5 Ways To Use Leftover Holiday Decorations Year-Round

By Elana Goodwin on December 27, 2015

This article is brought to you by CORT, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway and the world’s largest furniture rental and relocation services company. To learn more about how we can help college students like you, click here.

After the holidays are over, putting away or throwing out all your leftover holiday decorations can make you melancholy and take up time and space that you could otherwise use for other things.

So this year, rather than getting rid of or storing your holiday decor until next year, use them to decorate your home year-round. Here are some ideas as to how you can use your leftover holiday decorations to brighten up your apartment or house all throughout the year.

Photo Credit: www.brit.co/

1. Leftover wrapping paper or wrapping paper rolls wreaths. Wreaths aren’t just decorations for Christmas and you can actually use leftover holiday wrapping paper and wrapping paper rolls to create some cool wreaths to freshen up your living space or doors.

Using your leftover wrapping paper, you can make a rosebud wreath by cutting the paper into circles, drawing and cutting spirally, and then wrapping the paper starting from the outside around a skewer or pencil, keeping the inside edge neat.

Then, slide the paper off the pencil or skewer and place a dab of glue on your flower base (which can just be another plain circle of wrapping paper) and hold your flower to the glue until firm. It’s pretty, easy, and is a great way to reuse leftover or used wrapping paper you’d otherwise throw out.

You can also create a wrapping paper roll wreath by using the rolls left over from your wrapping paper, cutting them into smaller rings, and gluing them together.

2. Ribbon accents. If you’ve got leftover holiday ribbon you didn’t use or that you received on your gifts, don’t throw it away just yet! Instead, you can use the ribbon to decorate a memo or cork board, either gluing it to your board or using thumbtacks to create a cool pattern on your board that you can then stick photos on, ticket stubs into, and use to hang other fun things.

You can also use leftover ribbon to accent candles, tying a bow around the outside of the candle to add a dash of color (just be sure your ribbon is nowhere near the flame). Lastly, you can always use ribbon in your hair if you want to tie a cute bow over your normal ponytail holder.

Photo Credit: happyandharried.com

3. Ornament jars or bowls. A fun and simple way to use leftover holiday decorations — specifically ornaments — is to put them in a jar or bowl and leave them out on display. Ornaments in bowls can be a colorful and unconventional way to brighten up a room and serve as a centerpiece on a table.

You can pick a few colors and put ornaments of those colors in a bowl or just put all colors into a big bowl or jar to decorate your home. Besides ornaments in a bowl or jar, you can also add some seashells or pinecones if you want your bowl or jar to be a bit more varied.

4. Wrapping paper drawer linings. While not as decorative as some of the other things you can do using leftover holiday decorations, using leftover wrapping paper to line your drawers can be useful and a great way to recycle your paper. It makes your drawers just a little bit brighter and cheerful and is a practical way to cover any markings in your drawers.

All you have to do is cut your paper into the size you need to cover the bottom of your drawers, lay the paper inside, and put your clothes or other items back in the drawers, and you’re done!

5. Christmas lights décor. Of course, the simplest way to use your holiday decorations year-round is to use your Christmas lights to decorate your bedroom or living room. Not only will it prevent you from having to untangle them as you get them out of the box of decorations next year, but it will give you a bit of extra light in your space and add a touch of whimsy to your room.

So before you go to throw away your used and leftover holiday decorations or start putting them away for next year, consider these five cool ways to make use of your leftover decorations throughout the year and make your home a bit more festive year-round.

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