Welcome to 2008.
While we are in the beginning of the year, if you are anything like me, you do not want to take down Christmas. You waited and waited until the last acceptable moment, until you feel like your neighbors are looking in the windows at your Christmas display and laughing.
Or, if you are smart, you go for the full and official twelve days of Christmas. Either way, a lot of people still have their Christmas displays proudly up.
The only reason why I do not is that long ago I set aside New Years Day as the day to take down Christmas. It gave me a goal on the day itself, something easy to work towards that would give me a sense of accomplishment when the day was done.
On New Years Day, I spend the day de-constructing Christmas. And as I did, I thought so much about what I wrote on New Years Eve, about bringing JOY to life by organizing myself. And I found my first (and our first) way.
By taking some extra time (yes, it was a little more involved, but not that much), I organized all my Christmas storage. That is to say, I did this:
Before packing anything away, I put all the storage boxes on the kitchen floor and cleaned off the kitchen table. I then pulled the empty garbage can close and I was ready. I evaluated my Christmas items and broke them down like this:
Christmas tree (each tree got their own ornament box broken down and labeled, so now instead of one huge ornament box, the different trees I put up are pre-segregated into their own boxes and I can put them up as I choose)
house decorations (multiple boxes, divided by size of decorations)
outside decorations
fabric everything (stockings, tree skirt, table linens, costumes etc)
lights
Then, this year, I broke the Christmas display of my entire home down in pieces. I picked one section and put that box on the empty Christmas table. Then, before I started, I created my first piece of JOY by emptying out that storage box of the years of accumulated everything. Old pieces of broken ornaments. Crumpled tissue paper. Rusting metal ornament hangers. Tinsel from a kazillion years ago. Everything - out of the pool. And started over again with a clean storage box so I knew each and every thing that was going into the storage box.
This year, I went with the Flylady admonition - if it did not make me smile, I got rid of it. Period. That is going to be my mantra this year. And no worries. If you are not familiar with Flylady, you will be oh so soon. Anyway, back to it.
I took down the trees and packed them away individually, each tree’s ornaments in their own box. Then, for the first time, I actually taped the boxes shut for my poor Mister, who always wrestles to get these into the attic without disaster. He adores this year already for that addition alone.
Outside decorations finally were segregated into their own box so that I can set that aside on Thanksgiving Day and get it done a little bit sooner than this year (you don’t want to know. Really).
Finally all the house decorations ended up in the same box instead of sprinkled throughout all the boxes as a surprise addition. It wasn’t that my boxes were a mess. It was that at the end of packing, I would push in additional decorations wherever there was room. This time, I just got the extra box I needed and used it to bring JOY to my Christmas decorations and as I am encouraging you - Just Organize Yourself!
Fabric went into a separate box so that I could put the heavy stocking holders in that box in safety. I wanted a box that could safely be moved (or dropped) without anything breaking. I say this because my Mister tripped coming down the stairs this year (he is fine, thank goodness, just stumbled) and dropped the box with the heavy stocking holders in it down the stairs. And as I heard crashing and banging all down the stairs, I thought to myself “hum, as I pack this year, I need to make sure that does not happen again”. So I did.
Planning ahead is a most important part of finding JOY! I have a mental file (as we all do) that runs in my head all the time. I list all types of things, plans, activities, hopes, dreams and occasionally, I remember to do some of the things there.
What I am trying to accomplish this year is making the transition from recognizing when I first approach something that by the time I am finished with it, a change needs to be made. Instead of waiting to act, if I do it NOW when I recognize the need, before I know it, I can tell myself that I have found JOY because I will have Just Organized Yourself. Finally.
I do not need perfection. I already know that. I have talked about that. But disorganization brings disquiet to my life. Disorganization brings discontent. And disorganization brings wasted time, wasted opportunities and in my case, wasted money.
On New Years Eve, I wished for you all to find just one moment of joy and hold on to that memory. My idea was that if you find just one moment, even if you are having trouble finding joy on a regular basis, when you feel that one moment, you get hungry for it. You remember it and you long for it. And you want it and you will find that you are ready to do what you have to in order to recreate it.
My moment of joy was in London. I was prepared for the Christmas season. We were having a true wave of guests coming to visit from America literally week after week after week from October through January with no break between. I was so excited but I knew I needed to be ready as we lived in an oh so small two bedroom home in downtown London. So, starting early that year, I literally went from attic to the cupboard under the stairs in that house. I went through every drawer. I would say I went through every box, but by the time I was finished, there were no boxes. None. I had touched every single possession we owned and every possession we owned lived in its place.
It was incredible. There was no superfluous in the house. Everything we did not need was donated to charity or went to the dump or recycled. By the time our guest season started, there was little for me to do. Even my Mister remembers the JOY with so much fondness. I had so much time every day to fix dinner. Every day I would light the candles in the house and wait for him to come home from his walk off the Tube. I had so. much. free. time. every. day. that I can scarcely describe it. I had nothing to clean because there was nothing to clean. Everything was in its place. I knew where everything was. And I loved everything in my house.
It was a time of perfect peace. My Mister and I both agree that we want the house back to that in the worst way. That is our mutual goal this year. We want that JOY back. It is going to mean some extra work, I admit now. But honestly, in the great scheme of things, I did not spend that much more time yesterday putting away my Christmas display than I did any other year. I was still done at the end of the day. And this time, at the end of the day, my Mister and I sat together and just grinned at each other over the taped and labeled boxes like - well, like kids on Christmas morning.
There was a lot of joy there. And it carried over this morning when my Mister had to go back to work. Already I am ready to tackle another major project, buoyed by the good feelings of yesterday. This might not be a miracle where you live, but trust me. Around here, this counts under the 1862 Goodwill Act of Miracles, Wonders and Phenomenons.
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