RoryDory's – The Teaware Twist

I have 3 strategies that I use when it comes to Holiday decorations:
Color Scheme.    Recycle.    Storage.

I love to decorate for the holidays!  When I was just starting out money was an issue.  Then in about ten years, my taste changed, and finally as I was older and wiser-I was out of room!

So, since I decorate for all major holidays (inside & outside), and I still like to purchase something new every year-I simply can not help myself-I use C.R.S. Lets take a look…

Color Scheme:

For whichever holiday you are going to decorate for, select one main color that you are going to carry throughout your home.  When you are purchasing new decorations keep this in mind and it will help keep you focused and limit your impulse/spontaneous purchases.  It also keeps your home or yard from looking cluttered and gives a sense of flow/design to your decorations.  Example: For Easter my main color is dark purple.  I have a decoration that is dark purple in every room and outside.  It does not have to be the same decoration, just the same color.

Recycle:

What do I mean by recycle?  When you have a limited budget, limited storage space or live in an apartment-you need to recycle.  What I mean by this is, you probably already have some decorations that can be used for multiple holidays. And when you are purchasing new decorations, think if you can use that item for another holiday too.  Example: A red metallic/tinsel tabletop tree can be used for Valentine’s Day, Patriotic Holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  One small tree for various holidays that can be used in unlimited ways, is inexpensive, and folds up for storage!  How can you not love it!

Storage:

This is the actual storing of decorations and storing them so that they save you time.  I use totes for most of my decorations because:

1. They last longer.
2. I code my decorations by tote color.
3. I can write with permanent marker the contents within the tote or by the room they belong to on the outside of the tote.
4. They are stackable.
5. They come in many different sizes-if you have an apartment you can use the totes that store under your bed-they may not look like it, but you can store a lot in them.
6. Less damage to your decorations.

With the ease of stacking the totes, they take up less room within your storage space.  Plus with using totes you can eliminate display boxes and wrap with paper and conserve space within your totes.  They keep you organized, how many of you dread decorating because it is time consuming? If you buy certain color totes for certain holidays, pack them according to rooms, and then stack them according to which room you decorate first-think of the time you just gained.  Example:  Valentine’s Day decorations.  I use red totes and 1-2 pink totes.  The pink totes are for those “recycle” decorations that I mentioned above.  I no longer have to root through all my decorations to find the ones I can use for another holiday.  I decorate my living room first, since this always seems to take the longest, then bath, etc.  I pack my totes accordingly then stack them with the pink on top and then the first red tote is the start of my living room decorations.  This way, if it is a busy time of year, I can simply decorate a room a day, and enjoy myself.

These strategies have saved me time, money and space. I hope they can benefit you too!