Stress Free Holidays: Purge the Decorations

Welcome to my Stress Free Holidays series, I will be sharing some tips to reduce the amount of stress this time of year puts on all of us.  Some are ones I have used, some are ones I will be instituting this year, and some I will be using in the future.  If you have any great ways to reduce the amount of stress please feel free to share them with us!

On the subject of decorating from Sunday, when you are putting up the decorations is a great time to also sort and purge your decorations.  This is especially important if you have transitioned from apartment living to house living, into adult life, or even a different phase of your life anytime in the recent years.  I took over hosting Christmas at our house 5 years ago when Munchkin was born and have only in the past couple of years really settled on a theme and look for our house decorating.  It is time to really start purging out those joke looking decorating (I was not sad to see the singing Homer Simpson Santa go).   

After setting up, take everything that you didn't put up and sort through it, is it broken, does it not match your style anymore, or is it something you just aren't using this year.  If it is something you aren't using this year store it in a separate box at the end of the season, if you still don't use it the following year, it may be time to donate it (unless of course it is something that you just can't use at this time like all my breakable ornaments that have been boxed up for the past 5 years waiting for Munchkin to get past playing with the tree).  If it is broken and you don't fix it by the time you pack up the Christmas decorations for the year, chances are you are never going to get around to it.  Also, some places will take Christmas donations immediately after the holiday but many only take them prior due to limited storage space so keep that in mind when donating your old decorations.

Do you ever go through your decorations? Have you settled on a decorating theme for your house? I have finally settled on a more neutral display featuring snowmen, winter birds and other winter animals, a slight rustic woodland look but without going so far as to look log cabin. I am also nearly have a set of china complete for Christmas dinner which is rather exciting!