January: time for cleaning and organizing

New year, fresh start.  I love Christmas, a whole lot but I also really like starting the year by packing all the decorations away.  We're pretty strict on keeping every thing up and outside lights on nightly until Epiphany, then it all comes down.  The packing away isn't the most fun but I love the more simplified look and back to normal.  I think starting the year with this big project plays a big part in my desire to spend January organizing, simplifying, and updating some decor.

I still haven't figured out what to put on the dining table...and it's even one of my few Luke safe surfaces! (in the middle at least)

Back in December my sister and I were texting and she shared that she can fit all her Christmas things in two tubs.  I was shocked and motivated.  I'm not that good but I did get all the tree stuff in just one box (Besides the lights, they are too heavy to put on top of all the balls and it made no sense to put them in the bottom of the box since they need up first.  And the tree stand obviously doesn't fit either.).  I was immensely proud of that.  I only wrapped the real fragile ornaments and everything else went into gallon ziplocks.  I'm excited about this new system.  Packing away everything else didn't go quite as well but, as Matt and my sister both told me, now I can forget about it for 11 months and mess with it then.  Good point.

I really enjoyed some quiet time Sunday afternoon getting back to normal.  I like finding places for all our normal decor as well as various new things I got for Christmas (Matt says I have enough blue glass things for awhile.)  It's only been a few days but this view still makes me so happy:

No tree.  It looks so much cleaner with that gone!  The plethora of sunshine we've had this week has really helped too.  I love the morning light we get in this part of the house.  With our schedule cleared up, my to-do list greatly reduced, and winter really here, it's the perfect time for cozying up at home and doing little things to make it both more homey and run more efficiently.  That's going to be my blog focus for the month. Partly because that's how I'm going to spend my January but also because there is no better time to start new habits.  It's exciting to think about...that might just be me.  Please don't tell me if I sound crazy.  =)