Welp, the holiday decorations are officially boxed up. Sure, it’s a little sad, but after crazy holidays, I actually find a slightly emptier apartment very calming. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally smitten with Christmas, but after all the gift buying, traveling, and family antics, it’s nice to take a deep breath, step back, and see it all packed up.
Remember, last week when I mentioned doing a purge for the new year? And, yesterday, when I said my objective for 2014 was to curate my belongings? Well, I totally took that axe to my holiday decorations too! The following picture is literally all of our holiday decorations! And not just Christmas, I’m talking Halloween, spring time, Thanksgiving, AND Christmas.
Now, hang with me while I explain! Sure, it might seem a little weird for a self-proclaimed holiday nut to slash and burn holiday decorations into just two bins and an ornament box, but people downsizing all my holiday decor felt amazing! I can find anything instantly. I can reach everything easily. It’s awesome.
One thing that hasn’t changed is keeping my breakable and special tree ornaments in this hard plastic container. They are completely protected which means no sad surprises when I pull this bin out every year.
In the first plastic bin, I have all of my tree decorations. Using the ol’ “hot glue party cups to a piece of foam core” method we’ve used before, I created a little custom storage for my non-breakable ornaments. 
Above that goes lights more ornaments of various sizes and our tree star. Quick side note! I snagged those awesome old-school bulb lights at Target on mega sale. They are LED so they’re super bright, but I love the classic vibe they give off! And that’s everything in the first bin.
The second, and final bin, holds decorations for all holiday. I’ve got some more Christmas lights, garlands, my wooden Easter eggs, spring garlands, and even my favorite haunted books for Halloween. (They’re actually just water damaged, but they sure do look creepy!)
One thing decoration I’ve been most excited about is making DIY garlands because they take so little space to store but make a big impact! Both of the garlands above stretch out to over 18 feet and they compress into these Ziploc bags with no problem!! We used both of these to create our light-strand hallway tree this past year.
And, I wrap the few individual strings of lights I have around a spare piece of cardboard that easily slides into the bin!
Then, of course, we have our little tree which is stored outside in it’s original packaging. Since, I opted out of the traditional tree skirt game in favor of the swathed fabric look, I just tossed our blue velvet “skirt” in the wash, folded it and put it back on a hanger in my craft closet with my other large fabric pieces. Easy peasy.
What’s the holiday decor situation at your abode? Do you keep it minimal or go crazy? Share below!