two about organizing. 

Now, all this talk about organizing could make one think I was making a new year resolution.  Nope, I try that on occasion but I just can't seem to make them work for me.  It's not my thing.  
So, when I saw this

(here)


I smiled!