Organizing Christmas Clean-Up {Thoughtful Thursday}

Welcome to the 1st Thoughtful Thursday of 2013!

Each Thursday I attempt to be thoughtful by share something helpful. It could be a fun new project I tried, organizational idea/system, yummy family friendly recipe, gadget I like, bla bla bla. You get the idea. I started this as a link-up but that's a lot of work and I didn't have a whole lot of interest. I would still LOVE to have you share your thoughtfulness in the comment section. Maybe someday I'll do a link-up again. Glad you're HERE!

Two years ago, Matt and I decided to dress up our house in Christmas decor early, we're talking the weekend Before Thanksgiving.

I were prego with our third baby who was due in January. We wanted to enjoy our the festiveness yet get it all clean up right after Christmas. Being in the "nesting" phase of pregnancy, I needed to clean the entire house, cook way too many freezer meals, and move our entire bedroom downstairs because I'd be coming home with our handsome Benjamin after my 3rd c-section and wouldn't be allowed to climb the stairs. Wow, that's a long explanation of why this has become a habit since Christmas 2010.

I LOVE the Christmas season. The thoughtful shopping. The family hang-outs. The charming decorations. but...when the birthday party has passed, I like to clean up Right way. Wash the dishes. Pack away decorations. Reorganize the fun new gifts to function in our house. In shorts... I need order. When my Christmas awesomeness is covering my home it feels like vacation. We lounge and enjoy one another like we're on a true school holiday. Anybody? When all this relaxing is going on things get a little too lacks. Nothing gets accomplished. Soooo, my poor hubs, who loves Christmas and everything that it entails, got until December 30 with our fun decorations this year.

5 ways to packed up Christmas stuff this year in case any of you have waited until this weekend to put yours to rest for another year.

1. Cut empty paper towel tubes into rings and wiggle them down around smaller rolls of wrapping paper OR cut toilet paper tubes length-wise to fit around larger tubes of wrapping paper to keep them rolled together and from getting ripped or crumbled up.
2. For stray bows I didn't want getting crushed before next year, I used a old animal cracker container.
3. Use punch cups to sort ornaments, keeping them from getting tangled together while eliminating giant boxes so they'll all fit in a smaller tub. Lay cardboard, cut to the size of your tube, to layer several layers of ornaments. I got 3 layers in this giant tub.
4. I even left a few ornaments in their original boxes if they were super sentimental or fragile. I also had room for our tree toppers and again with the old animal cracker container, this time full of tiny ball and shape ornaments for the kids tree.
5. Label tubs with index cards, detailed contents with sharpie, and slap that bad boy on with some fancy dancy packing tape on one of the long sides and one of the shorts sides so no matter which way you store it {length or width} you can read a label.

What are some of your favorite ways to clean up Christmas and get an organized start to a new year?

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