Monday, December 22, 2014
To Reduce Visual Overwhelm
as you Deck your Halls
Store in Plain Sight with this clever trick
© Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Decking, decking – still decking!
It’s a good thing I have switched to celebrating Twelfth Night – January 6th (12 more days to get it together than if my deadline were Christmas itself). There is NO WAY I’ll have everything ticked, tied and neatened by December 25 — my hall decking has faced a number of serious slowdowns.
- FIRST, I had to quickly move everything up off the floor to puppy-proof for the sudden good fortune of locating my wished-for Christmas puppy.
- Then, of course, came the day “off” to go get the little guy – and the day after that to recover from staying up all night puppy-proofing, followed by a car trip!
- And now that he’s here, I have to WATCH HIM LIKE A HAWK – this dog can find something verboten to put in his tiny mouth even if I’ve just swept or vacuumed.
The decking of halls has taken a decidedly back seat to puppy patrol. Oh well. If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. This little guy is clearly worth it to me!
Celebrate Boxing Day early . . .
No, NOT the day-after-Christmas holiday celebrated by our English-speaking forefathers across the pond (along with, according to Wikipedia, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and other Commonwealth nations, as well as Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden!)
I’m talking much bigger boxes for our Boxing Day than those used to gather alms.
Inundated by Shipping Boxes?
If you order anything online (and who doesn’t these days?), you probably hurry to break down the packing/shipping boxes to get them OUT of your house and into the recycling bin.
Don’t.
There’s a much better way to handle them – besides getting things out of the way of a puppy (you’re gonna’ love this!)
WRAP THEM! (No I am not kidding)
But first, take down as many decorative tchotchkes as possible to clear the decks for Christmas decor.
Not only does Christmas decorating go so much more smoothly if you start with a relatively clean(ish) slate, it looks a lot better to the eye when there aren’t so many items competing for focus.
Pack the items you normally use to “merchandise” your space in a few of the medium to large-ish boxes that arrive carrying internet purchases.
It’s not too late to do it now, by the way – EVEN if your halls are primarily decked already. Look around to see which non-Christmas items are distracting, and box them up.
NOW wrap those boxes – and tie them up with pretty ribbon and a big bow.
If you have the time, it is EVEN better if it is done in a manner that you can reuse them without rewrapping from year to year.
Even if you are someone who changes your theme or color scheme every Christmas, if you keep the wrapping paper relatively neutral you can always change the look with different ribbon.
Moving right along, you can ALSO reuse those wrapped boxes to pack up some of the ornaments and other artifacts of Christmas-soon-to-be-past until next year – sans bows, of course.
No mistaking what those boxes contain – even without the bows! (Pop those inside one or two of your pretty boxes and store them all together – the only ones you tie with a flat Christmas ribbon.)
The MAIN thing, however, is to be able to
hide your during-the-season storage solutions
— in plain sight.
Put your prettily wrapped boxes around your home to spread a bit of storage-secret Christmas glow from room to room.
Or mass them together in a couple of out of the way corners. According to Apartment Therapy, “. . . a collection of otherwise basic gift-wrapped presents is made more dramatic and note-worthy when grouped and stacked all together.”
Here’s the best part: nobody has to climb up to the attic or down dimly lit basement steps to store away the now empty packaging that once held ornaments and other pretties. Pop ’em in plain wrapped boxes to sit under the ones with the bows until you are ready to take it all down again.
But WAIT – there’s more . . .
Don’t forget that you can always check out the sidebar
for a reminder of how links work on this site, they’re subtle ==>
Why don’t they drive EVERYBODY Crazy?
In my mind, bubble lights marked the beginning of the “lights that oscillate” fascination. They’re the earliest “moving” lights I can recall, in any case.
