Pack Up the Holidays

Putting away the holidays can be a real chore. When you're putting everything out, you're excited and feeling festive; once the holidays are done, you don't have that same energy. For me, when the holidays are done, I am left exhausted, and with a house that needs to be cleaned and put back together.

1. Make sure you vacuum pack your non glass items. Glass or fragile items may break under pressure.

2. Put like-minded items together. Such as, all of the ornaments in one bag, and the garland in another.

3. Place items in the bag how you'd like them to come out next year. Example, wrap your lights up neatly so they don't come out tangled.

4. If you have a lot of decorations, work in sections to make sure you don't miss anything. Tackle the bigger projects first, and work your way down.

5. Store decorations in labeled bags and containers, so you know what you have.

6. If you have a real tree, do not vacuum up the needles; gather needles in a dust pan, and use duct pieces of duct tape to help pick up stragglers.

After I've put everything away for the year, I like to do a bit of a deep cleaning of the house before getting my regular decorations back out. Do a good dusting and clean under the items you may normally just clean around. Besides just packing up the decorations, it's also a great time to put away any gifts, move those piles and place the items where they belong.