Taking down holiday decorations always sparks other organization projects, at least in our house (ever notice how spacious and
CLEAN your place looks after removing the tree and other ornaments?? Let that motivate you to chug through other sorting projects, it sure kicks me into high gear). But before tackling other projects on my list, I have to say goodbye to the holidays, take down the ornaments and wrap it all up in a nice, tidy package so it's easy next time to deck the halls without running for the hills. Lights, believe it or not, can be one of the most stressful parts of the holiday decorating process...they go out all the time, getting them off of the tree is almost as tough as putting toothpaste back it the tube, and sometimes we just want to give up and toss them out with the tree...but that gets expensive. Usually they wind up in a bundled ball of mess, but here's a sure fire way to make sure that doesn't happen ever again. I take pieces of cardboard, cut slits along the top and bottom every two inches (to keep strand in place) and wrap the lights up, stack them in a bin and store them away until next year. While the lights have officially gone out for the year, at least I know they're nice and organized for next Christmas!
