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!

Snow Creations

Snow carving ideas from the Nov-Dec 1997 Scouting magazine

 

Look like fun stuff!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Crafts

ideas from my paper files

Cute Wooden Trees, Bundle of Blocks, Post Snowman, Snowman Pillow, Pretzel Legend, Pinecone Ornaments, Snowman Bulb,
 

Blocks Hangings,
 

Glitter on Bulbs

 





 

Real Stockings

 

 

Bling on your Hat and Gloves

 

 

Special Sock Snowmen

I know it's almost Thanksgiving, but keeping warm is important this time of year, and these snowmen seem to create a great and creative warmth.
 

About 30 years ago I created sock snowmen from baby socks (seen in this post) and loved having them hang on my tree. They were cute, but didn't seem as warm as these.

 

When I saw these snowmen from grandfathers socks I wished I had saved some of my kids grandfathers socks to create some of these adorable snowmen.  They are bigger than those I made years ago, and more loveable and squeezable, and warm.

 

 

 

 

Wanna make some?

Polly shares the how to, complete with photos, here.

 

Another look at sock snowmen can be found on this post.

 

This idea reminds me of the "Keep-Snake" we made from grandfather's ties. For those who do not like snakes, maybe these are a better type of keepsake. 

 

 

Decorating for Christmas

In my home, holiday decorating is my thing ... from lugging the boxes out of storage to lugging them back in when it's all cleaned up.

 This last week was the week for take down and set up.  So I ...

 

... packed up all of my trinkets that were on my shelves. 

While not in use, they stay safe in these boxes in my STUFF room.  Those boxes remain empty the rest of the year ... well, except for the tissue paper that gets stored with them.

 

 

After taking things down and packing them up I moved on to the fun stuff

... put up the Christmas decor in my kitchen. 

I only have a few things to help the kitchen look a bit festive.

 

 

... put up my pencil trees and added lights, though I have not added any other decor to them because I am waiting for the real thing before I get my ornaments out. But, I'm loving the lights.  So anxious for a real tree ..., maybe sometime the beginning of next week.

 



 

... put up garland and added lights and other decor, 

 

 

... set up nativities. 

I was feeling lazy at that time and didn't put them all out.  I usually fill my hutch with nativities, but this year it was just the entertainment center.  I'm already missing a few that I didn't put up, but that hutch is filled with other things, so they'll stay put away.

 

 

... lastly, my boxes with snowman and other decorations found their way into the family room and the items inside each box were carefully and lovingly placed in whatever shelf or table or corner pleased me best.  Some items found a change in scenery as I went along, but in the end each found their final resting place. Well, final unless I do some more tweaking the next few days.  It is what I love to do.  It just takes me so long to do it.  I love to pull out the sentimental items that fill my heart with joy as I place them in view for the holidays.

 

 

About the last set of photos:

1. New addition for the year is my bowl of snowballs! 

After Christmas last year I purchased a couple containers of white balls, and this year I purchased a silver ... whatever you call it ... the thing the bowl sits in ... at Good Will last week, just because I liked it.  When I started decorating and found the white balls I decided to pull out a clear bowl and put those three together to create my bowl of snowballs.  I'm lovin' it.

2. Just a little garland and fun around the bench and clock - shown mostly to see where our elf (in #7) sits today.

3. Not so new, and not so visible - the framed art is something I did years ago - kind of a water color print.

4. Even older - (Hanging from #3) a favorite of mine, made by my sister in law and given to us several years ago.

5. Probably the oldest item in my Christmas collection - a Santa moon that belonged to my mother in law.

6. Also very old - a cloth wrapped heart my grandmother gave me years ago.

7. New addition - Our elf - I decided to begin this tradition for our grandchildren this year ..., and we're havin' fun.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!