Discard your tree. If you’ve got a real Christmas tree on your hands, you’ll need to make sure it gets out on the curb on the right day. Check with your town or city for tree pickup dates, as these can be different from the regular trash schedule. You’ll need a large plastic tree bag to put the tree in before taking it outdoors, and a couple of helping hands is all it takes to get it all done in one afternoon.
Make next year’s holiday card list. If you’ve collected a ton of holiday gifts and cards this year, make a few notes and put together a ‘thank you’ card and holiday card list while you’re storing everything away. This keeps it all fresh in your mind, and leaves you with one less thing to stress about next year!
Wrap your lights. Keep your lights in tip-top shape by wrapping them around an old paper towel holder or a plastic hanger. This ensures you won’t be stuck with a tangled mess during the next holiday season!
Separate your decorations. You might be able to use white Christmas lights, beads, and other holiday accessories for other occasions in the upcoming year. Just fill a box with decorations that might be useful for birthdays and other parties. That way you won’t have to dig through your entire holiday collection to find your decorations when you have an upcoming event.
Pick up some large storage boxes. Plastic storage boxes are the perfect containers for all your decorations, supplies, and leftover gift trimmings. You can find smaller storage boxes to organize baubles and ornaments, and stack them neatly inside a larger tote for easy storage. Choose different colors for each room to make decorating next year that much easier!
Jot down your favorite recipes. If you took part in a holiday cookie exchange, a potluck dinner, or just managed to convince your aunt to give you her famous chocolate cake recipe, organize a recipe card holder to keep track of your favorites. This will make it much easier to reference any special meals you need for events during the rest of the year, and it’s a great way to record some memories.
Round up your holiday pictures and photos. If you went the digital route this 
year, make sure you file away all the pictures into folders so you can start building albums. If you have actual photographs to put up, start picking up some frames and put them up in your living space.
Change out your holiday dishes. If you’ve been using holiday-printed dishes, serving platters, or silverware for dining, wrap them up carefully and save them for next year.
You can speed up your post-holiday cleaning even further by rounding up some friends for the occasion. It’s an easy excuse for a social gathering, and you can just delegate different parts of the project!
