7 Steps to Simplify Your Christmas Decor & Cut the Clutter

I know Christmas is over, but if you celebrate the full 12 days of Christmas you'll just be taking down your decor today or tomorrow. And believe it or not, the day you pack up your Christmas decor is actually the perfect time to evaluate your decor, your storage, and any changes you need to make! And I'll walk you through it all in a few simple steps.

Disclaimer:

I love Christmas. I look forward to it all year, and I'm thrilled to pull out our Christmas bins every time. I want you to hear that and know that if you absolutely love Christmas decor - I am on your side. So don't panic. But, listen: sometimes the Christmas decor we love can become a burden (whether it's burdensome to set up or to live with for a month or even to store) and if yours is becoming unenjoyable... it's time to make some changes.

If your house is an absolute explosion of Christmas and you love every inch? That's fine! And I would love to see it someday. You probably don't need this post!

BUT, if you feel overwhelmed when you think about Christmas decorating, if living with every surface cluttered with Christmas trinkets all month drives you bonkers, or if you just dread pulling those bins out every year... this post is for you. And this is the perfect time for you to begin to simplify. To make your own life easier. Because your Christmas decor shouldn't be your boss - it should work for you. 

The Minimizing Trend:

If you spend any time on social media, you may have noticed it's very trendy to talk about "minimizing" your decor. Bloggers everywhere are touting the new gold standard: a single bin of minimalist decorations supplemented entirely with fresh greenery. "You'll save storage space!" "You'll save waste!" "It will be so easy!" That's not what this post is. Simplifying does not equal minimizing. And I'd rather talk to you about Christmas decor that is actually easy and enjoyable and simple and affordable and that you probably already have.

Because guess what? I don't live in a forest where I can forage all my greenery for free (P.S. I'm not actually interested in foraging my own greenery for free). If I buy new fresh greenery every year, it's going to cost a heck of a lot more than the greenery I already have in my basement (all of which I bought on clearance after Christmas over the years). I also have a basement with a corner designated to store all my Christmas goodies. So the full blown minimizing trend just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I love having everything ready to go the moment I'm ready to decorate. I love finding beautiful decorations cheap and being able to re-use them year after year. I love being able to leave my decor up for a month or more without it drying out and turning brown. 

Why Simplify?

So... if we like bins of decor in our basement, why bother simplifying at all? Well... because it can still easily be too much. And you can know it's too much when it's overwhelming to set up, or frustrating to live with, or overflowing your storage, or exhausting to take down. It's okay - in fact it's good - to let go of some things to make your life easier, to increase your peace of mind, and to save time and storage space. So let's look at how to do that:

The First Step:

Before you start clearing out your Christmas goodies, you need to make some decisions. It's easy to say "get rid of a bunch of stuff," but if you are getting rid of the wrong stuff.... you'll just end up buying more stuff next year. So let's think through a few things first:

1. Evaluate Your Storage Space

How much space do you actually have to store your decor? I'm not asking how many bins do you have, but how much actual physical space in your home are able/willing to dedicate to those bins. You may have 20 bins of storage, but if you can't park in the garage because you only have shelf space for 10 of those bins? It might be time to reevaluate. We all only have so much space in our homes and we need to steward it the best we can. This also means that if you have space for 10 bins, but also have other things you  need to store, then you might need to limit yourself to just 4 bins dedicated to decor. The goal isn't "what is the absolute maximum amount of decor I am able to store," but rather, "how much of this valuable space is it wise for me to dedicate to decor." So begin by looking at how much space you actually have for your decor and commit to only keep what will fit easily into that space. If you don't have a designated storage space yet, find one. 

Our Christmas Storage in our regular old basement. It used to spill over into neighboring shelves but I simplified quite a bit to make room for camping gear. 

2. Prioritize & Identify Your Key Elements

If your Christmas decor is still up, great! Start by looking around and noting which things actually bring the most Christmas-bang to your decor. Make a list if you need to. If your decor is packed away, start thinking through what decor you look forward to most and what decor could stand alone even if you didn't put up anything else. For me, I realized it always comes down to one magical combination: greenery and lights. (I especially love garlands as my greenery because they don't clutter any surfaces.) Once I realized how much joy I got from a simple lighted garland, I was able to get rid of most of my cluttery knick-knack-ish decor. I also prioritized a few other decorations I really love like a pair of nativities, our family ornaments, stockings, a few wreathes, and the plates, mugs, and tablecloth we use every Christmas. 

3. Notice What's Missing

I know, it's ironic to start talking about simplifying by looking for what we might need to get. But hear me out: sometimes when you clear the clutter you are able to see what has actually been missing all along. Maybe you've been over-buying over-decorating to fill a void without addressing what has really been bothering you. I could add every Christmas sign and ceramic house in the store (I know, I tried) and still feel like something was missing until I finally got up on a ladder and hung a lighted garland above the windows. Turns out I didn't need any of that other junk. I just needed a little green and a little twinkle. 

Also take time to notice anything that's missing that isn't even decor at all. It could be something as simple as Christmas music to set the mood or baking your favorite Christmas cookies because they remind you of your grandma. But it could also be as difficult as missing a loved one with a void no decor can ever fill. It's easy to see all the fun things at the store and think, "Surely THIS is the thing I've been missing," but if we aren't evaluating what we really need, all we end up doing is adding clutter and wasting money. The best way to fight clutter is to not buy things in the first place!

4. Find Your Color Story

This is really helpful if your Christmas decor feels scattered or disconnected. Try keeping things in a similar color story and you will be amazed how much more intentional, cohesive, and connected your whole house will feel. I love greenery, wood tones, and traditional red, so I stick to those elements as much as possible (I bring in red through ornament strings, wreath hangers, stockings, felt garland, etc.) If red isn't your favorite, you could also choose whites, gold, neutrals, blues, natural elements, or whatever your preference is! The point is to choose a color story that fits your style & taste. Then whenever you are making decisions about what decor to keep (or when you're at the store contemplating new decor to buy) test it against your color story and you will instantly know if it will work with the rest of your home! One of the best ways to find your color story is to compare the things you already have and love to see what they have in common. If you still aren't sure, it can also be helpful to start a pinterest board and pin any Christmas pictures you love (look for whole rooms that you love even if you don't know why!) then go back and look for any similarities there. 

5. Choose Quality over Quantity

I mentioned already that greenery + lights is my dynamic duo. I also talked about looking for what's missing in your decor that you may be overcompensating for. For me, that ironically ended up being the right greenery. I had mounds of garland but was never happy with how it looked. I finally started investing in higher quality, realistic greenery and it made all the difference. I ditched all the excess greenery I had collected (I had boxes of it I never used because I kept buying more thinking that would solve the problem!) and started swapping out a garland or two at a time over the past several years as I came across them on clearance after Christmas (I spent $16 for a 12' garland last week that I'll hang over a bank of windows in our living room next year). I did the same with my Christmas tree when I finally found a more realistic style on clearance for $95. Once I had a tree I loved, I easily pared down and got rid of two full size trees and one smaller tree. I really didn't need them anymore once I had a tree I loved and I don't miss them at all! Same for the lights. No amount of twitchy LED lights will ever produce the Christmas magic of one single strand of regular, twinkly Christmas lights for me. All that to say: sometimes investing in one really good thing is better than frittering away money on a bunch of cheaper things. Especially when it's something you will use and love year after year. 

6. Look for Decor Swaps

One of my favorite Christmas decorating tips is to use decor swaps whenever you can. It's just what it sounds like - instead of adding Christmas decor on top of your regular decor, remove/store the regular decor to make room to swap in the Christmas decor! It's a great way to avoid over-cluttering your home during the holidays, and it saves space in your holiday storage. If you want to hang a beautiful Christmas print, swap it with a photo that you already have in a frame (then after Christmas just store it in the frame behind your normal print)! Swap out your regular throw pillow covers for Christmas covers (then you only need to store covers in the off-season instead of whole pillows!). If you put a nativity on the mantle, take down your regular mantle decor and store it in the nativity box until Christmas is over. And so on. 

7. Plan to Set the Atmosphere

A home that feels like Christmas is about so much more than whatever decor ends up in your bins. When you reflect on Christmas as a child, you probably remember not only the sights, but also the smells, the sounds, the tastes, and the feeling. You remember time with family and the memories you made together. Alllll of that is the atmosphere of Christmas. And the more you set a Christmas atmosphere, the less decor you need to pick up the slack. If you don't have a lot of space and can't store much decor, looking for ways to set the atmosphere will be especially important. So, apart from your traditional Christmas decor, think about things like warm blankets, cozy lighting, comforting foods, baking, music, candles, snowball fights, carols, reading good books, Christmas movies, puzzles, board games, or whatever else will create a cozy, Christmas atmosphere in your home. If you want more tips on this, I recommend checking out the book Welcome Home by Myquillyn Smith. It's her area of expertise and I've learned a lot from her over the years! (She also wrote my favorite home design book: Cozy Minimalist Home)

Start Letting Go

Once you've thought through these seven steps, it's time to start letting go of anything that doesn't fit your decor goals, your style, or your storage space. If your Christmas decorations are up right now, the easiest place to start is with anything left over in the bins that you didn't even bother to put up this year. If you didn't like it enough to get it out, it probably doesn't deserve to take up valuable space in your home. (I know there are exceptions - we have a few breakable keepsake ornaments that we won't put up with toddlers in the house, but be honest with yourself as you look through those leftovers!). The next best advice I can give you is to set out the number of bins you have room to store, then just start packing things into those bins beginning with the things you love most. When you run out of space? That's it. The rest has to go, or you have to take something else back out to make room.  Harsh, I know. But if you really want to cut back on clutter (and the stress that comes with it) and wisely steward the space you have, you're going to have to make some hard choices. Hopefully by working through the guidelines above, many of those choices will be quite a bit easier:

1. Evaluate Your Storage Space
2. Prioritize & Identify Your Key Elements
3. Notice What's Missing
4. Find Your Color Story
5. Choose Quality over Quantity
6. Look for Decor Swaps
7. Plan to Set the Atmosphere

Trust me when I tell you: It will be worth it. Your decorating will be easier and more enjoyable. Your home will be less cluttered (and therefore less stressful). Your storage will be manageable. Your next-year self with thank you. 

Check out my SIMPLE Christmas projects and tutorials here.

So what do you think? Are you ready to simplify? Let me know how it goes!