I was determined to reclaim my house from the brink of disaster before everyone returned to school and work this week. Before the weekend, our dining room look like this.
It was groooooosssss. Seriously. The presents and games are the obvious remnants of Christmas. The stuff piled in front of the door is the stuff that is waiting to go to out to the shed. I’m far to delicate to go out in the cold to put it there however, and hubs has conveniently been avoiding it as well.
But, mission TAKE IT DOWN ensued this weekend, and it was good.
We started with cleaning up under the tree and getting all the new treasure to a safe home up in Goog’s room.
Then it was time to work on getting the holiday cards down. Every year, I like to hang them with clothes pins along a ribbon. In our new home, this ribbon was strung along the rockin’ 80’s spindles along the stairs right by the tree.
I hate just throwing them away, so I opt for cutting the up.
I cut the cards into 6″ x 1/2″ strips, trying to get an interesting part of the card, and we add it to a paper chain that goes on our tree every year. That way, the warm wishes are always with us year after year. The clothes pins and ribbon then go in a ziploc to get reused next year.
Then down came the ornaments and the tree. We gathered up all the other goodies around the house, of which there aren’t that many, and stowed them in boxes, and hubs toted them all out to the shed. To celebrate, we played a quick round of Goog’s new game of Clue, which I totally thought I had in the bag, right up to the moment I incorrectly guessed the wrong murder weapon. Doh!
And then it was time to rearrange the furniture and put all the pieces back together. And, viola!
Anybody out there have some super great tips for de-holidayfying the house in a way that isn’t too painful? Anyone leaving it up until Valentine’s Day the way my hubs suggested???
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