OK. You've probably already heard of this one, but it was new to me and I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of that years ago??!!!"

I always put the Christmas decorations away like this: This is the box for the lights and this is the box for the placemats and this is the box for the ornaments and this is the box for the Christmas mugs and this is the box for the faux evergreens and this is the box for the ......., etc. etc.

But a friend of mine says she does it this way, and it makes so much more sense to me. She puts all the decorations that she uses in the living room in the same box or boxes, all the decorations she puts in the guest bathroom in another box, and all the decorations she puts in the family room in another........ and so on and so on.

That way, when it comes time to pull it all out, she can do one complete room at a time (one each evening, for example) without taking out box after box and having the entire house a mess until it's all put together.

Hope this helps someone. I'm certainly going to give it a try when I go to put it all away in January.