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Letter to the editor

Post-holiday dread eased by organizing

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Times Correspondent
Published December 28, 2007

It takes hours to put them up.

And it requires hours to take them down - a domestic task that doesn't evoke the same cheer.

Stowing holiday ornaments, lights and knickknacks until next year is a tall order, especially in Florida, where storage space is at a premium.

So pour yourself a cup of tea or spike the last of the fat-free eggnog, crank up some good tunes and organize those holiday trimmings. With some advice from experts, you'll have your treasures packed away smartly in no time and your house will look clean and clutter-free in the new year.

Liz Witts, a professional organizer with Organized Living and a regular on HGTV's Mission Organization, predicts that by the time the holidays are over "no one will be excited about their Christmas decorations anymore. They'll want to get them down as quickly as possible and reclaim their houses."

Witts, who spoke by phone last week from her office in Pennsylvania, says that if you put away those decorations "quick and sloppy," you'll pay for your sins next year with tangled lights and broken ornaments.

Ornament storage

For starters, she recommends a dedicated ornament storage box with individual slots. She likes the 20-slot box from her company, Organized Living,www.organizedliving.com a deal at $5.99 but you can pick them up at any of the big-box retailers.

If you are a procrastinator, holiday organizing boxes tend to go on sale in January, but wait only if it's an option.

Designated ornament boxes can store more items in a smaller space, she says. They also allow for more efficient stacking.

As an example, she likes to use what she calls "the pantry analogy" of whether can you store a sack of flour on a bag of pretzels.

"You can," she says, "but only if they're in containers."

Linda Harns, a professional holiday decorator from Chicago who now lives in Holiday, also recommends heavy-duty plastic storage containers.

"My husband convinced me. He even bought the kind with ornament containers and storage is much easier," Harns says.

By room or style

Both Harns and Witts recommend storing your holiday treasures based on your own decorating needs by room or by style: tropical decorations might go in one box, traditional in another.

Says Harns: "I decorate by color, so I store by color. One year I might want to do a red, green and gold theme. Another year it might be something else."

Nonbreakables, especially fake greenery, can be stored in plastic bags, as it has to be worked with and fluffed again every year, she says. The same goes for bows used on the tree and garland.

Breakable bric-a-brac should be put in bubble wrap and stored in containers, but don't get too paranoid about it, especially if you store carefully.

"I've been decorating for Christmas for 35 years and haven't had a problem - except when I'm decorating and drop things," Harns says with a laugh.

Next, think about holiday lights. Even if you have a prelit tree, you probably have strands of decorative lights from your evergreen swags on the mantel, stair or porch railings.

Do not, Witts warns, throw them into a box and expect hassle-free decorating next year.

If you want the easiest access in the future, organize them in a container specifically designed for holiday lights, she says.

Do the same with your tree if you have the space: Consider investing in a "tree keeper," which allows you to keep an artificial tree assembled year-round.

"Unless you've got a room in your house to store it in, don't keep the ornaments on," Witts warns, "especially if you're transporting it to storage."

Consider buying your holiday storage boxes in reds and greens so that you can identify Christmas ornaments from other storage at a glance, Witts advises.

Cull the collection

The end of the holidays also marks a good time to scale down your decorations. Since you're actually handling everything, take stock of what's worn, out of style or no longer useful.

Of course, sentimentality wins out, especially with Christmas decorations, but most people have acquired so many decorations that they probably have more than they need, Witts says.

"If you have three sets of the same Christmas salt and pepper shakers, give two away so that someone else can enjoy them next year."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

[Last modified December 27, 2007, 07:53:16]