Happy National Boxing Day! For those of us in the US we don’t generally observe this national holiday of Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand, although sometimes I’d love it if we would because it is a perfect holiday to pair with Christmas.
What is National Boxing Day? Boxing day is a day filled with Black Friday-like sales, lots of sports watching, spending time with family, and the giving of gifts to servants and community workers. The name “Boxing Day” actually derives from storage boxes and originally referred to a sort of alms box that employers/masters would give their servants/employees the day after Christmas since they often had to work on Christmas day.
For us in the United States, we more readily think of December 26th as boxing-up day–the day we put all our Christmas decor away. So, since many of us over the next week (or month) will be boxing our Christmas decor and once again placing it in the attic until next year, it’s the perfect time to organize the attic. It can be a scary endeavor I know, but today I’m going to show you just how simple it can be once you get started. As a preface, please don’t expect too many pretty pictures on this post as an attic doesn’t present good lightly but if you bear with me, these tips will be sure to save you time and money in the future.
1. Label all your boxes with a permanent marker using a code for each box such as B-1 for baby box number 1 or C-3 for Christmas box number 3. Keep it simple. If you end up needing to change the number, just go over your writing with a dry-erase marker and your box will look as good as new.
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| Code label all your boxes |
2. Create a database of the items in each box. Personally I use an excel spreadsheet because it makes for easy searching later. However, you can also create a database in a recipe box using one index card per box. Either is fine, just make sure you keep it up-to-date. When I initially created my attic database, I took my iPhone into the attic, quickly lifted lids and took pictures of the general contents of each box as I labeled them, and then I used my pictures to create the database from the comfort of my office chair. This saved me lots of lifting and unpleasant moments spend in a non-air-conditioned attic. I highly recommend it.
3. Store your boxes in alphabetical order in the attic. Doing so will make it that much easier to find what you are looking for in the future.
That’s it! Now when you need that 3-tier candle holder you know you used to have somewhere all you have to do is a quick search on your computer database, remember the box number provided, and retrieve the box from your alphabetically organized attic. Talk about time-saving and argument-saving, my hubby is now much more pleased to retrieve something from the attic for me, knowing that he can do so in a matter of minutes and save us bundles of money in the process. Hopefully it will do the same for you. Happy Boxing Day!
