How to Decorate for Maximum Holiday Cheer on a Minimal Budget

Between work, family, and the hustle of city life, finding the time and energy for a thorough apartment cleaning can feel impossible. If your Chicago home needs a refresh but your schedule is packed, you’re not alone. Sometimes, the best solution is to schedule a cleaning with a trusted local team, freeing you up to enjoy your space and the season.

I love a minimalist home for most of the year, but when the holidays arrive, I want my house to feel like a festive, magical wonderland. The goal? Maximum Christmas spirit with minimum spending and minimal storage needs afterward. If you want your home to feel like a Hallmark movie without the stress or clutter, these are my favorite tried-and-true tips.

1. Garland is Your Best Friend

My secret weapon for instant holiday transformation is garland. I get mine from the dollar store—it’s incredibly affordable and stores away easily because it rolls up so small. I wrap it around windows, drape it over lamps, and hang it from light fixtures. A few strands can make an entire wall feel decorated and cozy, giving you a huge impact for very little cost and clutter.

2. Add a Punch of Red

A little red goes a long way. For the past few years, my go-to has been red berry picks, also from the dollar store. Tucking them into plain greenery instantly elevates it, creating a look that feels both elegant and full of traditional cheer. It’s a simple trick that delivers a dramatic, festive punch.

3. Shop the Dollar Store First

You might be shocked at the quality and variety of holiday decor you can find for just a dollar or two. Nearly every ornament on my tree and about 90% of my holiday decorations come from there. It’s the ultimate way to achieve a lavish look on a tight budget. When you’re done decorating and ready to clean your apartment for guests, you’ll be glad you saved your budget here.

4. Use Pillow Covers, Not New Pillows

Throw pillows add immense coziness but take up a ton of storage space. The solution? Holiday-themed pillow covers. They’re inexpensive, take up barely any room, and allow you to swap your decor in seconds. Adding a few festive pillows can completely transform the feel of a room—my kids notice every time!

5. Repurpose What You Already Own

One of my favorite tips is to use everyday items as decor. An old sled, vintage ice skates, or even a rustic wooden crate can become a stunning holiday display when filled with greenery. It’s free decor that adds personality and a nostalgic touch. After the holidays, you can easily put these items away. If the thought of post-holiday cleanup is daunting, consider getting some deep cleaning help to reset your space.

6. Create a Festive (and Functional) Hot Cocoa Station

Incorporate tradition into your decor with a simple hot cocoa station. A few jars filled with cocoa mix, marshmallows, and candy canes on a tray is all you need. It becomes a cherished spot for family moments after playing in the snow or watching movies. This is the kind of decor that creates memories, not clutter.

7. Don’t Forget the Bedrooms!

It might seem extra, but adding a few holiday touches to your bedroom can bring you joy every morning and night. My top tip? Swap out your curtains for some inexpensive festive panels. It’s a dramatic change for a small price, and they fold flat for easy storage. Adding fairy lights around the headboard creates a magical ambiance perfect for bedtime reading.

8. Work With Your Existing Color Scheme

Think your home’s colors don’t match traditional red and green? The dollar store has you covered. They offer ornaments and decor in every color imaginable—blues, pinks, purples, golds. You can easily find pieces that complement your existing decor while still feeling festive. It’s all about blending the season with your personal style.

9. Display Your Holiday Dishes

Why hide your pretty holiday plates and mugs in the cabinet? Bring them out and display them on open shelves or a sideboard. Your festive serving platters, cookie jars, and teapots can double as decor. It’s practical, free (since you already own it), and instantly makes your kitchen feel holiday-ready. Once the season is over, a professional home cleaning can tackle the kitchen and get it sparkling again.

10. Embrace Free & Natural Decor

Some of the best decor costs nothing. Wrap empty boxes in festive paper to create stacks under the tree (recycle them afterward!). Bring in clippings from evergreen trees, gather pinecones, or dehydrate orange slices for beautiful, natural touches. Since it’s all compostable, you have zero storage hassle when the season ends.

The key takeaway? You can have a home overflowing with holiday spirit without overflowing your storage closet or your wallet. By shopping smart, repurposing items, and focusing on a few high-impact changes, you create a space that feels magical. And when you’re ready to pack it all away and reclaim a clean, serene home, remember that fast cleaning services are just a click away. For Chicago residents looking for a reliable cleaning service near me, Jikas Cleaning is the trusted local partner to get your space cleaned efficiently.

Welcome. Come on in. I want to give you a holiday home tour. Usually, I like a really minimal home, but not this time of year. I want my house to look like Santa’s village threw up everywhere. I want maximum Christmas with the least amount of money spent and the least amount of stuff I have to store. Are you ready for my favorite tips? Let’s go. My favorite way to give like maximum Christmas for the minimum budget is garland. I’m pretty much obsessed with garland. I stick it everywhere and all of the garland is from the Dollar Tree because I’m very cheap. But here’s how I use it. I wrap it around windows. Now, this entire wall feels decorated. I put it on lamps. I put it on light fixtures. I love it because I don’t have to spend a lot, but it also rolls up really small, so I don’t have to store a lot either. Maybe we can be minimalists the other 11 months of the year or have like a home that feels calm, but it’s okay to want your house to look like a Hallmark movie during the holidays. I feel no shame in that. And let’s talk about my second tip, which is adding a pop of red. for the last two years. My go-to theme, I guess, red berries. They’re all from the dollar store. I’ve said it before, but I do think it takes like plain cheap greenery and elevates it. Makes it look kind of elegant and traditional and it’s like a punch in the face of Christmas cheer. That’s what red can do. Like a little bit of red has a really big dramatic impact. I have too many. I’ve gone overboard. But through my whole house, all of it is from the dollar store. Which is my third tip. Shop the dollar store first. You’d be actually really surprised what good quality, beautiful decor items they have for a $150. Almost every ornament on my tree is from the dollar store. Just everything you see, I would say like 90% of my holiday decor actually came from the Dollar Tree, which is bonkadons. Another quick budget tip is having pillow covers. Throw pillows take up a lot of space. I will know because I have way too many. But adding like a cover to your pillows, not only is it so cheap, like really inexpensive, but it’s not a lot to store. You just swap out the cover. I do think that blankets and throw pillows give you a lot for a little. I recently decorated this room with Milo. He helped me. He went to bed. The next morning, he came down and he was so upset. He’s like, “You decorated so much more without me.” But the only thing I did was add the pillows. But he’s not wrong. It like transforms the room. Just adding a few Christmas pillows. But are you ready for my like most favoritest tip of all? Adding old junk. No, that’s not really the tip. Using everyday items as part of your decor. My mother-in-law used to use like old hockey skates and use them as a vase and put a bunch of greenery in it. It looks so cool. When I was in the attic, I actually saw this old vintage tobogen. The previous homeowners left it here. What a cool way to decorate. Maybe you have old skis or hockey sticks or ice skates or an old sled. Bringing that in gives you free decor. It’s like it’s big and it’s cool and it’s different and it feels like Christmas. I think a hot cocoa station, if you like hot chocolate, is an absolute must in your home. And it’s something that we do every single year. And it is definitely my kids favorite part of the holiday season. Like when it comes to decor, it’s the tradition. It’s nostalgic. a few simple jars with hot cocoa and marshmallows, some candy canes, but that’s not the point. We cuddle up and watch Christmas movies and make a hot chocolate. We play in the snow and come in and make a hot chocolate. So, having that really practical but also festive tradition as part of our decor is a really nice way of rounding out the holiday season. Right now, everybody’s about nostalgia, right? The grandma’s Christmas is back because that’s something you can’t buy in a store. It’s about these little traditions that make the holidays magical. Let me know in the comments below if you have a holiday tradition that is your absolute favorite. I can’t wait to check it out. Let’s check out my bedroom. I know it’s kind of extra to decorate a bedroom for the holidays, but it makes me so happy. And my favorite tip in here is actually just swapping out the curtains. Curtains are a really cool way of giving a dramatic change to a room, except they’re a tiny budget. I think I spend maybe $45 for all of these curtain panels. They’re just cheap from Amazon, but they make the whole room feel a little bit more Christmy and they’re easy to store. You just fold them up and throw them in a tote. Also, adding fairy lights is like a really quick, inexpensive, easy way to make your home feel a little bit more magical. And I love wrapping fairy lights around a bed. It’s like the perfect amount of light to read at night and just give that holiday ambiance. Most people don’t decorate their bedrooms for Christmas. And I know it can seem maybe a bit weird, but adding just a few dollar store inexpensive touches really does make you I don’t know, makes me happy. And it allows you to wake up and go to sleep to like Christmas magic. Abby wanted a pink and gold theme in her room. Everything in here is from the dollar store. Just flowers and bulbs to decorate an old tree. But it looks really good and she’s excited every night when she goes to bed. Milo, he’s 13. He wanted his room to look a little bit more neutral. So come into Milo’s room again. Everything is from the dollar store, but it has more muted colors. He loves this space. And I’m curious. Let me know in the comments below if you’re more like a muted Christmas like this or if you like the bright bold reds and greens or if you’re loving the pink and gold or blue. Let me know in the comments below. But the great thing is no matter what you like, you can find it at the dollar store. I got to take a second to thank today’s video sponsor, HelloFresh. This time of year, I’m really trying to stay on track with my health goals, which means cooking more at home and less takeout. But I’m not a great cook and I’m so stressed, I don’t want to think about grocery shopping and what’s for dinner, which is why I love HelloFresh. Every single week, I get meal kits delivered to my door and they are delicious. There are over 100 recipes to choose from, and they have really easy like step-by-step instructions, so even I can’t mess it up. Even though the holidays are so busy, I can still have delicious gourmet homemade meals. Everything’s pre-portioned, so there’s not a lot of waste. A lot of the meals are actually under 15 minutes to get on the table, and the sizes are huge. We always have leftovers. Get up to 10 free meals on your first box at hellofresh.com with the code clutterbugf. Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. That’s up to 10 free HelloFresh meals and free shipping. Just go to hellofresh.com and use the code clutterbug FM. Hey Cass, if you could pick any three things to decorate with, what would they be? Throw pillows. I can’t live without throw pillows. So that’s like number one. Uh, two is this Dollar Tree holiday pick. You could put these everywhere. I put them everywhere, but even stack them on books, like a stack of books or something you already own. Put it on a light fixture and it makes it feel like decor. And the third would be garland, like Dollar Tree cheap garland. Just spread it around and it looks like you spent a lot of money and you didn’t. This is our dining room and like front living room. And what’s really cool about this space is again everything’s from the Dollar Tree except for these two Costco deer. I put up this peel and stick wallpaper in the summer and it was teal and blue and I have blue chairs, but I really wanted red Christmas. That’s what I love about the dollar store because they have Christmas ornaments in every color. Whether you have purple or pink or blue, it will have it. And you can still work with the color scheme you have in your house, but make it feel like it’s Christmas decor. So, this room as well, just taking an old wreath that I got for $5 from a yard sale years ago, adding a bunch of Dollar Tree decor to it looks so cute. And I have these buckets that I filled with greenery years ago. They’re still holding strong, and it’s a great way to fill a space on a budget. If you were a kid, which bedroom decor would you pick? Yours, Aby’s, or Milo’s? Probably Aby’s. I love pink. Sometimes I just walk past her bedroom and I’m like, it’s so girly. Um, yeah, pink for sure. All right, welcome to Clutterbug headquarters. It’s just my basement. You may have seen a video that I already did with a bunch of like Pottery Barn hacks down here, but I did want to share a quick way to decorate on a budget here in the kitchen. I love the idea of using like everyday dishes as part of the decor. So, serving platters, you probably already have these. You know, they’re like tucked in your cabinet. They’re holiday themed. Why not bring them out? Why not have your plates like out so you can see it and it’s functional and it looks like holiday decor? So whether it’s your mugs or your bowls or your teapotss or your cookie canister >> cookie jar, >> Christmas cookie jar, bring that stuff out because when you combine the practical with the like festive decor, everybody’s winning. Plus, it’s probably free because you already probably own it. Hey, Cass, where do you store your holiday pillows? I know Emily’s asking because she already knows the answer to this. I have a lot of holiday pillows. I’m going to share my shame with you. I want you to think of like Monica’s closet. This an entire closet dedicated to throw pillows and one butthole painting. Is it organized? No. Do I chuck it in and shut the door? Abso freakingutely. I should have invested more pillow covers. I’m learning. But yeah, there’s probably 80 80 throw pillows in this house. I have a problem. My last tip is to think about free ways that you can decorate for the holidays. This is why I love wrapping things with wrapping paper. Whether it’s artwork on the walls or empty boxes and stacking them because at the end you can recycle it and you don’t have to store it at all which is awesome. Also bringing in nature like greenery that you cut outside from evergreen trees or pine cones or dehydrating oranges. It’s such a beautiful way to decorate your home with literally zero clutter at the end because all of it can be composted and you don’t have to store it. The free part is also a bonus. There is a ton of free ways that you can decorate your home for the holidays and I wanted to share just a few with you. But the whole point is I know that I spend the other 11 months of the year telling you to declutter and to have less stuff on your surfaces. So, it’s ironic that my house looks the way it does, but it brings me real happiness. And because all of the stuff you see can be stored in seven totes, not including the Christmas tree bag, it doesn’t take up a lot of space to store either. And it certainly didn’t cost a lot of money. You can have a maximum Christmas on a minimum budget with minimal clutter when you shop at the dollar store or find things for free. Thanks so much. I hope you’re feeling super inspired and I’ll see you guys next time. Thank you guys so much for those of you who have stayed to the end. Let’s talk about honestly my favorite decor Christmas piece ever, and that is this adorable firefighter Santa that was dropped off at my doorstep last year. No note, no idea who gave it to me. And I will say that was so thoughtful and also the most terrifying thing ever. Why? Because I don’t know how this person got my address. All my friends and family swear it wasn’t from them. And the internet can be a scary place. And the idea that like I don’t know there is like a person that sometimes follows me around in town and takes pictures which I find kind of like creepy. So I I look at this and I genuinely love it. Like I love it so much and it’s the most thoughtful wonderful thing anyone’s ever done. But also are you a murderer person who gave this to me. Are you a psych are you a psycho stalker? It makes it kind of less lovable. I should clarify. It was dropped off at my door, wrapped with my address and my full name on it, but no postage stamp. Like, it wasn’t delivered by a delivery driver. Someone knew my address, drove it to my home, and left it at my doorstep wrapped without a note, without a card, without a return address. So, they know where I live. I still love it, but every time I look at him, I’m like, “Boy, I hope I hope whoever gave that to me doesn’t sneak into my house and hide under my bed and murder me in my sleep because the world’s crazy.” But anyways, if it was from you, thank you. Please don’t kill me, but know that I appreciate it. See you guys next time.