Decor Galore

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #13:

Simplicity

I was really excited to decorate for fall this year. I tried to time it right so I wasn't the crazy lady who put fall decor out too soon, but on September 1st at 9:00 a.m. I ran downstairs and pulled my holiday bin from the shelf to begin transforming my home into an autumn wonderland. That's when I realized I only had two fall decorations in there.

Oh.

But then I remembered I had some wood stuffs in my garage that go on my front porch, and I have a couple of wreaths (one for inside the house and one for the front door). 

My front porch (I haven't put up an autumn wreath yet. 

I might skip it this year because I'm digging the white wreath).

See that chair? My uncle made it. I've had it for, like, 17 years. 

You rock, Uncle T!

I also bought a few fall throw pillows a couple weeks ago at Ross. 

Throw pillows!

So in total, I have about seven fall decorations. 

My living room. It recently underwent a bit of a shuffle since we 

finished our basement and moved our TV downstairs. Now that

 I'm looking at a photo, I'm noticing it's looking rather brown these days. 

This pumpkin garland was one of the first fall decor items 

I ever bought, and I still love it. Last year I spruced it up by 

adding the ribbons. 

Hello Autumn sign (on the reverse it says Give Thanks). If you 

look closely, you can see that we've never finished installing baseboards 

in our living room. Because we're cool like that. Also, I bought 

that end table from Hobby Lobby for $14.91. It was 90% off. 

Let's all cheer!

Next month, I can add my two Halloween decorations. 

And in November, I'll swap those out for my one Thanksgiving decoration. 

It's good to have a plan. 

Why am I telling you this? Because today I'm writing about simplicity. I love decorating for fall, but I keep it very simple. I used to go mega overboard for fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Then for Christmas, I went ultra mega overboard. 

One year, at Christmas time, when I was putting my fall decorations away and getting out the Christmas stuff, I got stuck in this horrible cycle of arranging and rearranging things. Additionally, I didn't like this and that, so I went out shopping for new stuff. And I had things that I couldn't find anywhere to put. Then I felt exhausted and didn't want to carry all my totes back to the basement. And I had to vacuum up glitter all season long. Decorating for the year-end holidays completely wiped me out, and I was never satisfied with the results. 

The next year, I found myself in the same pattern, and I thought what am I doing? This is making me crazy! And for what? 

So to keep myself in check, I wrote a note and stuck it in the bin of Christmas decorations. It said something like:

Dear Britt,

I just want you to remember that you don't have to go crazy decorating for Christmas. It doesn't make you happy - it makes you lose your mind. It takes the joy out of decking the halls. Chill a bit, you freak. 

Love,

Britt One Year Ago

After that, I started taking it easy on the holiday decor. Over time, I narrowed down my decor items to just a few favorites, and I adopted a NO GLITTER policy. I allowed myself one Christmas bin and one fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving bin and one all-other-holidays bin. Then last year, I narrowed it down even more. Now I have two Christmas bins (one is throw pillows - which take up a lot of space, but I LOVE some good throw pillows*) and one all-other-holidays bin. I will allow myself to purchase new items so long as they will fit in my existing bins. If they don't it, I have to get rid of something to make room.

Now it takes me about seven minutes to decorate for fall and twenty minutes to decorate for Christmas - and that includes putting up the Christmas tree because I wired and hot glued all of my decorations to my tree two years ago. All I have to do is haul it in the house from the shed and plug it in. Best thing I've ever done!

Simplifying my holiday decor has made all the difference in the world. I enjoy putting out my decorations. I don't get overwhelmed by it. I'm happy with the amount of items I have (in this case, less truly has been more). And I don't dread putting it away at the end of the season! 

Now please know that I'm not trying to make any sort of statement about how anyone else should decorate for the holidays. If you have fifty bins of fall decor, and you love it, and it doesn't stress you out to deal with all of it - go get 'em, tiger! But for me, I feel so much better now that I have simplified my process. 

Now I just need to simplify about 80 other areas of my life!

*I have always appreciated throw pillows, but for years, they didn't really work in my home... because kids. They would beat each other with them, throw them around the room, and get them so dirty! I found myself constantly policing the throw pillows, so I eventually just had to get rid of them and have a "No Throw Pillow Household" for a good decade. Last year, I decided to give throw pillows another shot, and even though I still find them out of place constantly, I feel like we are now in a phase of family life where I can have them! Add that to the list of things I enjoy about my children's ages.