Urge to Purge Day 5: O Christmas Tree

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Some people take down their tree after Epiphany, some the day after Christmas. On the assumption that most of us haven't gotten around to it yet, today's mission is to go through the Christmas decorations.

First start with the boxes of stuff you didn't put out this year. This should be easy if you still have your other stuff out, since the boxes are already half unpacked! Looking at the stuff you didn't use, ask yourself "Why didn't I use them?" Are they ugly or broken or just not your style? Do you have too many Christmas decorations and not enough room? If you have kids, maybe some of those salt dough ornaments they brought home from second grade have outlived their nostalgia factor, or you have more than you can use. Pull out the stuff you don't absolutely love and put them in bags for tossing or donating.

Now look around the house - preferably in the bright light of day - and see what decorations you have out that perhaps need to be retired. Is the fuzzy lamb discolored beyond the ability of OxyClean? Are the Santa mugs chipped? Can you see that Rudolph's nose has been re-glued far too many times already? Getting rid of the past-their-prime decorations gives you more room for nicer ones next year, perhaps the ones you love that had to stay in the boxes this year!

Last, look through your Christmas wrap supplies. Get rid of any scraps of paper too small to wrap anything, curling ribbon that's lost is lusture, creased pages of gift tags, gift bags you've saved that, upon review, really aren't worth saving.

Hopefully this purge will lead you to one fewer Christmas box to put in storage whenever it is your tree comes down.

[lynnzop[$]]

This is a GREAT thread, MJ. I didn't put up most of my Christmas decs this year, time was not on my side. So I am probably not going to haul through the boxes that are already packed away in the garage.

But when I decorated the tree, I didn't put up all the decorations. I know there are some balls and other ornaments that would be good to take to Goodwill...I had never thought about donating old ornaments before! Now I will!!!!

[mtomm[$]]

Tree down the 26th. I ordered a "kit" of decorations for next year and so I'll be purging the old decorations. There are quite a few things I need to purge besides the tree decorations. Ugh. My mother has given me a lot of junk over the years.

[Helen_B[$]]

When our kids take all of "their" ornaments with them, we'll have less. My mother and my MIL gave each child a tree ornament for many years, so there are plenty. And, of course, sometimes so did I. I'm really sentimental about the old ornaments, so I've stopped buying new ones.