At Kathey Jo’s Kitchen, Christmas is my favorite holiday, and my affection for the holidays are reflected in how I dress up my home. If you’re like me, you like to leave your decorations up for as long as you can. You also probably can’t resist adding new ornaments and decorations to your full slate of holiday design. But, then you’re left with plastic bits and bobs, pine needles, and who knows what else to pack or throw away for a whole year, so you can do it all again! So, today at Kathey Jo’s Kitchen, we’ll discuss the most efficient ways to clean up after yourself, because we all have to do it eventually.
Artificial or Disposable Decorations
There are specialized storage bags available for your fake Christmas tree and the wreath for your door (if that’s what you use). They’re easy to find, and will be suitable to keep your things safe. If you chose a fresh-cut tree, check with your local waste disposal agency to see if they’ll haul it away. There are plenty of ideas to reuse the tree. Consider breaking it down for next summer’s campfire, decorate your garden with disks cut from the trunk, insulate plants with the needles or branches, mulch it for your garden, shred it and use it for the backyard trail, or use the branches as plant support.
Reusable Decorations
If you’re like me, you try your hardest to save the thin cardboard boxes for your ornaments, but there’s no guarantee they’ll last. Consider investing in boxes for consolidation. There should be dividers to hold everything safely. If they’re using a general-purpose storage box, you can always reuse the separators from the original boxes, or snag some glass dividers like if you were packing drinking glasses for a move. If you find there’s too much space, you can a) buy more decorations (everything’s on sale after the holidays!), or b) add blankets or bubble wrap between the layers and on the top to keep everything in place.
