I hate taking down Christmas. Like HATE. There’s something so wonderful and magical about Christmastime and I absolutely do not like taking it down. I always feel as though I didn’t have enough time in the holiday or not a long enough break, and taking down Christmas just makes it all seem so “final” until next year.
This year was especially hard to take down Christmas because I had to do it all by myself. Usually Mathew and I take Christmas stuff down together, but with his leg injury and everything, it is pretty difficult. Needless to say, I just thought it’d be best if I took it down myself.
The worst part (to me) of taking down Christmas are the ornaments. They’re fragile, they are round and easily fall, and I have to climb to the top of the tree with a step stool to reach the top. HATE IT. And doing it alone? Even worse. So what did I come up with to make it SO much faster and easier on me?
This is the easiest ornament organization ever. Ready?
Instructions:
1. Grab your bin and place the punch cups all along the bottom. Place enough cups so none of the cups will move. You may hot glue each cup to the bottom of your bin, but to be honest, I didn’t have to do that at ALL last year and my ornaments were all perfect for this year.
2. Fill each cup with one ornament (I even place the hook in the cup as well!). They should nestle perfectly with a little extra room on top. If you have an ornament that goes over the top of your cup, save these for the end so they’re on the top part of your box.
3. Place your piece of cardboard on top of your first layer of ornament-filled cups. Then place more punch cups on top of your cardboard until it is full of cups.
4. Fill with ornaments. Repeat the cardboard/cup combo until you have filled your whole container. Remember- bigger ornaments go on the top layer!
VOILA! You now have ornaments that are organized! Your ornaments will stay nestled all year and won’t break! It made putting up ornaments up SO much easier for me the past 2 years. If you’ve procrastinated putting up Christmas like I usually do, I hope this idea will help make your transition into mid-January a little bit easier.
When I took ours out this year they were all intact, but the hooks were all attached to each other after being shoved in a big box. This would make that process so much easier as well. Now, if only they weren’t packed away already. Oh well, adding this to the Christmas 2013 list!
this is genius I tell ya! So doing this next year! Pinterest here I come! Rather, pinterest here you come!
I saw this on Pinterest and LOVE the idea, but most of our ornaments are non-round, and they vary in size a lot. I even bought some cups and tried, but it was just a big waste of space to put a small flat ornament in a cup, and the funny-shaped ones didn’t fit. But I still think this is an awesome solution for people like you that have lots of round ornaments of the same size!
That’s an awesome idea! I think our ornaments are too big, but I’ll definitely keep it in mind in the future!
What a great idea – more ornaments are too big as well but thanks so much!
xx
Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
What a great idea!!!
I always get so sad to take down Christmas, too! 🙁 I feel like my house is so empty. Good idea to use the cups! I should do that next year instead of wrapping them back up in tissue paper.
Thank you for this. I’m going to share this with my network. I think I like the smaller plastic cups better.