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This advice applies to any seasonal items, including Valentines, Easter, Spring, Patriotic, Halloween, Fall, Harvest, Christmas, Birthday, and any other holiday or season you celebrate.
Have you ever experienced something like this?
At the start of a holiday, you pull out your seasonal decorations.
You examine them and you are happy to see some favorites emerge.
Then you look at some of it and wonder – “What was I thinking?” or “That doesn’t really fit anymore.” or “I just don’t like this, should I still put it up?”
Holiday decorations are supposed to bring you joy and make the season festive. That is literally their only purpose. If your decorations aren’t bringing you joy, there is absolutely no reason to keep them!
Here is the thing: Your tastes change, so let them. Do not force yourself to hold on to the unused and unwanted from seasons’ past. You’ve loved it before and someone else might love it now. Give yourself permission to pass it on to someone excited about it. Every pot has a lid, and so your item might make a great find at the thrift store for someone searching for just that specific kind of hideous thing.
The benefit of passing it on during the season is that someone can enjoy it right away and it is less likely to end up in the landfill, because your donation center might not be in the mood to store it for 12 months. And if you’re trying to sell it, someone is a million times more likely to buy it while they’d actually use it.
Don’t get stuck on the perfect timing. It might be ideal to declutter decorations during the season they’re used, but it is always a good time to declutter anything you’re not using without guilt!
Having your holiday items decluttered regularly has two important benefits – it will make it so much more enjoyable to pull out your decorations and so much easier to pack them away! I promise, next year, when you get out your bins of decor again, it will be such a relief to see only your favorites staring back at you.
Consider this your nudge to part with your seasonal decorations right now! Go through your decor bins right now and take a load to donate!
From my home to yours,
Mary
(Originally published 12/19/2013.)
Have this post and other decluttering inspiration read to you –
great post and so true. I need to go through what I didnt put up this year and decide of I am going to keep it. Less clutter less stress š
Yes, less clutter = less stress!!
I purged our basement a couple of months ago and organized all of our seasonal decor. This Christmas’ decorating was so much easier and more enjoyable.
Yes, less can be MORE enjoyable. š