Christmas Decor Tips & Savings

Christmas comes every year, and managing your decor can be a hassle. Booth shares her best practices for being both efficient and economical with your holiday decor, from the merit of clear bins to resisting impulse purchases.

Read the blog on storage tips here: Christmas Storage Tips
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• (00:00) - Christmas Decor Tips & Savings
• (00:37) - Donate If You Don't Use It
• (01:16) - You're Making a List, You're Checking It Twice
• (01:47) - Store Your Decor Well
• (02:58) - Be Strong In The Face Of Cuteness
• (03:32) - Organize Your Storage Well
• (04:15) - Pillows Are Cute, Covers Are Economical
• (04:52) - Good Storage Can Help With Saving

This podcast is produced by Rooster High Productions.

Creators & Guests

Host

Booth Parker, CPA

Financial guru by day; domestic diva by night and sharing it all in between.

What is MOM-enomics with Booth Parker, CPA?

Real moms. Real mom financial issues. Real moms in business. Real stories. I am Booth Parker. A CPA, wife, and mom that loves all things home and family. In this podcast, I talk all things money for moms, families, and small business. From tips to ideas to info you just need to know, I break it down so moms can apply it to their own families and businesses!

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Today on the podcast, we are going to be talking about Christmas decor storage tips that actually also save money. So we are in the thick of the holidays right now, thus my tartan shirt. And so today I'm going to talk to you about things I do to store my Christmas items and save money at the same time.

So the first one is when you're dragging all the Christmas decorations out, if you find something that you know you aren't gonna use and you're probably never gonna use it again, just go ahead and donate it right then rather than sticking it back in the closet for it to take up space. You allow someone else to use it and enjoy it [00:01:00] because storage

costs money. It's wasting space when you have something in your storage that's never going to be used. So if you find something dragging out all the Christmas that you don't love and you're not gonna use, go ahead and donate it now.

The second one is to keep a list throughout the holidays of things you need for next year's holiday, as well as want, of course. So maybe you've had the same artificial tree for several years and the lights don't work on it anymore. It's getting really long in the tooth. You're gonna need a new one. Go ahead and keep a list like that through the holidays.

And then right after Christmas, when all of those things are on major sale, go ahead and pick those items up then.

So you want to prolong the life of your Christmas decor. Christmas decor is expensive. It's an investment, and so you want it to last as long as it can. Climate controlled storage [00:02:00] is obviously the best choice, but not everyone has enough space in their home, extra closet space to store something like a Christmas tree because they're big. So putting those few things in the attic or in the garage, places like that, where you have a little more space is typically ideal. You want to put them in good storage containers, so the Christmas trees usually come with a good bag to store them in, but then you also want to put your wreaths in a bag if you're not able to hang them inside somewhere in a closet that's climate controlled, as well as your ornaments and your tabletop and all of these things; put them in clear airtight bins. That way you can see what's in them very easily and it will keep them from getting dust and broken and all of those kind of things so that they last a long time.

Now this one is more focused on [00:03:00] saving money, but don't fall victim to cute decor you see, while you're out Christmas shopping for others, stick to the list. If you see something you absolutely love, ask yourself where it would go right when you got home. And if you have a place, then maybe you could take something and donate it as well.

If you really felt the urge you needed that item, or just make a mental note to check that place after Christmas, and you may just snag it on clearance.

And the last one is to store things categorized. So keep the trees together, keep the wreaths together. And then keep the bins of ornaments together and keep the bins of tabletop together. I like to put Garland on our porch railing, so I keep those bins together. I even label them for where on the porch they go.

So it makes it really, really easy to put the stuff out and put it away. [00:04:00] When you put everything away in an organized manner, the next year when you go to decorate, say you only have time to do the dining room that day, you immediately know where the tabletop is. You can grab it and get that done without having to drag everything out and make a huge mess.

And another tip that saves a lot of space and can save money as well, is if you love those cute throw pillows as much as I do, try to just buy the covers. You'll save money from not having to buy the insert. And then when you're storing the items, you just take the insert out and store the covers in one of those clear bins, you can see exactly what is inside and reuse the inserts for other seasonal pillows throughout the year.

I have a huge box with all my seasonal pillow covers, and I don't have to waste space storing a lot of pillow inserts.

While this episode was focused heavily on storage tips with just a little bit of money saving tips, [00:05:00] doing things in a smart storage, way actually saves money in the end. So if you know where something is and you can go get it, then you aren't likely to just go out and buy a new one because you can't find it.

How many times have you not been able to find something and you resorted to going and buying a new one because you needed it? Same thing with your Christmas decor. You may need Christmas lights for something in July. You never know. So knowing where those items are will keep you from having to buy items you don't technically need, that you already have.

If you want a few more of my tips, be sure and read the blog that I have linked in the show notes, and I hope this helps you keep your Christmas day decor organized and your cost down and allows you to not be overwhelmed when it is time to pull all the decorations out again next holiday.

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[00:06:00]