Before the Christmas Bins Come Up
Think back to last January.
The tree was down, the living room was finally yours again, and you wanted to be done. So the lights went into the tote the way lights go into a tote. The tissue paper got balled up around something breakable. The lid went on.
I have done exactly this.
Nobody sorts their decorations in January. You've just spent a month hosting and wrapping and hauling, and the last thing you want on a cold Sunday is a seasonal decor storage project in the basement.
So it waits. And then it's October, and the totes come up with everything you didn't deal with still sitting inside them.
Here's the one change I'd make, and it's the only thing I'm asking for in this whole post: do the sorting on the way out, not on the way back in.
Open the bins before you decorate
The best time to declutter Christmas decorations is October, before a single thing goes up.
You are going down there anyway. You are going to lift every lid anyway. So lift them a week early, with a garbage bag and a donation box next to you, and let the stuff go while it's already in your hands.
Anything broken, burnt out, missing a piece, or that you already know in your heart you won't hang. Out. Right then.
You were handling it regardless, so it costs you NOTHING extra.
Then you decorate with what's left, and in January you put back a smaller, better pile. That's the whole trick.
Keep the gift wrap with the decorations
Wrapping paper belongs with the seasonal decor, not in a hall closet on a different floor.
Most houses split them without ever deciding to, and then spend three weeks in December walking up and down the stairs.
One of my favorite setups we've built is a wall of white bins that reads RIBBON , TISSUE PAPER , CARDS & ENVELOPES, CANDLES. But the one that actually matters is labeled HOT GLUE & TAPE / GIFT TAGS, because tape and tags are what go missing at ten o'clock on December 23rd.
Rolls stand upright in a tall bin so they don't unroll and crease. Gift bags file like folders, so you can see them all at once instead of pulling out the whole stack.
Label the tote for whoever opens it in eleven months
A label's only job is to save the next person from opening all five bins to find the one they wanted.
There's a garage we worked in with an overhead shelf holding five magenta totes, hand-labeled Christmas Lights, and one more that says Christmas Outdoor Decor. They sit up out of the way eleven months of the year and you can stand on the floor and read them.
There's another house with a storage shelf where the edges are labeled BOWS, HOME DECOR, GAMES, and SPECIALTY LAUNDRY. I love that one, because specialty laundry is sitting right next to the bows and nobody minds even slightly.
The labels aren't there to look like a magazine. They're there so that in eleven months you don't have to remember. Make it functional first. It gets to be beautiful after that.
Around here the decorations live in a basement or out in the garage, and by December both of those are cold. October is the last genuinely comfortable month to stand down there with the lids off.
One thing I want to be straight about
We are not decorators, and I'll never pretend otherwise.
What we are is an extra set of hands. We'll carry the totes up from the basement, get the tree standing and the lights on, and help your house feel like the season without you spending a Saturday on a ladder.
The decorations themselves are the part we're genuinely expert at. Sorting them, culling the strand that hasn't worked since 2019, and getting the rest into labeled bins that still make sense to you next November. That's organizing, and honestly it's the piece most people are the most tired of.
If either half would help, it's on our services page under Seasonal & Holiday Help, and you can book a free consult whenever you're ready. We're booking into November across Bismarck, Mandan, Fargo and West Fargo.
And if you'd rather just do the one pass yourself this year, do that. Open the bins before you decorate, and January gets easier without you doing anything else.
Cheers,
Lexi