Reuse your gift bags.
Decorative gift bags can be very pricey. As you receive gift bags, hold on to them. Reuse them for gifts that you are giving others.
If you want to get real organized you can even organize your bags by holiday/event. You can place your bags in a box and then use small pieces of cardboard as a separator.
When you bring home your leftovers from the restaurant you can also reuse this bag. These bags can make great lunch bags.
Use a vacuum to clean larger decorations.
Did your holiday decorations collect a little dust while on display? No problem. Use either an air compressor or a can of compressed air (great for those small, delicate pieces). For some of your larger items, like your tree or wreaths, you may need to use a vacuum cleaner. Whichever method you use, hold the item far enough away to prevent and damage and keep an eye on small and delicate pieces attached to your decorations. If you do then cleaning now, everything will be ready to go for next Christmas and decorating will be that much more enjoyable.
Who enjoys untangling their Christmas lights each year? NOT ME! Now that all the presents are unwrapped, you probably find yourself with a few extra cardboard boxes lying around your house. (And if you’re lucky, you got a gift from Crate&Barrel so you have a good quality
Holiday lights wrapped around a piece of cardboard.
cardboard box.) The amount of lights you have will determine how many “pieces” of your box you will need…you may want or need to use the top flaps, sides and bottom flaps. After you have carefully cut apart your box, make a small slit in either the top or bottom of one cardboard piece. As you begin to take down your lights, first tuck the end of the cord into the slit you made and wrap the string of lights around the cardboard. Continue to wrap the lights until you have filled the piece of cardboard. You can either make a second slit for the other end of your lights, or simply tuck the cord underneath the wrapped lights. Depending on how much of your box is left, you can even drop your wrapped cords into the box for easy storage.
This same strategy can be used for any of your holiday or seasonal lights.