Those Christmas Stragglers

Ok, you've taken down all the holiday decorations and put them away. Then, while folding laundry, you find a sole Christmas placemat or napkin. While cleaning up the kids' rooms, you see a Christmas book. Then, you remember you have a CD of carols in the car. Argh!

Even after you put all the tubs and bins of holiday gear away, you are still likely to find the stragglers -- random items that should get put away with the rest. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to gather up all the stragglers due to laundry and the dishwasher, as well as cleaning around the house. For example, I have some miscellaneous holiday dishes, dish towels and gift boxes that somehow weren't available when I had all my plastic bins out.

Here's an easy solution: place an empty basket or open bin in a convenient but out-of-major-traffic spot. Designate it as a catch-all for leftover holiday items as you see them. Then, around mid-January (or whenever you're feeling confident!), bring the basket of Christmas stragglers to your holiday storage place and disperse the contents into their appropriate bins. Our holiday bins are stored in an outside shed (we have 2, and the large one is primarily storage) so I have to go outside. Much easier to do it once, in this cold weather!

This "system" works for any holiday or event -- whenever you take stuff out for a special occasion, and then have to return it!