Cleaning Christmas Decorations plus an Awesome Container Store Giveaway!

I’m so excited about the giveaway today.  Whenever I drop by The Container Store, I swoon.

I can walk by the shoe department at Nordstoms with barely a glance, but show me well-made food containers or stylish craft room shelves, and I have to give my wallet to my husband for safe keeping.

I am a total sucker for organizers.

But before we get to the giveaway, I want to share a few tips on keeping your treasured Christmas decorations.  I am very sentimental and have collected our Christmas decorations slowly over time.  We have many items that are precious to me and my family.

It seems like most of our favorite things are fragile, with lots of nooks and cranny for dust to settle in.  This past week, as I have been pulling our decorations from their storage boxes, I’ve had to give most of them a good spruce up.

Q-tips are an essential cleaning tool for these kinds of projects.

In the years before we had children, my husband collected some wonderful German nutcrackers and smokers. What would I do without Q-tips to clean all the intricate places that LOVE to collect dust.  I simply wet the end of the Q-tip with water, squeeze it good to remove the excess water, and use it to dust all the spots I can’t reach or are too intricate for a cloth.

I must have put everything away last year without dusting last year, because everything needed a bit of cleaning.  A dusty Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus would never do.

This is one of our most treasured nutcrackers.  It was hand carved from one piece of wood by my father-in-law.  He made 9 of them, one for my mother-in-law and himself and one for each of their children.   It was a true labor of love.  This wonderful Santa Claus makes me happy whenever I take him out of the storage box and place it carefully on my mantle.

And now courtesy of my friends at Q-tips, Make it Do is giving away:

Three (3) $50 gift certificates to The Container Store.com.

Holy Storage Boxes Batman!  I wouldn’t know were to begin… ornament storage boxes would be so nice… but I would also love this, this and this too.  I only wish I could enter this contest myself!

To enter simply leave a comment on this post answering:

What area of your home needs cleaning and organizing the most?

The Rules:

  • Contest closes on Thursday, December 1, 2011 10:00 MDT
  • Only one comment per person please.
  • Random winners will be announced on Friday, December 2, 2011

Be sure to drop by Q-tips Facebook page to enter to win a $100 weekly gift card or the Grand Prize of $1000 and a year’s supply of Q-tips.  To enter you simply need to share all the ways you use Q-tips!

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Disclosure: I’m a Tipster ambassador and this is a sponsored post by Q-tip.  All opinions and ideas are my own.

196 Comments

  1. Our garage needs the most help! Why don’t they come with cupboards to hide all the stuff you have to store there?!!!

  2. What a special nutcracker and family heirloom!

    I’d say that the area of our house that needs the most cleaning/organizing is definitely our nursery. It hasn’t been used since we moved our son into his “big boy room” and has become the room where things with no homes go to live… It’s also the room where Santa hides all his gifts before they get wrapped up so it’s full of packaging and boxes!

  4. Our bonus! What a disaster it is up there! It’s too much of a multi-purpose room. Hubby’s exercise room, my sewing room, backup guest room, gift hiding space, wrapping paper and storage.

  6. My linen closet needs the most help since all 6 of us use it, so it gets quite disorganized quickly.

  7. My baking supplies/decorations!! I have so many differant types of candy and tools used for baking. I would love to have them better organized then the ziplock bags their in now.

  8. One extra bedroom! I get busy and throw everything in there – it definitely needs organization help :)

  10. My den and tool room need it MOST… We’re in the process of organizing the whole house, and trying to organize the baby stuff our baby has already grown out of.

  14. Definently the kitchen. We have a tiny house and despite multiple attempts I have yet to come up with a organizational system in the kitchen that works. You can find appliances in both the basement and upstairs and don’t ask about pantry storage!

  16. We are newlyweds in a 1 bedroom apartment, so we never have enough storage!! I think our kitchen could use it the most… or maybe the bedroom… or the closet… ok, I NEED this. Haha.

  17. Um…is “the whole house” a good answer? At first glance my house looks great, but please don’t open any doors because you’ll see how utterly unorganized I truly am! My goal this upcoming year will be to start small and then keep going…

  18. My blinds really need to be cleaned, I really don’t like this task. Our closet under the stairs is really in need of kid-friendly organization. My daughter is constantly getting stuff out but rarely ever puts things back in their place. So it gets messy quickly.

  19. My basement, most definately. My whole house is 906 sq ft. I have a deep, deep love of dishes and so without a proper china cabinet a lot stuff is sent to the basement. I don’t mind this but need to get a handle on the organization and protection of my beloved pieces.

  20. I really need help with off season clothes of the kids. They seem to pile up and I could use containers to help keep it in check. Thanks for the chance to win!

  22. The garage! It is totally out of control right now and we need to get it ready to park our cars in there before it snows.

  23. At this time of year in WI, I find myself throwing stuff in my COLD basement and running!! My husband is super-organized and not into “stuff” so all my things drive him crazy! I could use some organization in my basement!

  24. I {heart} The Container Store too! The place that needs cleaning and organizing the most would be my basement storage area. We continue to put things away without rhyme or reason and it’s catching up with me.

  25. My children are grown and gone, and I made one of their bedrooms into a storage nightmare! anything I don’t know what to do with goes in there, and now I can barely walk through it! I need alot of help!

  28. My office needs organizing. This is where writing and computer work meets yarn, fabric and sewing supplies and other crafts. Did I forget to mention bills and paperwork? Help!

  29. The room in our home that needs the most help is my daughters room/homeschool room. We are in our first year of homeschooling and I have got to find cute and efficient ways to store all of our curriculum, projects, and our growing collection of reference books amongst her other belongings. We have another daughter who will be ready to start school in a 2 years and I am expecting a third daughter, so organization is a necessity not a luxury!

  30. My bedroom always needs the most work. No matter how much I put things away, it seems there are always things to put away.

  32. Our office/my craft room need organizing in the worst way! The work orders, billing forms, craft paper, ribbon, scrapbooking,stamping supplies and fabric are trying to escape out the door! And just this morning I found the missing office stapler hiding out in the drawer that holds my punches!

  34. My school room. Homeschooling means lots of stuff! It needs an overhaul to accomodate all the new stuff!

  35. Everything! . . .But maybe the office desk (which is in the living room) the most, since it’s the most visibly unorganized area.

  36. Our study – I think the big thing is that I just need to declutter that room. It holds craft/sewing supplies leftovers from 13 yrs of homeschooling, our bill paying station, plus tons of books because we all love to read. It’s the room I never show anyone.

  37. Underneath our kitchen island. There’s so much space but no shelves or dividers, so everything is piled high on each other!

  38. The place that’s bothering me the most is the closet in our guest bedroom/office. It is a large closet that stores office supplies, files, crafting/sewing supplies, and various other things we don’t need every day, but do need often. I organized it last winter after we had moved to our house, but the way I did it is not working for me now. It needs to be redone os it functions better and some new organization items might help.

  39. Kids rooms, Kitchen, and my crafty room. It was all looking good, and then we had another kid. Not so good anymore.

  40. I am due on Dec 23, and have been cleaning like crazy! I still have 2 kitchen cupboards with all my baking pans that I need to organize. My sons bedroom is also a nightmare that I could really use containers to organize with! Thanks for the giveaway!

  42. We have lived in our new home for almost a month and our garage definitely needs some organizing already.

  43. As I turn over my “office” so my kids can have separate rooms, I definitely need to think about my new crafting space and all the detritus that’s accumulated in my soon-to-be-former closet.

  44. Hi,

    We just moved into our new apartment. Our bedroom needs the most work, starting with a bed! ha ha! I really need to start organizing in there! Thanks so much, I hope I win!

  45. I would have to say I need the most organization in my craft area. I clean it and then a couple of days later it is total chaos again.

  47. No matter how hard I try, I can not seem to keep up with the office. Paper piles up and sorting it is NOT fun like cleaning a sewing or craft room would be… its just boring!

  49. My living room! between the mountains of books and the kid’s toys….it’s just a decorating and organizational disaster.

  51. Cleaning? My blinds in every room. Organizing? My kitchen, my bedroom, the garage, and office – that’s it ;)

  52. My kitchen cupboards…
    And… Mary, Jesus and baby Jesus stole my heart!
    They are W O N D E R F U L !

  55. My wife says being able to park in the garage would be a nice when the snow comes so the garage it is.

  57. Oh, boy! Who doesn’t love containers? Right now, our toys and school supplies are in need of some containment.

  58. Oh man, my whole house needs to be cleaned! I’ve got a 2 year-old, plus I’m pregnant, so I just feel so behind all the time! Every day, I do as much as I can, but it’s so hard to keep up.

  60. I have lots of quilting, crafts, crochet, you get the idea, that need special containers. By the way, love, love, love, your handcarved Santa nut cracker. What an awesome keepsake.
    Dana

  61. Lately our tupperware has been hitting me in the face every time I open up our cupboard. It would be SO nice to get all of that organized! Love the innovation of the Container Store…hope I win!

  63. All of it really, we just moved in and finding a place for everything in a new environment is challenging.

  67. You are my kind of people… :) I am a sucker for all things organizational; one would think my home would never have a thing out of place!! Plus, I, too, have decorations/ornaments that have so much sentiment attached to them. I even have an ornament my dad bought in his teens (I’ve estimated he probably bought it about 1930.) The back even is partially broken but I love it and lovingly place it on my tree every year. Well, of course, my sewing room is always the room in the house that needs cleaning and organizing the most. [Added note: I can’t clean my windows without Q-tips!!]

  68. Definitely the garage. It’s looking better, but still needs more time spent on it getting things organized

  69. My linen closet needs complete re-organization. For too long, I’ve opened the door and stuffed things in wherever I could. Perhaps some organization from The Container Store is just what I need!

  72. My wrapping area! Holy Moly! All my wrapping paper, bags, ribbon, bows, tissue paper etc. is all in one big Rubbermaid container. It’s not good. :)

  74. Our spare bedroom/craft room is a spot that never seems to be completely de-cluttered. I would love some storage bins and boxes to organize!

  75. I cleaned/organized the garage this past summer, but have a ”junk room” that’s out of control. Just piles of stuff that I haven’t figured where to put…some of it is actually from the garage clean up!

  79. My “other” room. It is filled with extra clothes, my husband’s hunting and work stuff, computer stuff, craft stuff, and more. What a mess!

  82. Oh, I’d say that my bathroom definitely needs the most organizing! My cabinet is a wreck and I can’t seem to get it organized enough to stay clean.

  84. My basement is the black hole of clutter! One of my projects for Christmas Break is to organize the storage area of the basement. My sewing room comes in a close second to the basement!

  86. The storage room in my basement needs lots of organizing. That is where I store my Christmas decorations and it is a mess.

  89. The man cave/office/den. Probably because he doesn’t feel the same way as I do about The Container Store.

  90. All my decorations for all the holidays are stored in boxes in the crawl space. How nice it would be to have them in containers.

  91. It’s a toss up between the garage and the kitchen counter-I think I just close my eyes and run by them both!!! :)

  92. My craft things. I have yarn, fabric, and notions scattered throughout four different rooms and closets. I always have a hard time finding what I need.

  93. We recently moved into my grandmother’s old house – complete with 65 years worth of “collecting” in the basement. Every time I go down there, I find something new – scythe, cherry stoner, headstone, old water heater, building supplies original to the house, and heaven only knows what else. Some treasure, some just trash!

  94. Oh…there are so many answers I could give here…but really I’d love to clean out our storage closet…there are things in there I haven’t used at all for years…so it’s probably time to get rid of them…but I never seem to find/make the time to clean them out!

  95. When I read the question, I couldn’t decide which area in my house needs the most cleaning and organization. So that tells me I have a lot of work to do. I’ll have to say the family room is the most neglected; I should start there.
    Thanks for offering the chance to win a gift certificate!
    –Patricia

  96. We have a room in our basement that we’ve used to put things we don’t know what to with. It has become so overwhelming and cluttered that we don’t know where to start. We would love to find a home for everything so we can eventually use it for an office/craft room/play space for our future kiddos. We’ve never been able to use this room, since it started out as a space for our renters as soon as we moved in 5 years ago! Our renters are now gone and we would love to add a “new” room to our home!

  99. I just went into the Container Store for the first time yesterday and I AM IN LOVE! My kid’s toys are the most in need of organization right now.

  100. Mine would definitely be our craft/office/extra bedroom. There is WAY too much going on in there! The Container Store would make my job so much easier. :)

  101. My craft and sewing area need a total clean out and re-organizing! I know my limited crafting time would be so much more productive if I could find the materials I want to use!

  103. Our Master Bedroom needs the most help. I lost my craft/storage room when our oldest wanted his own room. Now, everything crafty is stored and stacked in our room. I have never been in a Container Store!

  104. My garage is a total mess of photography equipment, tools, and outgrown baby clothes.

    meg314 at gmail dot com

  105. Being the most used area of the house by everyone, I can never keep the kitchen as clean or organized as I’d like! Thanks for the giveaway!

  108. our guest bedroom…we only have guests a few times a year so it ends up being a catch-all for out of season clothes, out-grown toys and whatever else doesn’t have a permanent “spot”

  111. Definitely sewing/craft supplies need help at my house!! I just have a couple of small spaces designated so organization help would be amazing. Thanks for hosting such a helpful giveaway!

  112. My closets need the most help – I have cats that get in there and knock everything down! Or maybe I need a place to store my cats?

  113. My kids play area downstairs. I have such a hard time organizing all their toys. Bins just never seem to do the trick.

  116. I’ve been the care taker for my family’s farm house for the past three years. It’s taken that long to sort through the accumulation of over three generations of belongings. I’ve removed barn boots and molded Sports Illustrated mags and discovered 100 year old postcards and beautiful quilts. I was married in Sept. and although I would love a place for my husband to keep his tools, we have all the family photos in the house. My grandfather on a pony, my grandmother on a tractor, my great grandparents… I’m simply not quite sure what to do to keep these memories well preserved. Any help and advise would be welcome.
    Thanks,
    KC

  117. My craft room needs the MOST help, but I’m pretty sure there are other areas that need help too…..our garage, the kids rooms….

  120. My office needs the most cleaning/organization followed closely by our master bedroom closet (it’s HUGE, could be a room itself!)

  121. I thought until yesterday that my craft room and our garage were our biggest obstacles when it comes to organizing. Then my 11 year old came to me and said – Mom, about my room, could we just get some shelves and bins for under the bed. I know I could keep it clean then. (Would she want them so much if they were one of her Christmas presents? At least she is thinking about how to be more organized – miracle in itself) Maybe – if I took her to the container store to pick them out. :)

  122. Absolutely my craft room is the one that needs the most organizing. I would love to put up some shelves so that all of my pretties can come out of the boxes and sparkle. I spend at least an hour browsing every time I go to the Container Store – they have so many great products.

  130. Oh my, what room doesn’t need organizing? My library just needs a huge going through to re-establish the books on the shelves. But the Living Room and the Bedrooms need so much more.

  131. Wow! I need serious help with my crafting/sewing supplies. I’m embarrassed every time someone sees that mess, so I try and distract them by any means necessary.

    Your Christmas treasures are lovely and thank you for the cleaning tip.

  132. Sewing room….definitely! Oh, and bathroom and laundry. Could also use some help under the kitchen sink. (You get the idea!)

  134. The garage needs a serious make-over.
    Previous owners put up wood shelves here.. wire shelves over there, crummy little rack on that side. There’s just tons of wasted space.
    I could use some help from the Container Store

  135. my basement….after my primitive shop closed, I have all my totes down there and I need to get everything organized again!

  136. I work from home so my home office is a hot mess! If one room in my home needs a major reorganization it is my office. Thanks for having a great giveaway opportunity!

  137. Our playroom seems to need an overhaul every weekend. There must be a better way than I have devised tto store craft items and games.

  140. my desk is atrocious. completely a minefield. i took up painting and there are acrylics and watercolors EVERYWHERE.

  141. That would be my son’s bedroom! Good grief, it is a disaster! Everythime I clean it, it takes 10 minutes for him to get it back the way it was!!!

  142. The area of my home that most needs cleaning/organizing is the master bedroom/bathroom. It’s the catch-all! That’s followed by our guest bedroom/sewing room which is currently serving as the staging area for Christmas gift assembly/wrapping.

  143. My crafting supplies need some serious organisation! It doesn’t help that I jump from project to project of course! Thanks for the chance to win.

  146. Most definitely the master bedroom closet. Oh wait, we don’t have a closet, just an area that gathers everything that would/should go into a closet, and a hanging rod that recently pulled itself out of the wall taking all of our suits and a portion of wall along with it. Major cleaning and organization just waiting to happen!

  149. My office/sewing room! When we moved in, it became a repository for all the boxes that we haven’t opened yet….

  150. Right now its our office, with lots of boxes of things that haven;’t been unpacked since we moved into our first house a year ago!

  154. Love the nutcracker! What a special gift.
    Our bedroom closet is in dire need of organizing. I suppose the best way would be to get rid of some of the stuff, then organize the rest :-)

  155. the place that needs the most organizing is the great room! its full of grandkid toys, movies, games, videos, magizines, books, remotes for all the gadgets, etc

  156. My family room is in desperate need of, well, everything! Specifically the coat and boot closet!

  158. Definitely my bedroom! Desperate need of a professional organizer to sweep it all clean, cos currently, it is just all messy and cluttered with makeup, shopping bags, clothes, books and papers all over!!! There’s even a mixer kept in a corner!!!

  159. Our home is a domino effect. The garage is packed and I have to clean that out and organize before I can organize my small coat closet that I am using to store crafts and pretty much everything under the sun.

  160. Definitely our office! It’s a black hole for junk mail, coupons, flyers, playbills…..it’s scary!

  161. Under the house. It’s a great storage area, but I’m all for getting rid of things if I haven’t used them in a year!

  162. I could use help in my own closet, sad as it is to admit. Wild love some elfa, thanks for the giveaway!

  164. The closet in our extra bedroom needs a lot of help, but not until my own closet is tidied up.

    Love the nutcrackers!

  165. The garage (my husband calls it “the shop”) needs so much help and organization. We go out there with the best of intentions, but soon become overwhelmed and NOTHING gets accomplished. Sure would love some organizational tools. Those nutcrackers are the bomb.com.

  167. My make-up/ hair/jewelry area! it’s a mess, and i love, love, love the Container store. The first time i went in, i hyperventilated because i saw so many things i loved. :)

  168. hi, i would have to say its a toss up between my bedroom and my craft area. although under the bathroom sink always needs help. i love that the container store has something for everything from bottles for tiny beads to a whole new closet.

  169. Has to be my office area! I have my finger in too many pies so lots of things on the go at one time. It’s too easy to drop one ball you’re juggling and have them all over my space.

  171. Almost every room needs some organizing I hate to admit, my candle/sewing/craft room is probably the worst….I really hope to win this one!

  173. The Lego room! We have started sorting the pieces. I really hope I can vacuum in there soon.
    My sewing room always needs organizing as do the kid’s toys. We love the Container Store and Q-tips. Thanks!

  174. My sewing room!!! Everytime I start to organize—-I start a new project! There may be no cure for that though.

  176. Definitely my dining/living room. I write in the dining room, my kids play in the LR, and there are art supplies and toys everywhere. Desperate to change this!

  177. Definitely our spare room. It is where we throw everything we have no other place in the house for!

  182. Such a cliche answer, but my craft/sewing stuff! I don’t have a TON, but i do have a lot and the stuff that houses it all now is starting to overflow!

  184. My sewing and beading supplies are in need of something–all needs to be organized in a better way—-my way of just winging it is not working anymore—–

  185. Probably my “walk-in-the-house-dump-all” space. I put it all into dresser drawers and they are runneth over with junk!

  187. My craft room is a major mess right now. I need some great containers for getting everything in order.

  189. Our bedroom! It’s where everything that doesn’t have a place (or that I don’t want to deal with) gets dumped. Sad.

  192. Areas in the most need of organization would be the drop-your keys, phone, mail, and other stuff-table in the door entryway, the office, and the growing pile of schoolwork and projects that are becoming keepsakes I can’t seem to throw away!

  193. My basement’s files! We just moved and they need to be reorganized! Then I have my boxes in my basement…each box is in itself organized, but they’re so ugly! I’d love to have matching boxes :)

  194. Visited a Container Store for the first time in October and I am in love! I could have bought one of everything. I particularly loved all the kitchen organization supplies! That would be the area of my house where I would start….

  196. My office and craft room always needs straightening. I love the Container Store but don’t have one anywhere near me. I only get to visit when I am traveling out of town where one is located. Thanks for the chance to win!

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