Holiday Decorations

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? For many of you that means in the next week or so you will be pulling out the holiday bins to decorate the house. This is your opportunity to get a jump on decluttering your home before the end of the year.








1. Go get your holiday bins and decorate your home! That's the fun part.
2. Any ornaments that are broken should be thrown away.
3. Any ornaments that you don't use but you are keeping for sentimental reasons should be placed in a keepsake box. For instance if your child made an ornament that you want to keep when he/she grows up then that should be placed in a specific keepsake box for that child. This will give you a better idea of the volume of items you are keeping for your child. Only decorations you use should be stored in the holiday bins.
4. Any items that you don't use…donate them to your local school, senior center, place of worship.

Hopefully this last step will help you reduce the amount of containers you need to store your holiday decorations.

Luggage

Are you ever amazed at how much space luggage can take up in your home?
Do you have to rush off to the store to buy more toiletries for a trip because your not sure where you left those items from your last trip?
Wouldn't it be nice to just know where everything is before you leave for a trip?
What would Andrea Do?

The answer…nest your luggage and your travel accessories all in one bag.

1. Get all your luggage, duffel and travel bags together. Designate the bags in groups according to the person who uses them.  Any unclaimed bags should be donated.
2. Gather together each person's travel accessories - neck pillows, travel pouches, make up bags, travel bottles.
3. Now that you have all the travel items in place it is time to nest it all together. Start with yours first. Take your travel accessories, soft bags, duffel bags and put them all into your carry on sized suitcase. Take this bag and nest in your large bag - typically the one you have to check at the airport. Your luggage and travel items are all stored into one bag.
4. Repeat this process for each person in your home.
5. Your luggage footprint has been reduced and now you know where everything is so the next time you go on a trip you may not have to dash out for that travel sized toothpaste because you already have a tub in your toiletries kit.

Happy trails.