With Christmas and New Year's behind us, it can mean only one thing. Time to initiate Operation: Can I find and fit all this stuff back into these boxes? 

That's right. Time to put away the ornaments- those that the cats didn't eat anyway, the Christmas village, the fake poinsettias. I get so wrapped up (sorry) in the Christmas spirit that every year, as I'm out and about shopping for gifts, I end up buying some cute new decorations and bringing them home. 

This isn't an issue-until I have to put it all away. I like to put little decorations throughout the house in little nooks and crannies, so there's always something to discover. Now, I have to remember where I put everything so I can put it away.

I plan for the removal of Christmas decorations like I'm packing for extended vacation. 

Large totes? Check. Shopping bags and scavenged boxes because I'm me and didn't think that the decorations would need to be put away in a month?  Check. Duct tape and scissors to put the broken down boxes back together? Um, hold on…Check.

When you decorate for Christmas, everything looks fresh and out of place. Then about a month later, everything finally looks like it belongs right where it is.

I try to maintain some semblance of organization by putting like decorations together. Santa's with Santa's, garland with garland etc., so I know how much of what I have. This is a problem because I can walk past the same decoration 10 times and not see it. I can pack a box full of decorations and tape it up only to notice a lonely Santa statue sitting on a table out in the open. Then, I have to start a new box with the mismatched stuff. 

The same thing goes for the removal of decorations on the tree. Last year, I no sooner got all the ornaments into a box and taped it up (after having surveyed the tree several time for strays, I might add) when I noticed not one but two ornaments hiding in the branches. Being the moderately lazy person I am, I put the ornaments on the shelf in our spare closet where they sat until our tree went up this year. 

What's the solution? I could stop buying decorations, but I don't think that will happen. I could somehow develop a system so I don't blindly walk past a decoration or have my husband once over the tree before I tape the box of ornaments. That probably won't happen either. 

I think I may just have to accept the fact that with a love for decorating comes the need to put all those decorations away. I just have to accept the fact that there's always going to be a random ornament in my spare closet. 

Every year, I say I'll label the boxes before they go into the attic. Every year, I say I'll keep the original boxes. Every year, I say next year.