While the holidays are supposed to be a time of great joy, they can also be a period where busy moms feel some of the most stress they’ll experience throughout the year.
There are so many tasks to keep track of during the holidays, with gifts to pick out and wrap and then figuring out meals and decorations. The last thing you’d want is to be bogged down by a cluttered home in the aftermath of holiday celebrations.
Here are some helpful tips and tricks to decluttering your home after the holidays. Follow them to reduce your stress levels and keep your home a more manageable space for the new year.
1. Choose What Area to Start With
We get it. You can feel overwhelmed when you see that every room in your home is messy with holiday clutter. Pick one area or room to start. Focusing on the living room or guest bedroom will help you finish one task, which will make the next cleanup chores feel less daunting.
2. Out With the Old, in With the New
Look for broken items and things that are out of style or that you have backups for already, and get rid of them. If they still function and look good, donate all before heading to the dump or recycling center.
3. Use Boxes
Make use of boxes and label them, such as give away or throw away. The more boxes you fill up, the less clutter you and your family will have to put up with after the holidays.
4. Clean and Sanitize Items You Plan to Keep
Everything that you put out during holiday meals and parties has been touched by countless guests, from neighbors to friends and visiting relatives. Make sure that you scrub it all before organizing and putting them away. Putting away items that are dirty will just depress you when it’s time to use them again next year.
5. Organize Your Stuff
If your stuff is all over the place, it’s hard to see exactly what you own or what’s in short supply. For example, you might think you’ve lost some Christmas tree ornaments, but it turns out they’re in a box underneath a goofy-looking holiday sweater that someone dropped.
6. What Worked and What Didn’t Work
Take note of the things that worked and didn’t work for the past year. For example, do you have some holiday decorations that weren’t a hit with your family and friends? There’s no shame in getting rid of items if they don’t bring you and your loved ones plenty of joy.
7. Remember to Relax
Give yourself a break if you find that you can’t keep up with your post-holiday decluttering tasks. The whole point of making your home clean and free of clutter is so you can relax and not waste time looking for stuff that invariably gets lost in the mess.
So follow your schedule exactly as planned, and go easy on yourself. As long as you eat away the clutter at a modest pace, you’ll find your home transformed before you know it!
I’ll also do yearly decluttering of papers – it’s suuuper important! Like old instructions, tickets, some other paper-y stuff. It’s everywhere.