Happy New Year --- Let's Get Organized

Hello and Happy New Year!  I hope 2014 is kind to you.

My goal for this new year is to be a tad more consistent with my posts. Uummmm, let's see how that works out *BIG GRIN*............ and to get more organized.  I am making small inroads starting with Christmas stuff.

As I was working on getting all the Christmas decorations down and put away in between the birth of my new granddaughter, Patton Lea, a bout with the flu and becoming very frustrated with it all, I decided that one of my goals (not a resolution, just a goal) is to get more organized.

I began the process  with my Christmas decorations, and I put together a fairly good sized box and gave it away to a family just starting out. Remember just starting out and buying a thing here and there year after year?  And then one day you look around and say to yourself "Good grief, where did all this stuff come from?"  That's how it starts. The "stuff" that consumes Christmas joy.  I loved giving this sweet family a head start on their own "Good grief moment years down the road! 

So I made a bit of  progress --- but it isn't nearly enough.  The biggest problem is I rarely have time to deal with it before Christmas and after Christmas I just want it all put away.  Out of site, out of mind, I'll deal with it next year.  And it never happens.  But I did make a bit of progress:

• Took all my gift wrapping supplies (which is mostly Christmas) out of one of those gift wrap organizer bags and put it all in a box.  For me, it's easier to deal with and it actually takes up less room. Not as pretty as the cloth organizer, but it just works so much better.
•  The gift wrap tubes of paper are now secured with empty toilet paper rolls cut down the middle lengthwise and placed over the tube of paper to keep it from coming unrolled.  This sounds a bit tacky, but it's recycling at its basic best and believe me, it is so much easier to deal with than a piece of tape that is more often than not a bugger to remove.  This has been all over the internet and it's quite ingenious.
• I took the recycling a bit further and dug some of the large plastic blueberry boxes I had in my plastics-to-recycle bin and used them for a couple of storage solutions. 
• A coffee container also came to good use and I plan on using more of these as I get them.

The large plastic containers, 3.5 quarts I think they are, that I buy blueberries in to freeze for winter use were perfect to store gift bows in.  I can see what is inside and they do not become crushed. 





 Previously I had my strings of glass and plastic bead garlands in a flimsy gift box that over the years has never kept the beads contained nor protected.  There's that "I'll deal with it next year" mentality rearing it's ugly head.  I do know I want to keep my bead garlands, but a better storage solution had to come about.  The empty coffee "can" was my solution. They all fit inside and once the lid is snapped on, they are completely protected.  The fact that the container is square is a plus as it will take up less space than a round one. 

An empty Cinnamon Bun container was the perfect size for another item I know I will be keeping.  The mini red silk poinsettia plant and the little red elves have always been displayed together.  The elves belonged to my mother, and I bought the silk plant to go with them when the elves were passed on to me.  I hope to pass these on to one of my granddaughters.  The little breath mint tin holds ornament hooks; this was another item that had previously been stored in a box that had seen better days.  I will probably use another of these tins for storing the suction hooks that I use quite frequently.

So.  It's not a lot of progress, but it IS progress.  Now that I have an idea of what I can do to store my Christmas decorations better  I will be saving these containers from the recycling bin and will continue the organization process for this glorious holiday next year.  A little bit at a time, my friends, a little bit at a time.