How to Un-Decorate After Christmas

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For most people, taking down Christmas decor's a tedious, if not melancholy, task. It's the Yuletide equivalent of unpacking after returning home from a vacation.

I see things differently. As soon as Christmas is over, I'm so ready to take down our decor and get our home back in order. The fact that we've had our Christmas stuff up since November, may have something to do with it...

In Today's post, I'll share some tips to make un-decorating your home after the holidays a little less painful.

1) Start with the Tree

Taking down the tree's the highest yield act of post-holiday tidying there is. It's also a good place to start to get the ball rolling. Getting rid of the tree inevitably leads to putting the ornaments and tree lights away. And, with the tree out of the way, you can reconfigure your furniture to the way it was before the tree was there.

Living in a small space means we have to rearrange our furniture to accommodate the tree.

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2) Get Rid of Dried Out Greens

If you're like me and have had your *real* tree and garland up since early December, chances are they're looking pretty sad and crispy by now. Leaving dried up greenery out after Christmas only serves as a sad reminder that Christmas has come and gone...and you can't let go.

The sooner you get rid of these, the less fallen pine needles you'll have to deal with---the shedding will only get worse the longer you wait.

3) Put Away All Christmas-Specific Paraphernalia

If you ask me, anything that bears the words "Merry" or "Christmas" should be put away before the new year.

Same goes for any universal Yuletide symbol, like your stockings and anything Santa-related.

4) Keep the Cozy

Don't go overboard. The holidays are like a drug---if you put away every little reminder, you'll go into withdrawal.

I like to leave out string lights, sheepskins, candles and all the extra throws to maintain a certain hygge level until the spring.

Click here for more on how we hygge up our home.

5) Make It Fun

When you decorated your tree, odds are you had Christmas music playing and the whole family was in good spirits, anticipating the holidays.

Another blogger once suggested that we should incorporate the same merriment around un-decorating, by having upbeat music going in the background and a mindset of looking forward to the new year. It may also be a good time to polish off those half -empty bottles of wine ...