Cleaning up Christmas

Hello all! So I've been a bit lazy. With the holidays, and travel, and work, and more travel, and more holidays, and more work, I have really put the organizing/any household duties on hold. Needless to say, our apartment was a disaster. If it weren't for this beautiful blizzard coming through, the place would probably remain a disaster until about March. It's just so difficult for me to get motivated to take down all of our Christmas decorations after the holidays. It seems like once we're finished putting them up, we're tearing them back down. But alas, what goes up must come down. So during NYC's snow day, I turned our apartment back into its old self and took down all of our Christmas happiness. 

Now you may think that I'm about to share some amazing, state of the art, awesomely sweet organizing system that I use to clean up Christmas better than the Grinch. But umm, hate to disappoint, you're not quite going to get that here. However, what you are going to get is the very cheap and easy method I use for storing everything until next year. 

Of course I would love to say that I have everything nicely organized in bins and containers that are perfectly labeled, but that kind of storage can really add up and after the holidays, spending a little extra is not typically an option. So I use what I have on hand; gift boxes, ziplock bags and cardboard, and the items original packaging. 

Gift Boxes
We always have extra Christmas gift boxes that I know I can reuse for someone's gift next year, but storing them seems a little ridiculous {storing a box in a box = wasted space}. So I use our leftover gift boxes as extra storage. 

Just in these three gift boxes I was able to pack up our DIY holiday picture frames {link}, stockings, santa hats, and some additional decorations. All items fit perfectly and snuggly, and those of you who are expecting a gift from me next year, don't be surprised to see it wrapped up in one of these boxes. 

Ziplock Bags and Cardboard
This was the first year I used this method for storing items and so far I don't regret it! Anyone else hate putting away Christmas lights? In previous years I have been using the original box they came in. I have been desperately shoving and stuffing the little twinkles back in {and wondering how in the heck they ever fit in there in the first place}. I mark 2013 as the year of the Ziplock. 

This was one of those moments when I said "why have I never thought of this before!?!?". All of the lights fit perfectly in each bag, and {although you can't see it here very well}, they're neatly wound so next year it will be easy to start decorating without any knots or hassle. 

I wrapped our garland and tinsel around a small piece of cardboard. Less likely to knot, easy to start using right away next year, and lays flat for easy storage. 

As silly as it sounds, I'm super giddy about these storage methods. They're cheap and so simple, and will definitely save on hassles next Christmas! 

Original Packaging
This is one of my favorite methods to use when storing anything fragile or delicate. Our fragile and delicate Christmas items consist of our nativity scene, dinnerware, glass Christmas trees, and a couple other small trinkets. Everything listed, goes right back into the box it came in. Typically, anything that is fragile, will come in a box with Styrofoam. Since tossing out styrofoam is bad for the environment, I just keep it and continue to use the box to store the item. Win for the environment, win for the organizer. 

I place our decorative pillows and tree skirt in a large pillow bag. This obviously wasn't the bag the decorative pillows came in, it originally went to the pillows on our bed. However, since we use those every night there's no need to keep the bag, except for nice and neatly storing our Christmas pillows. 

 Since our tree skirt is a wheel of glitter magic, a little trick I use to reduce the spread of glitter is folding it inside out. 

I know, so simple, right? But some of us have to learn from our mistakes in previous years before we think to do something like this {not naming any names, but I see her everyday, in the mirror}. 

Christmas Ornaments
So, I lied when I said I wasn't going to share any state of the art, amazingly, awesome storage system. A couple years ago, I found this guy at Crate and Barrel {or find it here} and just couldn't say no {plus I had a gift card which makes it all too easy to say yes}. 

Let me just tell you about this. It advertises that it can store 27-48 ornaments, lies. This here fella is comfortably packing 145 ornaments {145!!!}. Let's disregard the fact that we have that many ornaments and focus on how awesome this bad boy is. 

It comes with dividers. Enough said. But on top of that, they're interchangeable! Even if you have extra large or super tiny ornaments, this guy is able to help.

And if that wasn't enough to spark a little organizer love, you can add more trays. So if you just so happen to be nutso for ornaments {you're not alone, trust me}, you can buy more trays to suit your needs. Are you in love yet? 

This year, we definitely added a few more decorations to the pile, so Brit added a little challenge to the clean up {because he was mad that he had to go to work, I think}. He told me that I would not be able to get all of our decorations back into our storage box, which is just a large shipment box that delivered some sizable gifts a few years ago {cheap and easy}. Challenge accepted. 
Here is our wall of Christmas. 

And here it is all nicely stored in our box. 

The ornament box isn't stored in here, but that bin will fit nicely right on top. 

So in review...
Cost: Ornament container = $30, everything else = free :) 
Time: Not at liberty to say. I moseyed around the apartment all day, stopped to enjoy some coffee, some video games {the new Mario game for Wii is my new favorite}, and a little nap. It was such a flipping perfect snow day, I wish they would come more often!! 

Anyone else still cleaning up Christmas decorations? What kind of storage or clean up methods do you use? For those of you who are ahead of the game and have already cleaned up your home, apologizes for the delay in this post. Let's just pretend I'm way ahead of the game too and apply this to next year. 

Thanks for visiting!