@Maltichonmom17 wrote:
mominohio, thank you for the warm wishes. After a lot of hard work with the drudgery of moving and getting settled in, I am finally at a place where I am starting to have fun with the house. The new decorating scheme is falling into place and is a work in progress.
Time will tell when the holidays come, I may decide to change it all up and go in a new holiday decorating direction as you did. Sounds like you had fun when you tried something new. I definitely want something simpler in holiday decorating that mixes in my year round decor. The move has given me an opportunity to focus on downsizing and decluttering and I really enjoying the more minimalist look. I'm just getting too old and tired for full scale holiday decorating. Lol!
I hear you! And moving is the best motivator for getting rid of too much stuff, isn't it?
Not that you asked, but I'll share a couple of things that I have been moving toward, some things I came up with myself, and some were ideas fostered on this great forum.
First, I had/have a ton of Christmas things collected over the decades, much of it gifts, or special in some way. But I found I had some stuff that was just that, stuff. The stuff that I didn't love for who it came from or what it reminded me of, just had to go if I wasn't using it anymore. That was only hard at first. Once started, I could to it.
I had lots of little stuff. I think a lot of people reach middle age with a lot of little stuff. For me, it was because during my early years, and child raising years, I often couldn't afford the big statement pieces, and tried to compensate in my decor with 'more'. And because I couldn't go out and put together a whole look at once, it sometimes tended to be a mish mosh of things. I just reached a point where I wanted more a refined look and coordination at least by the room.
I packed up a couple of big bins of things that I will send with my son when he has a home of his own. They are things he enjoyed as a child in our decor, many were gifts to him from us or his grandma (snow globes, music boxes, advent tree etc.), and I'll be happy to pass those things on right away.
Then, when looking in magazines that featured nice holiday decor, I noticed that often, the 'less is more' style really made an impact. Like just a lantern with seasonal decor around the candle inside as the dining table centerpiece. Matching wreaths on the doors, with the same garland on the mantel and a few candles. Simple, easy, clean, festive traditional. That is more what I strive for now. Not there totally, and probably will never get every room that way, but it is a work in process.
Seasonal, not Christmas. I'm loving things that speak winter more than Christmas these days. Rather than a whole collection of Santa's on a table, I prefer a green wreath with pine cones and a flameless candle in the middle. Lanterns, greens and pine cones, wreaths, etc. replace a number of Santa or Snowman themed things.
Last, storage was a nightmare. Up and down stairs with boxes and stuff, closets and basement full of boxes and containers (and that isn't totally under control yet). So last year, I thought long and hard about how to change that. I noticed that in my decor, I had several things in each room that could be used to store Christmas decor. An antique trunk, several of the VPH (and other brands) ottomans. So this past year, as I packed up, I stored the decor for each room, in that room in those containers. I threw out a lot of boxes that individual things were stored in, saving a lot of space and with a little creative packing, got virtually everything for each room in that room. I'm anxious to see how much easier and quickly the holiday decor goes up (and will store the regular decor in those same things during the season) this year.
My goal is in the next few years, to be able to (aside for the trees) be able to put up all the holiday decor in just a couple of (maybe a total of four) hours including cleaning the furniture and putting the regular decor away. In the last few years, it has taken a couple of days.
ONce again, have fun with the new house. It can be so exciting to make a new living space, and do things that you never did in the past. Kind of the reward for all that hard work of cleaning out one house and moving to the other!
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