I think it would depend on how junk they are. Like if a pumpkin is nice, but just does not light anymore, donate it. Put a note on it if you like. Not manditory, but sure is nice if it's kept with the pumpkin. But if a big factor of it is that it lights up and it does not, I think you can toss it.

Good reminder that we should not keep buying decor that we will want to toss in a few years, especially things made of plastic. We will soon run out of landfill room and have already in some places. So sad.

No good suggestions for you though. Sorry.

I've been purging not only a few of my things, but many of my mothers. I've had the bulk of almost 95 years worth of her Christmas here the last 10 years. (taking only a few very favorite things to decorate her senior apartment).

I did have DH take pieces to Goodwill last month but everything was in working order after testing. Sadly, I did put some in the city garbage collection. If DH would get a hot enough fire going at the family farm one day, I have more he could take out there to burn.

I just did the bulk of 'undecorating'. The weight of the tree was too much for me held that far out from my body and I had to call him in from picking up branches, debris from this weeks windstorm to carry out the tree. Now I'm sitting down for a minute ;)

I have a thing for the battery lights too. I didn't use even half what I had this year. But they are so convenient, so cheerful - carefully packaged they don't take up that much storage space.

I've been collecting items for donation for a few months now. I'm not doing an organized purge, but if I come across an item that is no longer used, I put it in the donation box. I've only taken down about half of the Christmas decorations, but I am determined to put away the remainder tomorrow. While I generally am organized, I've never been able to put holiday decorations back in the exact same place. They are in the same set of tubs, but not in the exact same order for some reason.

Oh it's such a disorganized mess! And every year I say, when it gets warmer in the attic, I'm going to spend some time up there purging and cleaning and organizing....and every year it never happens. But this year really took the cake.

I have a huge box where I put the mantel decor with a picture to remind me how it's all supposed to go. I have bags with extra pieces and parts should anything break. Well, I go to take it apart, open the box and it's empty!! I have no idea what happened to all the other stuff! So rather than just undo the mantel as I had intended, I ended up doing the whole house and only found one bag with stuff for the mantel. But I did find that bag with the label on it for the wreath hardware that I'd already put away and made another bag and label for....

Ridiculous!

I usually do all the putting up and away--that way I know where things go/are. I have labels on all my bins which helps. I have been purging for a few years. I know there is much more yet to go--but I forget what I have purged and what I still have until I open all the bins. It's not unheard of me to send pics out of my stuff from past years asking my kids 'did I give you this or that"? I don't think it saves anything to not pass on what you no longer want. A little here and there or a dumpster full----later. One man's trash as they say so donating to a thrift store is always a good idea. Maybe it will take newer eyes to see more trash than treasure and items will get cast off. It is what it is!! It would be nice to think there are recycling fairies making sure every piece of plastic or paper that can be recycled is but that's just not reality.

We finished putting away today too. It was easy because we didn't get out nearly as much as usual. It was a blah year, we didn't feel like decorating, so we did the bare minimum. But I'm holding on to everything hoping next holiday season will be more joyful.

Tomorrow is the day for me, and I'm counting my blessings that I don't have loads of stuff to put away. I have a large industrial drum/barrel with a locking lid that fits virtually all my holiday decorations, and my little tree has its own cardboard box, and the lights go in a plastic storage box - that's it. I decorated minimally this year, so not much to put away tomorrow. I'll miss the lights most, I think - they're so cheery.

I also have collected a number of vintage ceramics: Christmas figures & Santa mugs, and sold some on eBay early in December. That felt good, and now that I've broken the ice on selling there, I plan on purging more of the vintage items I've been collecting with the idea of selling for years. Ebay is so easy to sell from now, I was a bit surprised, and very pleased.

As for the plastic decor, I agree that if it's possible for it still to be used, then by all means donate. Sadly, most plastic is meant to be trashed, since most is not recyclable - and even when it is, most of that doesn't get recycled anyway. I have decided I will try not to fret over such things any more, since it's largely out of my individual control.

FWIW, I do hear that there may be some new regulations in CA for manufacturers to be more responsible for the disposal/recycling of their products, rather than making consumers bear that burden. As goes CA, so goes the rest of the country - eventually...

It took me 8 days to decorate - 16 bins, 5 trees and lots of wreaths. Undecorating has not yet started. Maybe tomorrow.

if it's broken or looking very dishevelled we recycle what we can.

I work "intake" at a charity thrift store. If an item does not work as it's intended to, we throw it away. If we can catch the person donating and ask them up-front and they tell us no, the light doesn't turn on, or the music doesn't play, we refuse to accept the item.

We're a charity, the money we raise goes to buy food for the poor. It's unreasonable and unacceptable to take non-working items and "donate" them when they really need to be thrown out. It's also unacceptable to expect the charity (or whoever) to pay for the trash removal of items that were KNOWN to be trash at the time of donation.

Sounds like today was undecorating day. I took down everything and shoved it in boxes, which are sitting in the living room. I had taken down some stuff a few days ago ( including the tree) and put it in the basement to get it out of the way since i had company coming.. I have to straighten out that mess before I can move anything else down there. I apologized to myself for putting some outside lights in a bag without straightening them out, since I’ll habe to unkink them next year.

Definitely going to thin my collection.

If DH would get a hot enough fire going at the family farm one day, I have more he could take out there to burn.

Surely you're not going to burn plastic!

My Mom had an extra walk-in closet with shelves that she used to store her holiday decor. That would be SO nice to have. Alas, my one walk-in is full of "not- sure -what -to -do-with-its" and the closet is tiny. I do manage to put two Christmas trees in there, Alpine skinny style. I cover then with plastic garbage bags.

I wish I had a special room. The garage is not a good place. The cellar is too damp and funky sometimes. I even thought of buying a small storage building and placing it next to the garage within a short walking distance from the back porch, but there would be no heat and every time I wanted an item I'd have to go outside and drag it up the porch steps.

The best solution is of course, as mentioned, buy less stuff. Keep the favorites, purge the rest. But I might NEED it some day! LOL

In NEPA a number of people celebrate the Russian Christmas (today), so that's my excuse for keeping my decorations up through this weekend. They are minimal this year, and my outside lights were taken down earlier as the snow blower ate their extension cord.

Re disposal, a 93-year-old friend is downsizing in preparation for selling her big house, and she gave me bags and bags of Christmas decorations. Some of them, like working lights, snow globes, and a Christmas village, were great to pass along to my grandsons' family, but there was a lot left over, consisting mostly of garlands, knick-knacks, and artificial poinsettias. I put them all in two big bags and listed them on Facebook Marketplace as Free. It wasn't long before multiple people contacted me, expressing interest. The bags were gone by that evening.

DH took our two tabletop trees up to the attic yesterday. Bingo. Done.

Please don't 'donate' anything you wouldn't consider buying yourself. Maybe stop buying 'stuff' ,and donate what you would have spent to the charity instead?

Please don't 'donate' anything you wouldn't consider buying yourself.

I get what you mean, Chisue, and I wouldn't suggest donating anything that doesn't work. But if we gave away only what we would consider buying ourselves, it seems to me we'd end up keeping everything. There has to be a middle ground.

Where I live (and probably everywhere) there are people who can't afford many of what most of us would consider to be the basics. I gave away a toilet once. I love to offer things for free because it enables people who are starting out (or finishing up) to get something they couldn't otherwise afford. It's a good transaction on both sides.

It's a very delicate subject helping others donate or not. There are many here who have no idea what would be a treasure for many. At our church garage sale we sell many many many items a thrift store would not allow in the door. I don't think many people have a clue what poor people may appreciate buying.

i am putting away right now. We celebrate Little Xmas so it has to be today. I love the house when it's decorated but I definitley put out WAY TOO MUCH stuff. I've been at for hours.

My grandkids take my outside decorations and tree down for me shortly after Christmas because I am no longer able to do it...they put everything up on Thanksgiving Day afternoon. ( I have a pretty good tradition going!) lol

Today I took down my Hummel Nativity Scene and my Caroler Set....everything looks bare but I left my red pillows and throws out so will put out a few Valentine things.

I have two shelves dedicated to christmas decorations, plus a couple big plastic bags with wreaths. Ive decided that anythingnthat cant fit on those two shelves, goes. I’ll list them on my FB Buy Nothing group. Its mostly artificial garlands that I know I’ll never use .

I have enough extension cords to wrap around the world twice, I swear.

Annegriet, what is ”Little Christmas”?

Our Thanksgiving-December was so complicated, we put out minimal holiday decor, and it was kind of nice. Although I miss the lights on the arch leading to our woods. Next year I must put them up.

This year I both accumulated and shed. I took what I wanted from my late mother’s, and the rest sold well in the estate sale. Did I need more? No! I don’t think I have room to store or to display, so I really need to narrow down. All my garlands are from the local FB groups so I can easily rehome them. I don’t put out the same things every year, so I like that my collection allows me to ”theme” in many different ways. (and not in a Pinterest way, just a ”bpath” way)

The other day I took down my Santas from the mantle. Sometimes I have reindeer there, but this year the reindeer have come out for the winter mantle. I took the ornaments off the tree today, but the lights are still on, and turned on. It’s so pretty! We will probably take the lights off on Sunday and take the tree to the local ”farm” for the camel.

Arcy, our rummage sales and thrift stores are for everyone, and there is something at every price point, as well.

My late MIL was a fan of flocked Christmas trees. (Remember those?) DH says that they would no sooner put the tree on the parkway than it would be taken. He guessed the trees went to homes celebrating Greek Orthodox Christmas.

I looked up Little Christmas. I like the idea that in Ireland it's a day for women to celebrate the end of all the WORK of making Christmas happen. Although the idea of menfolk doing the cooking struck me as another chore for the women to clean up.

Many traditions exchange gifts on Epiphany (little Christmas) which in our Church year is today. All decorations and embelishments remain until today. Our lights will go out tonight--but since the snow has buried sooo much it could be several weeks before it's taken down. I can't skip to valentines I have to have room for my snowmen!! Reality is if I don't Christmas put away before I go back to school--it could be forever, so I tend to put all but one nativity away January 1st. After all that's the most vital Christmas symbol.

Little Christmas is the Epiphany. We celebrate again.

Our church introduced us to the chalking of CMB on the door or lintel or threshold. CMB being the initials of the wise men and of the Latin ”Christ bless this house”. But, we never caught on to it, it wasn’t part of DH or my traditions. But I like it! I always remembered after the day, closer to our kids’ birthdays (we have a lot of January birthdays). I do it in my heart, which surely is the same!

Well, the tree is still up and there are still lights on it, so I turned them on. I do like the look.

THANK YOU bpath! Ourchurch has given out little bags of insense and chalk with a prayer for the blessing of our lentils FOREVER. We are stuck at home as I recover from surgery so totally spaced this off yesterday!!! Tonight before supper we will renew our blessing!!

I am not a fan of putting update decorations in my place because I have no storage space. But at work I am in charge of decorations for Christmas. My coworker, goes nuts over decorations, bought cardboard reindeer and sleigh, tubs of different ornaments, 2 trees, and other accessories. I only put up a few things but it was tasteful. Lol she wasn't in the office the last 3 years on Christmas.