Those boxes of extra Christmas decorations -- the ones you haul out every year but don't put up -- could be put to good use this year by victims of the September floods.

Leslie McKee, owner of McKee Organizing Services in Mt. Lebanon, which helps people manage clutter, is urging local residents to decorate early for Christmas so they can donate their unused ornaments, garland and lights to flood victims.

McKee Organizing Services has joined Adventist Community Services and the Storehouse to collect, store and distribute donated holiday items to flood victims. The effort is called "Christmas in November."

"We are trying to get people to decorate right after Thanksgiving and decide what they are not going to use," said McKee.

Unused Christmas items can be dropped off next week at two locations: Adventist Community Services at the old J.C. Penney building in the Great Southern Shopping Center, Washington Pike, Bridgeville, will accept them from noon to 7 p.m. next Monday through Dec. 5 and the Storehouse, a nonprofit organization at 16 Silver Lake Drive, just off the 900 block of Washington Boulevard in Lincoln-Lemington. will collect them from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. next Monday through Dec. 3 and from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 4-5.

Christmas decorations will be distributed to flood victims at the Storehouse between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Dec. 9-10 and from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 11. Distribution at the Bridgeville site will be from noon to 7 p.m. Dec. 9 through Dec. 11.

For directions to the Storehouse, call 412-362-0290 or check www.storehousepittsburgh.org.