How do you feel about Christmas in July? We love it, and it’s actually a lifesaver if you do it right. A true organization junkie’s Christmas in July is to organize decorations for less December stress. Can you imagine pulling out the Christmas decorations next December, knowing exactly what you’ve got and where everything is? That is a stress-free holiday season! Let me show you how you can achieve it.

De-clutter Those Decorations

The first step to better organization of all your holiday decorations is to haul everything out and go through it. The thought of doing this is the thing that stops most people from even starting on an organization project, because it can be pretty overwhelming. But trust me, this is the hardest part. The rest will be easier!

Pull out all those holiday decorations to a place where you can easily go through them and take breaks as needed. What you want to do is de-clutter and get rid of the stuff you don’t need or don’t use. That can be any of the following:

• Decorations that are broken
• Sets that are incomplete
• Lights that don’t work
• Things you don’t use anymore
• Stuff you don’t have room to store

Decide on what you really want to keep, and try to keep what you are actually going to use. Give away the extras, donate decorations to a thrift shop, and take the broken stuff to the trash.

How To Organize Decorations

Now that you have whittled down your holiday decorations to things that you really use, it’s time to organize them. Make sure you have plenty of space carved out in basement or the garage to store them. Also, invest in enough large plastic totes to securely hold everything you keep. Color-coded totes are a great idea, because you know at a glance which ones you need to pull out of storage when December hits.

The easiest way to organize decorations is to organize by type. For example, dedicate one or two {or more if needed} of your totes to hold light strings. Wrap light strings around the plastic they come with, or wrap them around a wrapping paper tube.

Store ornaments together, organizing by color. Label the totes “red ornaments,” or “gold ornaments,” etc. If you change your color theme each Christmas, this makes it easy to grab the color you want.

Other totes hold Christmas houses, nutcrackers, outdoor decorations, wreaths, or anything else you personally use. Label the outside of each tote accordingly. Now when the holidays arrive, you can easily grab the right decorations and get to work!