I decluttered about ten items from the decorations yesterday, most of which were gifts I didn’t like. I said to my daughter, “It’s a holiday, not a punishment!” And out they went!
One of the gems from this video that really resonated with me: "This is one of those things I just put up because I have it, not because I love it anymore." Very helpful in spurring me on to start decorating more intentionally, and not just for the holidays. Thanks Erica! I love watching your videos!
Here in Germany we traditionally have a tree from Christmas Eve till Jan 6. and the children will only see it when the door to the livingroom opens for „Bescherung“ in the late afternoon of Dec 24. Of course this has changed with more open architecture and modern life style. But, I organize my totes Advent (Christmas Decoration, circular advent wreath, sitting on the table with a candle for each sunday of advent, outdoor lights). a tote with the technicalities of the christmas tree and the nativity and two totes with tree ornaments. There were so many cute things among my Christmas clutter to decorate a winter home, candle holders, winter decoration(berries, glittering glass ..) I decided to have a pre-christmas winter decoration box (Autumn/early winter, but not Halloween - chestnuts, pine cones, fake fir, gold ornaments, fairy lights) and a more brighter after-christmas tote with white, graphic origami paper-art, and simple glass, introducing the first vase of snow drops, narcissus or tulips. Thus I change out decoration slowly and „tote by tote“. I found this very relaxing and have only been able to install this my clever idea because of your videos giving me inspiration and the will to purge. Thank you soo much.
Thanks for letting us know you had 24 bins of Xmas stuff but you don’t get rid of it all at once. You get rid of more and more each year. I think people need to know it does not happen and one full swoop! 💜💜💜💜💜
No no don’t get a tree with lights, aka prelit tree! I have one and after couple years the lights don’t work but tree is still in great condition. Now I have to string lights over top the lights that don’t work. Ugggh 🙀
I remember watching your first declutters, and it was, "watch Erica justify keeping most everything" but at least you were getting organized so I stuck around. Then it was "watch Erica declutter, just keep too much". Now it's "watch Erica declutter like a boss." Love it!!! It takes time to learn how to do it when you've built the habit of KEEPING like you had. Living for the growth, and your house looks so much cleaner and calmer!
Creepy Pair of Underwear was dedicated to my school! If you look in the front or back of the book, there is a dedication to a student in the school I teach. The student came up with the idea for this book.
You can always get a fresh Christmas wreath. If you like fresh ones I don't know but that might be a fun thing to do every year since you don't have a real tree.
I make one every year and just reuse the same wreath wire base and wire/ and ribbon. I use it as an opportunity to prune the coniferous trees by our house.
I think decluttering the believe tray was the right idea. Felt on the bottom would solve the scratching problem but keeping it would mean it needed filling and could lead to keeping more ‘things’ than you genuinely want to. Good decision.
I totally agree with you. Ditch the red picture frames and get a small album to put all the pictures in. I guarantee your kids will look at them much more. It was very telling when your daughter put them all down after a second or two. PLUS, you can then declutter the frames but still keep the photo memories. Whoohoo!
I use two shelves to limit all of my seasonal containers. Everyone knows where those bins are stored. Once the two shelves are full of bins/containers, no more decor! Any new item has to bump out an old item of the same space requirement. Labels on bins, two sides and lid help everyone know where and what at all times. It may not sound minimalish yet the shelf limiting bin quantity is an effective bin boundary. Additional benefits are more protection if you have a basement flood and less purchasing temptation as a new purchase often is not worth the “swap out’” of old. The shelves boundary concept has worked for many of my clients as well.
I chuckled when you said you were going to keep the boxes for those ornaments in case you ever decided to get rid of them. I used to do that too. I kept the boxes for years and years. Finally got rid of all the empty boxes. Why waste my time managing empty boxes? Enjoyed the video, though. Thank you!
Here in the UK we don’t really do fall decorations. I emptied my entire loft eight years ago. Absolutely horrendous. Dad was in the loft passing stuff down. I was just sobbing I was so overwhelmed. The loft was not my ‘domain’ so I’d not been up there in the 12 years since we got the house. I didn’t realise how bad it was. Long story short it took an entire day. Three trips to the local tip. A lot of sorting. As we were done I asked dad to leave the Christmas stuff down for me. I was so drained I had to leave it until the next day. There was so much. Most of it I didn’t even want anymore. It was dated and not my style. I took the children shopping and we made some new memories choosing what we liked not what we’d been given. Each year we go shopping and buy a couple of new ornaments for the tree. It’s now one case, a wreath and some lights. That’s it. A real tree and two sets of table cloths and napkins. I love keeping it simple.😊
Great declutter! I did my first one this year. We had 36 bins! It took 6 days to go through it all and 4 more to clear out the decluttered items. I decluttered more Christmas stuff than most people have to start with. It felt so good! And best of all, I got to bring joy to those who wanted/needed Christmas decor. I plan to whittle my stash down some more each year.
The ONLY problem with pre-lit trees are - one year - once your tree is ALL DECORATED! - the lights all go out! Ask me how I know? You can cut all of the pre-wired lights off the tree. NOT FUN! (ask me how I know?) And then you are back to buying strings of lights, or buying another tree. *sigh*
I “upgraded” to a pre-lit tree. The second year 1/3 of the lights went out. Next year even more lights out. I finally cut the lights off the tree and just put on strands of lights. This way if they don’t work they are easy to change. Really regret the pre-lit tree purchase. I love gnomes too! I have way too many, but they bring a smile to my face every time I look at them.
Amen on the regret. Our pre-lit only made it 1 year and the next all the lights were out. I attempted to find the problem, but after several hours I quit.
I was going to say that. As much of a pain it is to put the strand of lights on the tree. It's easy to replace where it's more difficult if they are attached to the tree.
I love the advent calendar idea! 😍 I think the flipbook with the christmas photos will work best, they can look at it and store it with nonfear of it breaking
I do serious deep cleaning before I start to Christmas decorate - this year I'm decluttering all excess Christmas décor. IF I don't use it and really love it, it's time for it to go.
I really enjoyed this video, Erica. I think you seem so relaxed here. I started watching when you first started decluttering. You seem SO much calmer and contented these days. It's very impressive! I'm so happy for you and your family!! ( And I love your hair!)
Hi Erica, In your Christmas video form last year (12/7/2020) you didn’t have a wreath on the door yet but you said that you had already ordered one that matched your outdoor rug. Great job with the decluttering you gave me motivation to do mine again!!! 😁
I have placed my kids Santa pictures on the wall in the shape of a Christmas tree. I don’t have room for them anywhere else but it looks neat and different to putting them in a mantle to look cluttered as there is a few of them.
We did large declutter of Christmas stuff last year and I do not want to decorate this year. Hoping the mood will come in a week or two. I no longer want to decorate seasonal just have the things I love and they stay year around. Thanks for sharing today.
I have a beautiful white ironstone bowl that I placed pine cones and small silver ornaments in. It’s sitting on my coffee table. I also have a wreath on the front door. Evenings I burn a scented candle. Other than that I only have wrapped gifts on display. Simple and easy!
Lovely video - I very much enjoyed it and I'm now in the Christmas spirit thank you. I shed a tear saying goodbye to the two-tier tray - I remember that from when I first started watching your channel 😊
Having the photos in an album would be a great idea. We have a shallow basket that we put Christmas cards in and the basket sits on an end table so we can look through them and enjoy them throughout December.
I've been watching you from the beginning of your journey. You have come so far and inspire so many of us. I dont have a lot of Christmas decor, because as a child, my mother went overboard and I always thought it looked cluttered and didnt like it. In 22 yrs of marriage, we have never had large houses with basements for storage, so we have to keep our extra stuff to a minimum. We have a total of 8 boxes of Christmas and that includes the Tree and 3 wreath boxes. 2 small ones for decorations and 2 others for the linens that I use.
You could sit the frames up in a box, like a photo box, to be flipped through. If the box is the right size and has a lid, you could store them in it as well...inside your bin, of course.
Yessssssss it’s happening! ❤️💚❤️💚❤️💚🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄. And that laugh/chortle noise you made after pulling out the light up snowman globe made me so happy. I make that noise when I’m doing stuff and things are running through my head like a personal joke between me and myself 😂 you should get a nice Christmas themed photo flip book for those pictures from the red frames, it’ll last longer and be Christmas specific or match the decor when it’s sitting out. Saw a red truck one at hobby lobby this year!
The things that make you >smile< immediately, like the welcome mat, the mama snowman reading, the gnomes... The things that make you giggle. The things that make you break out into song, or recall a tradition... Those are special. Valuable. Worth keeping. Lovely video, thanks!
I love your videos Erica and your personality makes me wish we were neighbors and good friends. You delight me! 🤗 I also wish I was the donation designee for some of the things you decluttered. I am in the process of sorting my holiday decor too and find sentimental items really super hard this time. Keep on posting and i’ll keep on watching, smiling the whole way through. Have a very happy holiday season. Blessings - joy - peace and love to you and your family! 🎄🛐 🙏 💕
You are such a good mother. I love watching all the little things that you do with your kids and family in mind! And it is nice to see Andy pich in and share in both the decluttering and decorating.
My tree was in bad shape it was shedding more needles than a st. Bernard in summer! I live in Southern California, so I ordered a palm tree.😂 it comes today. If I don't like it next year, I will donate.
When you were trying to move the big Christmas Tree in the red bag....I was laughing so hard!! Hope you didn't hurt yourself!! I like the idea of putting your Santa photo's into a photo book. They will be protected and you can easily look through the book!! Great decluttering and decorating!
I enjoy your decluttering so much because I can relate to you. I can't just get rid of stuff. Unfortunately, since we moved from a large house (really 2-2nd marriage) into a small condo. Lots more stuff than house! And I am very sentimental. I just threw out a huge bag of photos after going through them and pulling out doubles and triples (remember the days you got pics developed and got a second set free?), scenery my kids won't remember, and the horrible, blurry shots. I went through that discard bag at least 5 times, pulling back pictures just in case I missed keeping the better ones. Decluttering isn't easy!
Hi,I'm late but thanks for sharing your decluttering Christmas ideas,hubby is hopefully getting the decor down today and I'm thinking some stuff needs a new home,💖
Erica, You and Andy are so cute. Loved the intro where you attempted to take the tree in. Too funny. Good job of decluttering as you went. Good idea of getting rid of the frames on the kids' pictures. Streamline stuff. Are you going to get a front door wreath? Your porch decor looks really good so far. Cheers
An idea for Christmas photos... IKEA has frame ledges in different lengths that you could put up. Then swap out Christmas frames for other photo frames. One could go over the kids books. Great job getting Christmas stuff to a few bins. You mentioned Dept. 56 village. I have some that my dad gave me and he collected them for years.... they were everywhere in their house at Christmas. They take A LOT of space to store and take on a life of their own. Merry Christmas.🎄🌟💫
that was so much fun to watch. Good for you getting rid of some decor. I ended up with more decor this year. More pencil thin trees, small decorated trees, wreaths and candles but loving it. I actually bought 3 gnome's for the first time this year. They are cute. I gave my decor that I chose not to use to my son who did not have any.
I have one bag of Christmas decorations for the tree and lounge. My rule is what that bag holds is the maximum Christmas decorations. Why.... because I don't wish to have heaps that has to be stored for 11 months of the year. Decorations go up 1 December and come down by the 5th January as that is my oldest girl's birthday. Happy holidays everyone. Celebrating with family and friends is the important thing for us plus it saves money.
