Tips For Organizing Seasonal Items

A reader asked me for advice on storing seasonal dishes so I thought I’d write a post with some tips, while showing you how I organize my seasonal decorations and other special occasion items to keep them from becoming overwhelming.

Tips for organizing and storing seasonal items

• If you only use things once a year (or for a little while each year), it’s best to pack them away somewhere for the rest of the year where they aren’t taking up space that you can use for frequently used things. It depends on your space of course but boxes or bins in a storage area (basement, garage, attic, closet, etc.) are good options if you have them. Ideally all your seasonal things are stored in one location so you can find them easily.
• Choose a place for storing seasonal things that is not too hard to get at when you need to. Let’s face it, we’re all busy people and, while it’s nice to have seasonal items, if it’s too much effort to get them out each year, it becomes a chore rather than something to look forward to. 
• Group items by season/occasion so you can easily find what you need when you want it. Depending on how many items you have for each season and what size they are, you may store each season/occasion in a separate box or bin or drawer, or you may be able to group things in bags or smaller boxes within a larger container.
• Label each container so you can easily find what you you are looking for.
• When you are using some of your seasonal items, consider storing some of your day-to-day items in the empty bin so your home doesn’t feel cluttered with both types of items in use.
• Purge after each season or occasion.  If you didn’t use an item this year, what are the chances you will use it next year?   Or if you bought or received new items, purge older ones (a great motto to prevent clutter is “one item in, one item out”).

How I Organize and Store My Seasonal Items

I store most of our items that we only bring out during the various seasons (spring, fall, and winter) or holidays (Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Halloween) in bins in our basement. In our case, these include things like decorations, dishes, and clothing that relate to the season.  You may have other types of seasonal items as well, such as linens, china, or glassware.

I have one bin for Halloween (decorations, pumpkin carving items, bowls for candy we’re handing out, bags the kids used for collecting candy, Halloween bakeware, etc.), 1 bin for winter (snowman decorations, snowflake plates and glasses, etc.), and 1 bin for Valentines Day, spring, and Easter (I don’t have very many things for each one so they all fit in one bin – Valentine cards and wrap, spring decor, plastic Easter eggs, etc.). I also store a bin with some costumes or dress-up clothes for theme days, costume parties, etc.

We have quite a few Christmas items so they are stored in our garage.

We don’t really have summer decorations but I store our outdoor toys and summer sports equipment in our deckbox, shed, or garage.

I thought about storing all of my other seasonal items in the garage so everything would be all in one place, but we have space in a closet in our basement for all the seasonal items except the Christmas ones, and it’s nicer to just grab a bin from the basement than to have to go outside to the garage when I need to access the items.

Now that my kids are getting older, I’ve decluttered quite a few seasonal items, and I’ll probably continue to do so in the next few years. So I may be able to reduce the number of bins at some point. But for now this works. All my seasonal items are easy to access so it’s not overwhelming and I look forward to using these items each season or holiday!

What seasonal items do you store? How do you organize and store your seasonal things? Which of the tips I suggested have you tried? I’d love to hear your ideas!

If you need help decluttering or organizing, contact me for in-person services in the Mississauga area, or virtual services anywhere else.

Happy organizing!