Getting organized after the holiday

Christmas Day has come and gone and now comes the part I dread - the taking down and putting away of all things Christmas. It's always hard because the items do need to be wrapped up and stored properly to guard against breakage. Maybe since everyone is home right now I can get them to help me to reorganize the under the stairs storage area. Okay, so I'd have a better chance of them all dancing naked outside in a snow storm but hey it's worth a try right? I wonder what kind of meal I can bribe them with to get them to "want" to help me. It's got to be something that is quick for me to make so I don't take too much time away from the sort, purge and reorganizing project...maybe it's chicken tacos, they adore my tacos :-)

Now back to organizing...
I want to be able to have my various holiday items stored in Rubbermaid storage containers. Cardboard falls apart and crushes too easily, so Rubbermaid containers it is! Assigning a different colored plastic tote to each season will make it easier to identify when searching items- label totes in the following manner... red and green ones for Christmas items, orange totes for Halloween items, pale blue or any other pastel color for Easter items, dark green for Summer/Spring related items and Navy Blue for Patriotic stuff. Of course there's the various seasonal "stuff" and the all around "stuff" that I really need to go through sort and purge. Properly labeling each container with the contents will help greatly too. I hate to admit this this but my armoire has been a catch all for things these past few months and it really needs to be purged and the items put away. What items you wonder? Items left over from Halloween and Thanksgiving that can be categorized as being "Autumn" such as glass and ceramic pumpkins, I've come across colored glass Easter Bunny containers, Decorative Easter Egg holders and pretty Easter Baskets and even a couple of Valentine related items. So now for me to organize them all and get them in their right containers. I know that this may seem a little too anal for some and right up the alley for others. But If I don't keep myself organized in this way, 1- it stresses me out having to hunt for things in this manner and 2-our next move will be a total nightmare.

So with that said, I'm getting under way with my new found project of pulling out all seasonal items and getting them sorted and ready to be put into bins - wish me luck! I hope to post pictures of what I'm pulling apart and putting back together in hopefully what amounts to a better storage and organizing system.