For the most part, I don't have a lot of trouble getting rid of many things that clutter our lives.
Clothing, shoes, handbags that I don't use or are past their prime go out with a quick toss to the trash or the donation box without a second thought. Those kinds of things mean nothing to me, I hate shopping for them, hate when the closet is crowded, and never want so much it becomes a burden.
Standard home decor is like that as well. I save stuff for awhile, then when I get a couple of boxes of 'not using it right now' kind of decor, I look at it, realize how much my style has changed, and off it goes too.
This year, (and last year too) I purchased new fall decor. Moving to have larger statement pieces, everything on the main level coordinating/matching, and only my best 'older' pieces in the family room. I gave away everything else. For years I had virtually no fall decor, then adding just small things for a number of years, I was tired of a hodge podge of things that just didn't make my house look seasonal and pulled together, but more like I'd shopped at thrift and garage sales for a decade and just had a mix of seasonal, but not coordinated things.
I am so happy with the new look, had no emotional attachments to the old things that went out, Should be able to store everything in two tubs (one for garlands, wreaths, and candle rings, and oh my have I bought a lot of those this year, all to match) and one for the other things.
Much of what I'm using is not season specific (trays, pedestals, candles, lanterns) and will not need actual storing at all, but will transition into holiday, then winter and then back to my 'regular' decor after that.
BUT...Christmas is always another story.
For many years I didn't have too much Christmas decor. Aside from the tree ornaments, it was just the same few decor pieces. Then after I bought my first home, my mom started buying me really nice things for Christmas gifts, that were Christmas decor, and the Christmas closet began to fill. After 20+ years it was beyond capacity, especially after I discovered Christmas in July.
The short version of the story is that now I have a lot of sentimental things, some of which haven't been used in the last several years, but I dread giving away, because I'm afraid I will regret it.
And besides those things, I have a lot of things that I use to create other things (you know, different color bulbs, garlands, picks, etc. that I used to create a certain look or style for some years or some vignettes) and change up how a tree or a room is styled. Nothing sentimental about things like that, but a fun part of decorating is taking a base of something (wreath, tree, tray) and creating something entirely new looking from the way you did it before. To do that, one often buys a lot of 'things' to create with, and then those things add up as well.
I'd like to get back to the place where I have just the same stuff that goes in the same places year after year, but I know i will get bored with it, my creative side will long to create something new (and it is especially fun to bring out old things to combine in different ways for a new look), so the plight of too much holiday decor continues.
I have high hopes that when I break into it this year, a lot of it will be easy to move on, because I did it so easily with the fall things. I tell myself that the Christmas decorating season is about a six week window at my house, eight at the max. I only have so much surface space to create a look, and just how much stuff that doesn't see the light of day, do I really need to keep. I like having the newer things (with a few family treasures going back generations sprinkled in) that make more of a coordinated and elegant statement I've created over the last couple of years.
But there is always that fear of regret. I've done it before. I got rid of some 1950's decor that belonged to my grandparents, then my parents then me. I thought it was past it's prime, I thought it was so out of style, but then, when it was gone, I was sorry I dismissed it. I had found a creative way to use what I had saved of that stuff, and it so warmed my heart to have those things out at the holiday, that I could see where I could have used the other things as well (this wasn't a closet full of stuff, but maybe 5 things). So there is where the fear of regret is born!
So I'm sure someone will come on here and say things like "It's just stuff, and the real treasures are your memories of those people and times that the things remind you of" and "Take pictures of the stuff then move it on", and that is all very reasonable and rational advice. But let's face it, emotional attachment to things, especially holiday, has noting to do with reason or ration. It is an emotional string around our hearts and memories that is stronger than some people can understand. It ties us to people and times gone by, at a time of year where the past seems more precious than at others throughout the year.
So, like the New Year resolutions and hope for a brighter future we face at the end of December every year, we sit, embarking on another season where we intend/hope/plan/swear to down size/reduce/eliminate/get free of too much holiday decor. It all sounds so possible, so doable as we type away and get 'strength' from each other in mid September. Let's see come January where we are then. And let's remember not to beat ourselves up too badly when the boxes of new things put in storage after the season, total more than those going out.
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