Cleaning out My Holiday Closet... Finally Done!

I can finally declare myself done with going through my Christmas decor (from 30 years of collecting). I feel so accomplished. It has taken me years and years to really do it. I've needed to go through each and every box, but somehow when it came time to take the decorations down, I only had energy to through it all back in boxes, and stuff it all back into the "Holiday Closet". Then came this year. The epitome of Grandmother Nesting. I've had grand babies before, and gone through Grandmother Nesting. But this time was different. As Christmas drew to a close, we were expecting FIVE grand babies... all within the three months directly following Christmas. So, this was nesting times 5. This would be the year that I could tackle the Holiday Closet. And sure enough. Though it took me several days (in between visiting and holding new babies, and babysitting the other grands), I got 'er done. Woohoo! And I have a huge mound of things that my daughters and daughter-in-laws can rummage through to see if there are any treasures they'd like.

The thing I knew I had to do, to be able to really clean out my Holiday Closet, was to empty it. I had to take out every box, every tree, every trinket, and make a decision whether to donate it or to put it back into the closet. This method works really well for me, because once I have a closet with empty shelves, I am loathe to want to put anything back onto the shelves that isn't something I totally love.

This is a before and after of the part of the closet that goes back and around under the stairs. The picture on the left is scary, and I never even looked back there, because it was too risky. And now, it looks like the pic on the right. I can practically dance my way back there. And don't think I haven't. It makes me so happy to see that floor and empty space, that I do feel like dancing when I'm in that closet.

               

    

And these photos below are of the same space, too.

                

 

You may have the thought that I still have too much Christmas stuff, and I probably do. But I have about half as much as I did have, and what you see in the photos are keepers, to me. Maybe I'll feel different next time I have Grandmother Nesting, and I'll go through another purge. But for now, I'm completely happy with what I've got going on. Completely.

The green tags you see on the boxes, just meant that I had gone through them. I can take the tags off now that everything has been done. Whew. Now, about those Halloween decorations...