IT HAS "BIN" REAL

It's down and it's organized.  Christmas if officially over in my house, and thank goodness for it.  It certainly is time.

I start the whole process by getting everything related to Christmas into one room.  Then, and this here is the huge step, I make a commitment to get rid of cardboard boxes.  Yup, the boxes of ornaments and the box for the Santa band and the boxes for the two artificial tress are broken down and sawed into recyclable pieces before I can change my mind.  I even tape the scraps together and put them directly out with the trash/recycling pick up at the curb.

Next, I bring up any and every plastic bin I own that is not currently being used.  I have about a dozen because I used to store sports equipment and various other crap in the bins until I started cleaning out the basement almost a year ago.  Now I have a whole bunch of bins at the ready.  I disassemble the two trees and pack them into the large green bin ... green like trees ... so I will recognize what is in there next fall when Christmas will be coming back out again.

After that, I grab an equally large purple bin and put all of the ornaments and most of the decorations into it.  I figure purple is one of the colors of Advent, so I'm on a good roll here with the coordination of everything.  Well, that line of bullshit plus the fact that purple is the only other color for large storage bins that I have.  Yes, I considered putting all of Christmas into the two purple bins, but then I'd have to wonder which of the two held the trees.  Now I know ... the green one does.

Lastly, I have a choice.  Put the fabric decorations (like the tree skirts and the stockings) into the last huge bin along with the packaged glassware and risk dropping it and breaking things, or pack those things more securely into smaller, better bins.  I go for the smaller bins and discover that I only need one. All of my decorations (ornaments, toys, wreaths, stockings, etc.) now fit in a bin and a half, plus one bin for the trees.

Okay, so I still have one cardboard box of the glassware.  It seemed safer packed in the box with lots of wrapping inside and around everything.  Still, going from all of that mayhem to a few organized bins and one box is huge; it's epic; it's invigorating.

Eventually I am certain the glassware will make it into a bin as well, but for now the holidays are repacked, organized, and ready for anything -- storage, next Christmas, a possible move.  No matter.  The bins are ready to go.