Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog!!
Every room in our townhouse has a different Christmas Theme and Color Scheme!!
I prove that you do not have to live in a large home to have several Trees, over 20, in all shapes and sizes!!
The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends...........
The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends...........
I do try to add a few new things and change up things a bit but for the most part, these decorations are part of my Christmas Traditions and bring back a lot of treasured memories.....
I post 3 TIMES A WEEK on MONDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAYS.....
As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....
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A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS
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And since I have a very busy life, like most of us do, it may take me awhile to return your comments but I promise I will....
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In my last post over on my regular blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog, I shared what I have bought lately along with a few gifts....
In January's Rudolph Day post, I started to share my new Financial Plan for next Christmas and some New Buys.....
Click HERE to read that post.....
HAPPY RUDOLPH DAY!!!!!
Rudolph Day is celebrated the 25th of each month......
Now I do know this post is a day early on the 24th...
Most will share something to do with Christmas on Rudolph Day....
Even at times, very viciously .....
And to those nasty people, I respond, "Mind your own business"
I am sure that those who have followed my blogs for the past 15 years, yes, 15 years, know that I am definitely, beyond question, a Maximalist....
I subscribe to the Victorian philosophy that "More is More"....
And I, personally, feel that......
I , personally, find minimalist decor cold and impersonal and I like my home to tell the story of my family....
But you need to do you as I need to do me!
And I would never criticize your style like others have rudely criticized mine....
I try to make use of all areas that I can possibly use for storage in my 1700 sq. ft. townhouse....
That is right.....
I live in a small townhouse with no garage or basement....
Now if I had either one of those, I would have a lot more areas for storage in my house and I would not have to be so creative when it comes to storage........
Which is why I have a hard time understanding why people who live in much larger homes than I do often ask me WHERE DO I PUT IT ALL????
Honestly, it really does puzzle me....
This post is Part 1 in a series that I will be doing on storage of mostly my Christmas decorations....
Today, I want to share hidden storage in my Living Room....
This is the closet in my downstairs hallway....
It is where I keep all my coats and jackets for all Seasons now......
I also store 2 folding chairs and a few other things, like the tub of dog toys for my grand pups and a fan in there.....
After I take all the coats and other things out and remove the trap door.....
You can see this is where my water heater is since I do not have a basement.....
Don't worry as that is not water but a crack sealer...
And here is all this hidden storage under the stairs......
The pipe you see is actually the main water pipe that comes out of the ground by my front door, is disguised behind a fake baseboard heater and goes through the stairs into this area..
Let me answer your questions as to why it is like this....
Originally, the main water pipe was under the concrete slab in all the houses in my townhouse development....
As time went on and the ground settled, the pipes burst and repair entailed having to jack hammer through our Living Room floors to gain access to the pipes...
I am sure you can imagine what a nightmare that was....
Actually , it was a cousin of mine who worked for a fairly large plumbing company in our area that devised this set up to avoid having to jack hammer through our Living Rooms and it actually protects our main water pipes much better than being underground....
This 4 medium sized red tubs contain most of my Christmas decorations for the Kitchen....
They contain the heavy ceramic pieces so I do not have to haul them upstairs and then up into the attic....
Now I do have a few more Christmas items from the Kitchen up in the attic like ornaments for the Tree, all the florals, my Kitchen Santa's, etc....
The larger tub is also from the Kitchen for Christmas decorations...
The box is one of the Sam's Club ceramic sets from the Living Room.....
These tubs contain my Christmas Village pieces and a few larger items from the Living Room......
The box on top of the tubs contains one of the mountains from the village and most of the bottle brush trees....
This is the box from the Sam's Club Caroler set that graces the top of my TV Entertainment Center...
This tub also contains pieces from my Christmas village.....
This year, to condense the amount of tubs, I actually got rid of some of the original boxes the pieces came in and wrapped the pieces in bubble wrap for storage, taking up a lot less space....
Here is how I fit them into the storage space....
Don't worry, they are far away from the water pipe....
And my long time plumber has approved of me using this area for storage....
T
he last thing I stored in here is the box from the Sam's Club Nativity Set that I displayed out in the Den this past Christmas..........
I know it looks bad but there is actually a styrofoam box that fits into this card board box....
So there you have it.........
Storing these boxes and tubs, that container heavy ceramic pieces, right here in the Living Room, definitely saves my back as i do not have to haul them down from my floored attic...
Now when my water heater goes and starts to leak , like it has many times in the 46 years that I have lived here, since I placed only tubs directly on the concrete, everything in those tubs will be protected from water damage....
We have been lucky enough to only have it flood into the hallway twice in the past and I hope I can catch it leaking again in about 2 years as it is already 5 years old and they only last from 6-7 years....
Many of my neighbors do not use this area for anything but their water heater, wasting all of this area that can be used for storage.........
The trap door goes back in place......
And the coats go back in......
I might as well show you what else is stored in this closet....
Hat, scarves and gloves are stored on the shelf.....
And on the top shelf, are all the acid free storage cases that contain all of my family photos that I organized 4 years ago......
And my wedding albums.....
I may actually move these elsewhere and stored more frequently used items on these shelves or some of my Seasonal dishes rather than packing them away in tubs and again, hauling them up the attic....
Stay tuned on that one...
Well there you have it......
Just one of the areas WHERE I PUT IT ALL......
I enjoy watching a lot of You Tube videos on Seasonal decorating and one of my favorite You Tubers is Jean E.....
Jean E. is in her late 70's and her hubby is over 80 and yet they still go to yard and estate sales weekly, continuing to add to their vast collections of antiques, vintage pieces and Seasonal decor.....
Jean recently posted a video on how she stores a lot of her items in plain sight, more or less......
I learned a lot from this video and will be using a lot of her tips on storing items in the same room in which they are used in the future......
Another one of my favorite You Tubers is Brittany Blane....
For those of you who have larger homes with garages and basements, this video of Brittany's shows her amazing garage with all her storage tubs and shelving....
I wish I had this much space to use for storage....
I HOPE that maybe you will pick up a few ideas from these videos like I did and hope to put into use.....
And I HOPE you will stop by to visit again over on my regular blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog, on THURSDAY for my next post....
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......
I am linking up to these parties:
TUESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
