We are in the middle of the seemingly longest month of the year.
The leftover Christmas candy is gone, as is the desire to get started with an exercise regimen.
I am full of carbs and regret.
Guilt and lack of space have prompted many of us to take down the festive decorations, vacuum up the tinsel and start over.
You may tell yourself you have all winter to get things sorted, but trust me, once you get started you will want everything boxed in a day.
You may do some research on the proper ways to declutter.
The overachievers might even watch some online organizing classes.
This is the start of the 2022 “to-do” list.
I can tell you, with some experience, how the next few hours or days are going to go down.
You have, no doubt, been out shopping for all sorts of handy dandy organizational tools that are supposed to make your life easier.
Out will come the dozens of various sized totes, boxes and bags in preparation for the dismantling of Christmas.
It’s a little like that first day of school — all of the new stuff to use can be quite heady.
There is an annual and eternal hope that this year your home will be clean and orderly.
These exact words will come out of your mouth: “This year, I am going to pack things away carefully and label everything so I know where it is next year.”
Or, “I am going to colour co-ordinate the totes so Christmas is all stored in red and green containers.”
You will be lying.
Oh, it starts out well as you carefully take the ornaments off the tree. You may even stop and admire a few as you carefully wrap them in bubble wrap and tissue. They will be laid in a perfectly sized box marked “ornaments.”
Fast forward a couple of hours. You are sweaty, cranky and surrounded by wreaths, garland, beads, and glitter.
The remaining totes are, at best, mismatched and, at worst, missing lids.
Any tissue paper you had left is now all wrinkled and likely being sat on by a cat or two.
You resort to recycled newspaper, plastic bags or tissue paper to protect breakables.
You grab up the remaining items are start shoving them into any container nearby.
It is at this point when holiday cross-contamination can occur. Christmas elves will get tossed in with Easter bunnies.
It’s a big mess!
At this point in the process, you cannot stand the sight of any of it any longer and you wish you could afford a big dumpster for the driveway.
The best you can do is label it “stuff” and drag it to the basement/crawl space.
Push it all as far into a darkened corner as you can.
Turn off the light, close the door and hope you never have to see any of it for several months.
Never, ever look back.
Rejoice in the knowledge that next winter when you open those containers it will be a big surprise as to what you will find.
