Strategies to Declutter and Organize Holiday Home Decor

Need to organize your holiday decor? Sharing practical and easy tips to declutter now!

As you decorate each season, are you frustrated by your lack of home decor storage and organization?

That’s definitely been a problem in my home and as a “new year” project I dedicated myself to finding a solution to my home decor storage problem.

As I went through the process, I thought I would document the steps I took and share what worked with you!

Here are some easy to follow ways to plan for and tackle organizing seasonal home decor.

My Seasonal Home Decor Storage Issues

Decorating for a wide variety of holidays is at the core of a blogger’s life.

We create content to inspire your home makeovers and how you decorate.

As I grew into my “blogging life” and acquired a LOT more seasonal décor, I found that storage and organization became a BIG problem.

In my home, I had a basic closet that wasn’t being used to its full extent and had become a “dumping ground” for stuff.

The Original Closet Clutter

A couple of years ago, I turned it into a a home décor closet and wrapping station.

It was great at first, but I found overtime as I acquired more things it didn’t function well.

seasonal-home-decor-closet-before-porch-daydreamer-

The storage containers weren’t clear, so I couldn’t see what was inside easily.

Plus with items stacked on top of each other, I had to remove items to get to others underneath.

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Instead of thinking “I need to store this stuff”, I instead changed my perspective to “How do I USE this home decor each season?”

Porch Daydreamer

7 Home Decor organization Tips

  1. Take everything out and look at it before you reorganize.
  2. To save time, create donate and trash bags or bins and purge as you remove items.
  3. Choose storage containers that work with how you use your items (i.e. do they need to be seen or transported).
  4. Group like items together and create storage categories (Christmas, Halloween, Spring, etc.)
  5. Place the most used items at eye level, so you can grab and replace them easily.
  6. Choose clear storage to eliminate guesswork about what’s inside.
  7. Label containers and update the labels each season as you reorganize.

Nothing was organized by season and my glass pumpkins were taking up WAY too much space and getting in the way.

On top of that my faux florals didn’t have a home and I ended up cramming them in the corners and on top of other things.

It became very annoying and over time I got lazy as I put things back into the closet…closing the door and ignoring it.

It was time for a new plan! Luckily, I found The Home Edit products at Walmart.

They were the perfect option to help me rethink and reorganize my seasonal home décor.

Shop Storage Solutions

Plus they are SO affordable and high quality.

The best part is each organizer I used had handles and I could SEE what was being organized.

Transportable storage was import to me and the smaller sizes were perfect.

Home Decor Organization Goals

The people that know me well know that I think through things very thoroughly and always have plan of attack.

Plus I think 10 steps ahead and this project was a prime example of this!

What can I do to make this “space” more functional and make life easier?

Isn’t that what organization is really about? Making things run more smoothly and efficiently.

Plus being organized clears mind clutter and that makes me happy!

Not only did I consider what was currently in the closet, but where I was storing everything that I used each season to decorate:

  • Pillow covers were in my bedroom armoire and a mess.
  • Vases were under my stairs and hard to access.
  • Smaller Christmas décor items were in large containers in the attic and hard to find.
  • Ornaments and greens were in the closet and attic.

You can see I was having to grab things for decorating projects ALL over the house.

Not a good plan and it wore me out this past Christmas!

Home Décor Organization checklist

  • Pull smaller Christmas décor from the attic into the closet.
  • Take all ornaments out of the closet and put them into the attic.
  • Items that I use each season make them easily accessible and transportable.
  • Create a system for organizing pillow covers.
  • Group items by season and category together in the closet.
  • Find a way to organize and store faux florals.

Based on these goals, The Home Edit Collection of clear storage and organization products from Walmart were the perfect solution.

Supplies you’ll need for organizing

They broke me out of using frosted “shoe box” type containers, which were fine in the past but weren’t working for me now.

The medium sized cubes were perfect for the items I like to transport around the house at Christmas.

Each year I use my mini-wreaths a little differently.

home-edit-clear-storage-bins-handles-mini-wreaths-christmas-decor

Plus I could SEE them and what I had available to use.

Each season I change out the pillow covers and needed a system to see what I have.

The same medium sized handled cube was perfect for storing those and transporting them downstairs too.

Then there is my massive collection of glass trees! Those clear risers aren’t just for soup cans friends 🙂

Oh and those darn pumpkins! They needed a safe place that didn’t take up so much space.

The ability to transport the pumpkins downstairs was also a plus. The ornament storage containers with handles were the perfect solution.

Think outside of the “box” when you see storage containers and think about how they can solve a storage problem instead.

Porch Daydreamer

Truly the process of organizing is a little messy and scary, but it is SO worth it.

Because this organization project was so big, I decided to hire a professional organizer to help, along with my son and boyfriend too!

This was a very physical organization project:

  1. I took out EVERYTHING including the shelves.
  2. Pulled out anchors and patched holes.
  3. Painted the closet white.
  4. Moved items to and from the downstairs and attic.
  5. Reinstalled and reoriented the closet system.
  6. Lined the wire shelving with plastic.
  7. Put everything back in a new way.
Wire shelving with and without plastic lining (bottom)

The truth is 3 closets got a makeover because I relocated items! Of course a few home decor pieces were donated as well.

By the time it was time to put all of the décor back, I had the plan but not the energy.

It’s always a good idea to get a fresh set of eyes on what needs to be organized.

If you are local to the Charlotte, NC area, I highly recommend professional organizer Skyler Katherine.

Skyler did a fantastic job of making the closet not only functional, but beautiful too!

Having her put the majority of items in the closet gave me the time and energy to tackle creating a way to organize the faux florals.

Seasonal Home Decor Closet Reveal

Now I can SEE everything and everything has a home.

You probably wondered why I painted the inside of a closet, but it really helped to brighten up the space and create a blank canvas so I can see what is in the containers…worth the work!

The last time I didn’t center the drawers and visually I didn’t like the look.

Now it is symmetrical, which just makes is easier on the eyes too.

Reorienting the shelving created more usable surfaces and then lining the wire racking made things more stable.

Now little items can’t fall through the wires and it just looks better too!

One of my favorite features is the shelf with the rolled pillow covers by color.

Skyler created a beautiful layout and everything is organized by season too!

My job will be to keep it that way, which means I will donate what I don’t use to make room for the new pillow covers I buy.

My glass trees are easy to see and “shop” as I decorate for Christmas. Believe it or not I typically use every tree each year.

Now I can grab the mini-wreaths and take them downstairs. When it’s time to put them away it will be easier too.

Ah the pumpkins! Now they are down on the floor in containers and baskets where they belong.

Sometimes I don’t put many out, so this is a better location.

glass-pumpkin-storage-ornament-containers-home-edit-walmart

The top shelf now houses multiple vases and my more breakable items like the reindeer.

The super large reindeer is now down on the ground, which is easier for me because he is heavy!

Then there are the faux florals! Do you like how I used this basket to store the stems?

I used the existing mesh baskets to prop the stems so they didn’t fall through.

For the longer stems I place it lower and the shorter stems closer.

For the floral accessories, the little hanger baskets are the perfect size and solution.

The wrapping station stayed mainly the same.

Of course I made it pretty and created some additional ribbon storage.

over-door-wrapping-paper-organization-solution

An item that wasn’t working on the doors were the large rolls of ribbon.

Those are now in one of the larger “boot” boxes in the attic with the rest of my Christmas décor.

Such a big difference. The closet is now more functional, efficient, and organized!

seasonal-home-decor-closet

Let me know in the comments your favorite part of the closet organization!

Did this inspire you to do a little reorganizing of your own?

Until next time…

PORCH DAYDREAMER

Tracey

6 Comments

  1. Schel Ruiz says:

    This looks wonderful! I really love the glass trees and reindeers and how they’re organized. I collect them also.

  2. I have wire closet shelves as well and find it frustrating to store small things on, especially in my kitchen pantry closet. I have gotten organizing containers as you suggested and they really help, but wondering what that plastic was that you used to give the wire shelving a solid surface to place things on? I wish they made pre-sized plexiglass for that!

  3. Sandy Del Buono says:

    Your closets look so beautiful and so organized. I can appreciate all your hard work.. I am an organizational freak and you have inspired me. Now on to the garage!

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