It’s the Little Things
Do you decorate for the “minor” holidays throughout the year? The holidays I have in mind are St. Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day. We might want to add our personal holidays, such as birthdays. Religious Holy Days present even more opportunities to decorate our homes. Wow! That’s a lot of decorating!
If you’ve ever been kind of jealous of those families who always seem to have festive homes, let’s set some priorities and practices that can help you feel better!
Most of us at least give a nod towards Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. Hearts and Leprechauns can take care of those. Ha! On Memorial Day, we decorate the graves of our friends and family that have passed away. The “patriotic” holidays (Presidents’ Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day), in my opinion are easy too. It’s no big deal to pull out one or two of our Independence Day items out of that bin to use. I have some suggestions that break down that list further to make decorating even more stress free.
- Keep your décor pieces in bins-not boxes, including a “miscellaneous bin” for the minor holidays.
- Choose three or four sites in your home, where you like to show your friends and family a little love. You can choose either more or fewer places if you like, but this is a good place to start. I chose my front door, the entry table, a side table in the living room, and my porch.
- Keep one separate miscellaneous bin for the hearts, leprechauns, birthdays, religious days, etc. That way, you know exactly where everything is instead of digging through the Christmas or Easter bins. You get to determine which is a “miscellaneous” holiday!
- Remember, less is more. One practice I use when decorating for any holiday, is I remove some (or even most) of my “everyday” décor so there’s no competition for space or attention. If you just add things in, your special holiday décor gets lost. For the things you take away, just put them in the designated miscellaneous bin you’re using. It will be handy when you are putting things back in order. Most of us have our Christmas decorating organized but let me give you a couple of tips. At Christmas, I remove a lot more of my “everyday” items and I follow the same practice of saving them in the Christmas bin until it’s time to switch again. It’s a good time to evaluate your “everyday” things. I sometimes discover that I really don’t want to set out a particular item anymore, so it goes in the Salvation Army box. On the other hand, I might remember its sentimental value or why I love that piece.
I know you’ve heard it all before, but it all boils down to organization. I just hope you picked up a bit of encouragement and insight into decorating for the holidays. We want it to be fun and stress free, not a hassle. It’s not a crime if we don’t decorate for every holiday, but if you want to do more than you do now, I hope I’ve given you some easy tips.