All of the presents have been unwrapped and the last sip of eggnog consumed, now comes the hard part - un-decorating your home after the holidays!!
It doesn't have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. In fact, cleaning and organizing your home after holidays can be liberating!! I am sharing 15 easy and efficient steps to UNdecorate and freshen your home after the jump!
Here are 8 steps to a stress-free holiday undecorating and house cleaning. Draft the family to help! I've put the steps in chronological order to make it even easier to get your house all cleaned up for 2012:
It doesn't have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. In fact, cleaning and organizing your home after holidays can be liberating!! I am sharing 15 easy and efficient steps to UNdecorate and freshen your home after the jump!
Here are 8 steps to a stress-free holiday undecorating and house cleaning. Draft the family to help! I've put the steps in chronological order to make it even easier to get your house all cleaned up for 2012:
Store your Christmas wrap
1. Store your Christmas wrap
Instead of buying those expensive plastic wrap containers, get some inexpensive plastic tubs and put your rolls in there. Then tie them up with a bit of left-over Christmas ribbon or twine. They even fit well in awkward, under-stairs spaces. Just be sure to keep them all in one place so you can find them next year! You can even try this clever idea for storing wrap on the ceiling of your closet!
Flatten and save gift boxes
2. Flatten and save gift boxes
We always break down all of those cardboard gift boxes to be used again. Once flat, they are so much smaller and easier to store. Just stack them up and put a bit of twine around them.
Recycle wrapping paper
For all ripped gift wrap or boxes, you can recycle that material. Just take off the bows, ribbons and anything metallic and put the rest in your recycle bin. If you have left-over bubble wrap or packing material you can keep it for later use, or list it on Freecycle.org - a wonderful website where it can be put to good use.
Stash those ornaments
Each Christmas Ornament is special -- you don't want to break a single one; so be sure to pack each one away safely until next year. There are special ornament plastic containers that are designed to hold your ornaments. Or you can create DIY ornament holders, like Ashley did at Ashley's Thrifty Living -- she made hers out of egg cartons.
Store your lights
There's nothing more annoying than trying to unwind a strand of twisted lights. Wrap your strands of lights around a tidy spool and when Christmas comes again you can unwind them without any knots. A great product is the Light Winder -- it even has a zippered cover to keep your lights safe from moisture and damage throughout the year.
Recycle your tree
Don't forget about your real tree -- you can recycle it! Just go to Earth 911, type in "Christmas tree," and then enter your ZIP code to find one of the 4,000 recycling programs around the U.S. Many communities have curbside pick-up for trees after Christmas, while other towns have drop-off locations. Be sure to take off all the lights, ornaments and baubles first. Your local recycler will put it to good use -- like the New Orleans area used recycled Christmas trees to aid in coastline restoration.
Store your artificial tree
If you have an artificial tree, a more efficient way to store your tree is by putting it in a tree bag. They are smaller than the original box and will save you room. They're also easier to carry. We split a tree that was in one big, heavy, unwieldy box into two smaller bags. Also, there are bags with wheels which make putting your artificial tree away even easier!
Store and protect your wreaths
Another great idea is to keep your wreaths damage-free by storing them in a plastic wreath case. You can buy them at any big box store such as Walmart or Target.
Source: babble.com
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