I went through all 600 of the ornaments I normally put on the den tree and reduced them by at least half. Those I no longer wanted were put into 2 separate containers, whimsical ornaments and traditional ornaments, then were listed in my local Buy Nothing Facebook group.
I swear they were not listed more than 60 seconds before I had people who wanted them.
The way the admin has the one I use set up, is to let the listing simmer for at least 24 hours before making a decision on which person can have whatever is offered there. I am not about to make a decision, so I assign them a number 1- whatever and have a random number generator pick for me. I make sure beforehand that anyone who is interested knows I will choose that way. For me the best thing that can happen is to have the items picked up and gone before I have a chance to change my mind, and those were gone by the next afternoon.
While I literally had my hands on each ornament, I decided to do something different (at least different for me) with the colored balls). I took 3 of the same size balls, in different colors, and used a green chenille stick to bind them together. I probably made about 15 bunches, and in my mind they will look really nice on the tree, however; sometimes my mind's eye plays tricks on me. Worse case scenario is that I undo them and use them as single balls.
All stored, used ribbons were ironed, bows were untied, ironed and retied, and all the little tchotchkes (jingle bells, snowflakes, pinecones, evergreens, etc.) I tie on each gift were put into small container based of type. I do not add them until I am ready to put the gifts under the trees.
I found a million (gross exaggeration to make a point) gift bags and gift boxes that are ready (whenever I am ready) to make the journey downstairs. I am going to give a lot of them away because we no longer give gifts to TheHubs side of the family.
Like most families, once his parents were no longer with us, each of his siblings families (and ours) established their own Christmas traditions with their own kids and grandkids. My Beloved Sister and her husband continued to come to our house on Christmas day after Mom and Dad passed away, but they live just 10 minutes away (if they were stopped by the two traffic lights between our houses). Now that her husband has died, she will keep Christmasing with us, probably coming earlier and staying later than they did before.
There is still a bit more to do. The very back of the gigantic closet holds things I have not seen or used in years, and I need to go through it. I am betting most can be tossed or given away, and since I planned on digging in and finishing today, I need to close this post for now and get my tail upstairs before it gets any later.
5 days until Halloween
34 Days until Thanksgiving
60 Days until Christmas
Ho, Ho, Holy Toledo!!!!!
Can you hear my applause? Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks, just a bit more work in the room and then all will be done
DeleteWow, just 60 days until Christmas! You got so much done, you must feel really accomplished. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteI have a ton more to do but I have made a lot of headway
DeleteI helped a store owner decorate the store windows because I was there when he started. He used a large ornament holder as opposed to one for home trees and just put three on one hook. It was pretty. Where he could not put another huge ornament triple ornament.
ReplyDeleteFinally, we got Christmas down so we could put up Halloween which is mostly pumpkins. Since I can use most of it for Thanksgiving, we won't have to yank it right down for the next holiday.
I would have left the Christmas stuff out this close to the holiday
DeleteThat was the plan, but it looked goofy with Halloween. I did have Tommy just put the short tree in a bin so all we have to do is just take the decorated tree out.
DeleteWoohoo, well done! And I bet those who were fortunate to be drawn are thrilled with their new to them ornaments.
ReplyDeleteI heard back from the person who got the whimsical box and she seemed to really like it
Delete600 of the ornaments!! Gosh..that's a lot!! Awesome that you have got so much done already. Get ready for the holidays :-))
ReplyDeleteMy den tree was always filled with ornaments. Last year i was so behind with everything that the tree just had a ton of lights. This year will be different
DeleteYay! You did it! You deserve a big round of applause, getting so much done! I bet it feels got to have started and got so much done! :)
ReplyDeleteI have done a lot of organizing and now I know where everything is. I only have to set a master plan of how I am going to decorate for the holidays.
DeleteWhen I am trying to declutter the stuff has to go out of the house immediately - before I change my mind. Then I realize I haven't missed a darn thing anyway, so why is it so difficult to do?
ReplyDeleteWhen you figure it out please let me know.
DeleteNot Bossy Here...Anne I am so proud of you!
ReplyDeleteI love that song and start singing it a little closer to Christmas. I like the version you shared. 600 does sounds like a lot of ornaments for one tree. I assume it is a big tree?
ReplyDelete600 ornaments! Well done!
ReplyDeleteI am so proud to you!
ReplyDeleteAll is lost. I swore I would get the big tree up at the beginning of November because it takes me so long to decorate it. I don't think I can do it. We'll see. You're doing well and I'm proud of you.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie