Monthly Archives: December 2014

Clutter-Free Options for Displaying Your Holiday Cards

One of the things I most look forward to each Christmas season is the daily arrival of holiday cards from friends and family. As the official household card maker for my own family, I understand firsthand the time, energy, and thought that goes into creating these cards each year. So I do my best to carve out a prominent place in my home to display the cards for everyone to enjoy throughout the holiday season.

Each year, I try to come up with a new and creative way to display holiday cards that doesn’t clutter up any of the flat surfaces in our home and that serves as a festive addition to the holiday decor. This year, I’m hanging them vertically on doors located in our foyer by attaching them to a long piece of ribbon that’s affixed to the door on the reverse side via duct tape (fancy, I know, but it works for me).

Clutter Free Holiday Card Display 2

If you are looking for some creative ways to display your holiday cards in “clutter-free style” this year, I pulled together this collection of great examples from around the web in order to provide you with a little inspiration.

Clutter Free Holiday Card Display

1.  Use garland and ribbon to create a hanging card display across a window or above a door, like the pom pom garland display featured on Bob Vila’s blog.

2.   Repurpose an old shutter to create a cardholder by tucking your cards in between the slats, as demonstrated by Courtney from A Diamond in the Stuff. Not only is this option fantastic for holiday cards — you can use it year-round to organize bills, coupons, invitations etc.

3.  Create a card wreath (or several!), using a wreath form covered in decorative fabric. Use clothespins to attach cards to the wreath form.  Genius!

4.  Use cards as Christmas tree ornaments! This is what I call “killing two birds with one stone”. See the simple tutorial at Better Homes and Gardens for how to pull this off.

5.  Don’t have a Christmas tree? Create a Greetings Tree, Martha Stewart-Style, using some dried winter branches, a bucket, and some ribbon.

6.  Hang cards vertically on doors and cupboards using pretty holiday ribbon like this example found on the Greener Grass blog  (great minds think alike!)

7.  Create a Card Garland on your stairway banister ala Martha Stewart.

8.  Create a Washi Tape Card Tree like the folks at the Thyme is Honey blog did. A conversation-piece indeed!

Now it’s your turn to share…got a creative way to celebrate those holiday cards? Let us in on it in the comments section below.

 Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms?  Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

‘Tis the Season for Clutter-Free Gifts!

Clutter-Free Holiday Gift Guide

As a professional organizer, I routinely find myself giving clients permission to let go of items that they have been holding onto solely because they were given the item as a gift. These are things that the client does not need, use or want…things that are taking up valuable space in their home because of a misplaced sense of obligation to the gift giver.

So as the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, I wanted to offer up some advice to all of you gift-givers out there:

Don’t burden people with a gift that could likely end up in the “donations” box or the “re-gift” shelf of the bedroom closet.  

“Well, how can I avoid that?” you ask. Avoid it by giving a “clutter-free” gift…that is, a gift that is not a THING and doesn’t occupy space in the gift recipient’s home.

The professional organizing blogosphere is overflowing with posts that celebrate clutter-free gift giving. Just check out this month’s Professional Organizer’s Blog Carnival if you don’t believe me! There are countless clutter-free gift guides out there, so I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring and offer up some clutter-free gift ideas that will hopefully provide some direction if you are stuck on what to give that certain someone this year.

Feel free to print this list out for future reference – DOWNLOAD PDF FILE HERE

RR Clutter Free Gift Ideas

Share your favorite ideas for clutter-free gift giving in the comments section!

 Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms?  Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn