How to Organize and Store Your Holiday Stuff

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday!

The time is coming soon to pack away the holiday things. I find staying organized to be an important part of living a frugal lifestyle. The "recycle, reduce, reuse" mindset only works if you know what you already have, where it is, and can get to it easily! So here are some tips on how to organize your holiday stuff before you put it away- you'll thank yourself next year!

• How to Pack Away Garlands, Wreaths, Trees, Ornaments Neatly (without buying anything!) from LifeHacker

• How to Store Gift Wrap Rolls (on the ceiling of your closet!) from LifeHacker

• Repurpose a Laundry Hamper or Trash Can for Wrapping Paper Storage  from Coffee With Me

• Album of Gift Wrap Storage Ideas from Better Homes and Gardens

• Use a Large Hook to Store Lots of Gift Bags from Like Merchant Ships

• Top Holiday Storage Tips from BudgetDecorating.About.com (My favorite tip from this page: Remember to store away your non-decoration items too- like dishes, cookie cutters, towels, DVDs, etc and save your everyday storage for stuff you use all year round!)

The Dollar Tree: goldmine!

I have recently been reminded of the glory of Dollar Tree (27th & Iowa) after a visit last weekend. I found a lot of great stuff there, including dried & fake flower bundles (lookit my centerpiece!), nice crackers, gourmet hot sauce, and great-looking metallic fabric placemats. All priced at $1! So I was able to get a dozen great placemats for Thanksgiving for $12 (cheaper than making them myself), plus 3 bundles of dried and fake flowers that I used for my centerpiece. (The vase is one I inherited from my Grandma Velma.)

Today I visited the Dollar Tree website and found that they have weekly ads! Here are some things I saw that are definitely worth checking out in the week to come, primarily holiday craft/decorating items.

15" and 18" wreaths
Wreath hangers
15' pine garland
6' extension cords
So many ornaments
Ribbon
Gift bags/boxes/wrapping
Indoor light strings

Save with holiday crafts

A great way to save money around the holidays is to make your own decorations. Be careful and do some math, though, because homemade decor is not always cheaper than store-bought. The trick is to make decorations that you already have most of the materials for, or that you can get materials for very cheaply.

I've been really into wreaths this year, so I'm planning to make one or two next week with my girlfriends. I found a lot of cute ideas for wreaths, but the ones I'm planning to make need mostly materials that I already have. (see link below!)  I'm going to do a paper wreath, because I already have a lot of odds-and-ends colored papers left over from other projects, and I also have a circle-cutter that came with a button making machine I bought years ago. If you don't already have colored paper and a circle cutter, this project would not be very frugal for you. Perhaps you have a lot of fabric scraps- there is also a cute wreath shown that uses those. I also have a lot of old vintage tinsel that one of my grandmothers gave me a few years ago, that I hadn't figured out how to use. Then I came across a great wreath idea that uses a lot of tinsel on the Creature Comforts blog! So in that case, the only thing I will need to buy is a foam wreath base, which are really cheap, PLUS I will use a coupon at Michael's (see link- thanks to Alena L. for the tip!). The wreaths are usually about $5, but with a 50% off coupon, my total cost for the wreath will be about $2.50. Much cheaper than buying a ready-made wreath! See all the how-to links below the picture.

Links:

Paper wreath, fabric scrap wreath, other great wreaths: http://www.creaturecomfortsblog.com/home/2010/11/15/diy-holiday-wreath-roundup.html

Tinsel garland wreath:
http://www.creaturecomfortsblog.com/home/2010/11/16/diy-5-minute-tinsel-garland-wreath.html

Michael's coupons!:
http://www.michaels.com/c/110611-IA-US,default,pg.html