How do you stay organized for Christmas?! Holiday organization is a challenge for everyone, right? We don’t want to waste money on things we don’t need, and we want to make sure that the kids are having fun with crafts and activities, especially at home. There’s an easy solution to reduce holiday clutter and make sure we don’t buy duplicates of any holiday item. Build a holiday stash cabinet!
How Do I Organize My Home for the Holidays?
That is a very common question from so many moms every year, right?!
The way we organize for the holidays is the same way we organize for anything.
- Make a list of all holiday activities in order of importance.
- You’ll need another list for all the supplies required for each.
- Write each event on your calendar.
- Go back and make sure each event is a must-have; decline any that aren’t necessary.
Make sure over half of your events take place at home because home is where the holiday is!
Getting organized at home is vital for us to de-stress the holidays! One way to do that is to create a cabinet or easy-to-access containers for your holiday crafts, ornaments, linens, and decorations.
- Your “stash cabinet” could be a stack of lidded totes, or an extra linen closet or cabinet. Don’t wait to get organized until you have the perfect spot – just get started and adjust as you go!
Not only does thinking about holiday organization help us keep things tidy, it also helps up avoid duplicating purchases. This can be great for out pocketbook, but also great for the environment – less clutter means less that ends up in the garbage later!
We often think of “the holidays” as being the winter holidays like Christmas, but these organization tips work for any of the major holidays throughout the year.
Why Have a Holiday Stash Cabinet
I find that the biggest impediment to actually doing all this fun holiday tradition stuff is time. Time. There’s just never enough of it. That, and money. To tackle both these roadblocks head on, I have to organize.
For holiday organization, I’d like to gently suggest that you have a special place for certain holiday items to make them easy to inventory and access. The space doesn’t have to be large, especially at first.
Traditions and holiday fun take work – make it as easy as possible on yourself to facilitate these good times!
When our family was young and our stash of ornaments and holiday frippery was small, I was able to employ a simple cupboard as my holiday stash cabinet.
After nearly twenty years of running my family, I have several boxes of decorations and a larger cabinet for crafts. While I’d hardly call my stash large, it requires a certain amount of holiday organization to keep track of it.
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What to Put in the Craft Closet for Holiday Organization
It’s really important to me to keep my decorations and craft materials simple. To begin with, we’ll start with the family table. Family meals are really important to us and my holiday organization often starts with the table. Here’s what’s in our holiday closet.
Holiday Organization for Decorations: Tablecloths
Plain colored tablecloths in:
- red
- white
- blue
- yellow
- brown
These are used each holiday season and dressed up with greenery or paper ornaments made by the kids to indicate which holiday we are celebrating. With a few candles in the right colors any table can transport you to Valentine’s Day, Hanukkah or Halloween.
Where to Find Cheap Tablecloths
Since I don’t have funds to spend on fancy linens, I buy the best the thrift store has to offer and dress it up. I love giving items new life by re-purposing from the thrift store!
If you can’t find actual tablecloths, old sheets in good repair work very well as a table covering. Sheets are typically made of strong cotton or cotton-mix fibers and hold up to use and constant washing.
You can also check fabric store clearance shelves for quality fabrics to make into tablecloths. Sew My Place can help you with this tutorial on sewing a basic tablecloth.
Be sure to check!
By keeping them in my holiday stash cabinet I always know where they are and don’t have to go searching through my other tablecloths. Just remember to check your holiday stash cabinet for your tablecloths each season.
Holiday Organization for Breakables
Special holiday breakables like dishes, glasses or collectibles. You may not have much of these if your budget is small, but sometimes the thrift store can bring unexpected blessings.
Don’t accumulate stuff just to have stuff, but if the items speak to you, it can be become meaningful to your family over time.
If anything in the cabinet loses its usefulness, don’t be afraid to take it out and donate it so someone else can love it.
Decorations
When you’re first starting out, you should only need a small tote with a few appropriate decorations for each holiday. As your collection grows, you may need larger totes that have their own space in the garage.
While it’s small, keep your holiday decoration piles in the cabinet for ease of access.
Craft Items Specific to Holidays
I home educate, so I have items that could be considered craft materials scattered all over my house. From tape to glue sticks to pencil sharpeners, I have so much of this stuff around that it’s underfoot most of the time.
My Holiday Stash Cabinet has nothing so mundane as a glue stick in it, however. This space is reserved only for holiday scrap, Halloween sequins and Valentine’s doilies.
This is my special collection of holiday crafting materials that never, under any circumstances, comes out for any purpose other than holiday crafting. Period. You have to be firm because the kids will try to wheedle these items out of you for different projects.
The Holiday Stash Cabinet is for holidays only.
Two Exceptions on Stashing Holiday Craft Items
The two exceptions to my mundane crafts supplies in the holiday closet are sharp scissors and glue dots.
Glue Dots
Whoever invented glue dots deserves to a millionaire, in my opinion. They’re a little more expensive than I like for every day crafts, but for holidays I keep a stash on hand.
Glue dots are are what they sound like they are – small dots of adhesive.
Glue dots are especially easier for young children to use, making more advanced crafts (in other words, those that require patience) more easily accomplished by their little hands.
Scissors, the Sharp Kind
And, of course, a person can never have enough sharp scissors. Why? Because no matter how many new pairs we buy ourselves, people always find them and take them.
Clear back when I was a teenager, I bought a pair of sewing scissors and wrote the following on them with a permanent marker: Not Heather’s.
Heather is my baby sister who, though I love her deeply and although she’s a much better seamstress that I am now and probably deserved the scissors more, constantly absconded with my sewing scissors. Seriously, all the time.
Years passed, I went off to college, served a mission for our church, came home and visited with my sister in her newly married home. It happened to be Christmas time and she had her sewing stash out to make amazing things for the holidays.
What did I spy on Heather’s sewing table? You guessed it, my long-ago pair of sewing scissors marked “Not Heather’s”.
Sharp scissors are like a Pied Piper calling out to be carried away. Learn the lesson of my cautionary tale and keep a few pairs locked up in your holiday cabinet.
Learn more about our latest book, Homestead Holidays, by clicking below! Build family traditions for the home and homestead all year long – there’s something to celebrate every month of the year!
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