Uncluttered holiday decorations
If you decorate your home with holiday decorations, you probably have everything up already. But, if the decorating bug hasn’t yet hit, and you’d like to try and decorate without cluttering up your home, try to choose decorations that do not have to be stored away for eleven months of the year. Here are a few things to consider:
Buy real: Instead of buying an artificial wreath, tree, or garland, go for the real thing. When the holidays are over you can dispose of them instead of using up storage space. Conifers can be easily added to your compost pile.
Poinsettias: This traditional holiday plant can brighten up any room and needs zero storage space after the holidays.
Go easy on the knick-knacks: Don’t make the holidays an excuse to litter your home with dancing snowmen or a sassy Santa Claus. The holidays do not make it alright to clutter every inch of clear space. Instead, play holiday music when guests come into your home to set the mood.
Handmade: If you have children, take time to create some homemade edibles. Spending time with you children and creating something together is a good idea any time of year.
To achieve a comfortable balance during the holidays, try and keep your decorating to a minimum. If you do decorate to the fullest extent, you may spend most of your holiday season worrying about your decorations and how you will store them the rest of the year, and not enough time celebrating with loved ones.
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28 comments posted
Posted by Ryan - 11/28/2007
Or you can be like my aunt and go all out decorating her house with christmas lights, then leaving them up for three years straight, turning them on each christmas season.
Terrible, huh?
Posted by Matt - 11/28/2007
“Probably have everything up already”?! No way — Advent hasn’t even begun yet!
Posted by Kris - 11/28/2007
We just moved into a very long ranch house with many windows facing the road. The people who lived here before us always put a full sized christmas tree in every window. Yes, EVERY window. That’s 8 trees. There’s no way we’re doing that.
Instead, we’re decorating the beautiful doll house my grandparents made for me. It sits in our breezeway and faces the road. Instead of all those trees in our ‘real’ house, there are lit trees in each window of the dollhouse. We are, then, keeping the tradition of decorating every window .. just on a smaller scale. And when the holidays are over, the trees go into a baggie and the baggie stores in the attic of the dollhouse.
Posted by patty - 11/28/2007
quick comment. The wreath, wouldn’t it be better to have one plastic wreath just for xmas? The needles fall out of the real ones, you are using a natural resource for just a couple of weeks, and therefore hurting the forests, most of the items end up in a trash pile aren’t being recycled. The plastic wreath could also be designed using items that you love (special figurines, balls, ribbon, pictures of kids) and then you aren’t spending money because you already have a beautiful, one of a kind wreath…just saying…
Posted by Erin @ Unclutterer - 11/28/2007
@Kris — I love that you store the dollhouse trees in the dollhouse attic. There is something so wonderful about that!
Posted by Erin @ Unclutterer - 11/28/2007
@patty — Most communities have tree recycling programs. In our area, they mulch the trees and then use the mulch in public parks and schools. Since most live trees come from local producers and are regrowths, it’s actually more environmentally friendly than a plastic wreath. A plastic wreath was made from oil transported halfway around the world using resources that can’t be regrown. In my opinion, Matt is definitely on track with his suggestion.
Posted by Colin - 11/28/2007
Finally, an upside to my bah-humbug approach to Christmas decorations.
Posted by beth - 11/28/2007
Warning about the Poinsettias, they’re VERY toxic to pets, so don’t keep these around if you have dogs or cats.
Posted by Mary - 11/28/2007
We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving at the JW Marriot at Lenox Square in Buckhead, Atlanta. We spent some time socializing downstairs the first evening and I enjoyed the holiday decorations very much. I was struck by their simplicity and realized they only used greenery, white twinkling lights and occasional ribbon. The lobby was drop dead gorgeous …
I knew then that our Christmas knicknacks were going to find another home.
Posted by Ed Eubanks - 11/28/2007
Taking “uncluttering” to a different level, I find our artificial tree to be a big life-unclutterer for our household.
As a pastor, the Christmas season is busy enough– and there are already many, many things to do without adding the time and work of choosing a real tree, setting it up in the stand, stringing the lights, then cleaning up the mess! Not to mention the maintenance of keeping it watered, watching for fire-hazards, and disposing of it (which, in our area, means hauling it myself to a recycling place if I don’t want it to simply go to the landfill).
Our tree is stable and light, so it isn’t likely to tip over– but if it does, it won’t hurt my three year-old if it falls on her. It’s safe, with the wiring already attached (instead of being twisted, pulled, and kinked every year, encouraging shorts) and heavy fire-retardant coating. Unless you get right up to it and touch it, it looks the same as a live tree– except everything is neatly spaced with no holes, and the wire-core branches hold the ornaments well, even after a couple of weeks.
I estimate that our pre-lit artificial tree saves me about five hours of time, plus it’s paid for (and it cost less than a decent live tree when we bought it four years ago). When the holidays are over, it folds back up into the box it came in (which is about 8″x10″x4′) and stores neatly in the attic. It also saves me the headache and, frankly, unpleasantness of the live tree; some families may love picking out their tress together and it’s a big family tradition, but that’s not us.
Sometimes, even the once-a-year unitaskers are way worth the trouble the save, in my humble opinion.
Posted by Patrick - 11/28/2007
Beth, Actually the toxicity of poinsettias is a myth. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.....d_toxicity for more information.
Posted by Nancy - 11/28/2007
ummm…I’m afraid to say that my home is currently too cluttered to decorate this year :(. However, as I’m one of those who loves to keep little knicknacks, I love the ‘fresh’ idea w/ zero storage. Might be time to re-evaluate my holiday collection.
As for poinsettias, I’m not sure about the unclutter factor…my mother still has every poinsettia from the last 4 years or more. If you have a green thumb, they actually last.
Posted by M.R. - 11/28/2007
Apartment living means that it is very difficult to store a fake tree all year. But as a single female, I can’t manage a real one by myself (getting it in the car, out of the car, down the stairs, in the stand, back to the Boy Scouts so they can recycle it for mulch, etc). I am thinking of getting the largest real wreath and I can carry and putting lights and ornaments on it. I can manage a wreath by myself, I get the lovely pine-y smell, and won’t have to store it all year.
Posted by Karen - 11/28/2007
One option for apartment dwellers (or anyone who doesn’t have a lot of space) is a tabletop tree. I love mine, because I can still put up my favorite ornaments, without wrestling with a big tree. And it doesn’t take up a lot of room in storage - mine fits in a box that’s roughly the size of two large shoeboxes. (And since it’s prelit, I don’t have to store strands of lights.) I put mine on a lazy susan, so I can decorate all sides of the tree, and rotate it every few days so I can see the “back” of the tree. Since I started using the tabletop tree, I also downsized my Christmas ornament collection, and only kept the ones I really loved. I didn’t need a lot of balls or lights to “fill up” a big tree.
I get the sentimental value of a Christmas tree, without taking up a lot of space. (And it cost less than a single fresh tree or wreath - at least where I live, fresh wreaths are pricey!)
Posted by Geralin Thomas - 11/28/2007
@ Pastor Ed,
Amen! You are preaching to the choir!
I use a pre-lit (artificial) tree and couldn’t be happier.
I love the time it saves; it stores in a giant bag in our garage (hanging from the rafters). We’ve used it for 7 or 8 years now.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware that it was an anti- eco-friendly purchase so I’ll probably keep using it till you-know-what freezes over.
If I had to do it over again, I’d buy a small evergreen from a nursery, keep it in it’s original pot, light it and keep it at my front door. Then, after the holidays, I’d plant it in the yard.
Repeat Annually.
Posted by Louise - 11/28/2007
We live in our RV full-time. Each year, we buy an inexpensive, pre-lit wreath and attach it to our front bumper. (We have a plug up there for the lights.) The artificial wreath is tough enough to withstand freeway driving. After the season, we clean it up and donate it to the closest charity, like Goodwill. Total investment each year: about $15.
This year for inside decorations, I bought five candles in the shape of evergreen trees. Different sizes, a variety of colors. We will burn them, so they are consumable. (We always monitor lit candles carefully, don’t worry!) They are unbreakable and non-toxic, good for a moving vehicle with three pets.
We have a dark green couch, so I just added two red throw pillows. Again, these will be donated to a charity later. In such a small space, these few touches add a festive air without too much bother, expense, or clutter.
Posted by sillahee - 11/28/2007
In Portland, OR you can now RENT a living tree. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6753079/
Posted by STL Mom - 11/28/2007
I think I’m now up to FIVE boxes of Christmas crap, not counting the fake tree (purchased after a leaking tree holder warped the wood floor). I need to sort through and decide which items I really love, then sneak the rest off to Goodwill before the kids notice that anything is missing.
In my defense, the five boxes do include Christmas books, and a box of wrapping paper and gift bags. And Christmas-themed stuffed animals - oh, yeah, I really do need to toss some stuff! I think my kids can survive a holiday without the stuffed mouse that recites “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in a creepy, mechanical voice.
Posted by jt in the army - 11/29/2007
My Christmas decorations consist of 2 holiday-specific items and one season-specific item.
The first is a 3ft pre-lit tabletop tree with white lights, small metalic blue balls and silver strings of beads.
The second a blue-clay nativity set placed in white aquarium gravel in a glass pan (so the cat doesn’t scatter the set where he sees fit).
The third is a string of copper snowflake lights that are strong across 2 windows and a bookcase and will stay up until the spring bulbs outside begin to appear.
I dread my next condo/apartment because at that time my parents will give me a box of Christmas ornaments I either made or was given as a child. Then I’ll need to sort out what to keep. But hopefully I’ll have a bigger (or real!) tree by that time as well.
Posted by Louise - 11/29/2007
@jt in the army:
I shudder to think what MY cats would do with a pan full of gravel, nativity scene or not. Definitely not the gift of the three wise men…
Posted by beth - 11/29/2007
Patrick, I’ll keep that in mind but my vet gave me a list of specific plants not to keep around, and that was on there. Perhaps dogs have more of a sensitivity to it? I don’t know, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Posted by Melissa A. - 11/29/2007
I don’t have a lot of decorations, but I have bought a few dollar store items. Everything fits into a banker box which I keep in my closet. This year I plan to make some things, if I have time. But honestly I don’t have the money to spend on real wreaths or trees. I think I’ll just hang lights on my ficus
I would like to get a table top tree, but my cat will eat it.
Posted by Eponin - 11/30/2007
A note of caution with Poinsettias. If you have pets that like to chew (like cats) these plants can often be poisonous to them.
Posted by Ruth - 12/01/2007
My cousin lives in a small apartment, and we do Christmas day at my aunt’s house, so her solution for ornament display is the “Christmas rope.” Instead of a tree, she hangs up a rope and hangs her ornaments from that.
Posted by Kath - 12/05/2007
Took me 5 minutes to decorate tonite.
15 seconds - Carry my two Hanukiot from the hutch to the front kitchen window sill.
4 minutes - Tape one string of Hanukkah lights to my front kitchen window
45 seconds - Light candles and say the blessings
Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!
Posted by CarolinaDivina - 12/10/2007
decorate
use a real tree and send it off to become coral after christmas
make paper snowflakes
paper chains
and popcorn strings
the birds can eat the popcorn strings and the paper decorations can be composted
also
if you get paper bags from the grocery store - they can become wrapping paper with simple finger paint and a star stamp
stamp away or give to your kid
and you have nice wrapping paper for christmas which can be composted
Posted by Stephanie - 12/30/2007
I would like to see the math about a fake tree being less environmentally friendly. I have had the same 3-foot, pre-lit tree for about 5 years now that cost me $10. The same amount of energy consumed to make the tree is probably equivalent to the energy to chainsaw down a real tree and haul it from another city to a local store that I would have to drive to pick it up and then drive to dispose of it somewhere else. I think the key is to not buy new christmas stuff every year. Even when I lived in a super small house, there was room for the skinny and tall box it came in. The key is to scale the tree to your environment. Some of us have never known what a real tree is like anyways because of allergies to the real thing. Absolutely nothing beats not having to string lights either!
Posted by Cathy Viviano - 04/17/2008
I love holiday decorations in my apartments. The tree, wreath, nativity scene, stockings, etc. are all wonderful.
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