Organize Your Dining Room In Preparation For The Holidays

Hello friends! Like it or not, Thanksgiving and Christmas are fast approaching! And I want to help you organize your dining room in preparation for the holidays! More than likely, you’ll be having family or friends over to celebrate and chances are part of that festivity will include a meal! So, let’s get the dining room organized, cleaned, and decorated.

Taking the time now to take stock of your serving dishes and cleaning the silver and china, (or buying festive paper plates and napkins, if you don’t use your formal stuff) will make your life much easier when the day gets closer! Prepping early gets the tedious work out of the way and allows you more time to focus on the food as the party gets closer. So let’s get started and get the dining room ready for all your friends and family!

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Table of Contents

Use the 6/P Strategy to organize the dining room

Do each of the following steps (if you need info on how to do the 6/P Strategy click here):

I’m very fortunate to have a china cabinet and a built-in buffet for more storage. However, I was not utilizing the storage in a way that made a lot of sense. In the personalize section, I will explain the problems I was having in this area and what I did to make the space function better for my needs. Here is a past pic of the dining room.

Dining room before our Derby Party in May, notice the yellow walls and orange curtains!

PREP

Get your area ready to purge! I set up my dining room with the following items: A trash bag, a large cardboard box, and a laundry hamper. Then I cleared the top of the dining room table and buffet to make room for items I will keep in the space.

PURGE

Let’s purge! I started with the cabinets of my built-in buffet area.

Buffet before I started organizing, just wait to see what is behind the cabinet doors!

First, I removed all items that were related to barware, alcohol, Christmas dishes, and disposable tablecloths.

Do you think I could stuff a bit more in there?

Second, I removed all of my serving pitchers, teapots, silver items, and vases.

Third, I removed all my serving dishes, an ice bucket, and miscellaneous items.

Next, I moved to the china cabinet.

Pretty on the outside but I was using the cabinet to store disposable plates, cups, and napkins.

First, I removed all of the china from the shelves and the disposable plates, cups, and napkins that I was storing underneath it.

Then, I purged a lot of items and filled the large cardboard box. I will be donating them!

POLISH

Wow! Everything is empty and it’s time to clean! Since I have so many items on my dining room table and buffet, I’m going to clean the insides of all the cabinets and replace items before I clean the rest of the room.

I did the same for the china cabinet and cleaned the silver items (Such a fun task! Does anybody bother with that anymore?)

Next, I started at the top of the room and cleaned everything down to the floor! The dining room is a lot of work since I have a lot of windows and furniture that needed attention!

PERSONALIZE

It’s time to personalize the area, so be sure to print the Personalize the Dining Room printable to help you brainstorm ways to improve the function of your room.

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How I personalized our Dining Room

First, I used my form to determine the problems I was having in the room and how to address those issues. Then, I decided what items were necessary to keep in the space and what needed to be put someplace else.

Second, I decided to update the room by painting it a neutral color. I used Sherwin Williams -Maison Blanche. I painted the trim Sherwin Williams- Creamy. Then I hung the curtains that I purchased earlier this year!