Around the winter holidays the organizational bins in stores turn hues of red and green, enticing hopeful customers who want to finally get their holiday decor organized. There are so many great storage options to choose from, so you might want to jump right in and make a purchase. TIME OUT: choosing storage bins is actually the last step in the decluttering and organizing process. Keep reading for tips to successfully organize all of your seasonal decor items.

Start by visualizing the holiday experience you want to create when decorating for the season. Imagine the experience from start to finish. Visualize getting your seasonal decor out of storage...are you excited to see your treasures or are you dreading the mess you have to dig through to find your items? Who is there with you...friends, family, or are you having a great time solo? Is there food or music? This visualization is your guide to help you decide what to keep and what to let go of.

Once you have a strong visualization for the experience you’d like to create, then gather your seasonal decor items by holiday or type of season. Hold each item and ask yourself, does this spark joy and does it fit into the experience I want to create? Keep those items that excite you and fit with your vision; let go of the items that don’t.

Stored decor can take up a significant amount of space, so consider how much space you have to dedicate to your items. If the space you have makes it hard to get seasonal items out, and prevents you from using most of your seasonal decor, is it worth having all of those items? Consider keeping only an amount of items that allows you to actually decorate each season for the times you care most about.

Once you have decided which items to keep, and have chosen the amount of space you have to store your seasonal items, then it’s time to choose storage solutions. Start by using what you have around your house to repurpose or reuse. Choose containers that fit the amount of items that you want to store by season and fit your space.

The storage options are endless but to really be effective…

Keep only those items that you cherish, love, and want to see displayed each year.
After deciding what to keep and what to discard, look at what you’re keeping by category to figure out the volume and store like-items together.
Measure your space and choose storage solutions that fit your stuff and your space.

At the heart of it, it’s not really about the stuff…we decorate to create a feeling and an experience in our homes for ourselves and our loved ones.

Product Recommendations (for inspiration only)

I highly recommend clear bins with a gasket seal and label them with the name of the season.
For lots of ornaments, I recommended divided bins to help separate them.
There are specialty bins for things like wreaths, wrapping paper, ornaments, and much more…
BUT if you don’t have the space in your home, the storage devices aren't really going to solve the problem.