Five tips for decluttering before Christmas

Christmas is something many of us look forward to, where families come together to enjoy age-old traditions, eat too much good food, and see our children’s faces light up with the magic of the season. But often, the thought of hosting for multiple people, and having an influx of new items to find homes for within your house, can be quite overwhelming. You can do it by yourself and sometimes you might need a professional decluttering service to make more space and prepare your home.

Just like a good spring clean, a deep clear-out during autumn helps you welcome winter with a sense of calm and order in your home. To help make it feel more manageable, here are our top decluttering tips before Christmas.

Break it down

Decluttering an entire house is a huge task, so break it down into smaller sections. If you do a room, or even part of a room each week, you’ll avoid burning yourself out and enjoy the process much more. Start by making three piles, one for things to keep, one for things to donate, and one for things to chuck. You could write a list of each area of your home you want to declutter, and work through them section by section.

As you clear out your unwanted, broken and unused possessions, it’s a great time to deep clean each area, too. Opt for sustainable cleaning products to ensure you aren’t breathing in any harmful chemicals and you’ll soon have a fresh and organized home. Using eco-friendly cleaning products also makes it safer to involve the kids too. Involving them in the decluttering process will help them let go of their unused possessions more easily while also teaching them the importance of living more sustainably.

Try to detach

It’s easy to get attached to material possessions, so as you pick up each item, ask yourself how important it truly is to you. If you haven’t used something for more than a year, the chances are you don’t actually need it. Studies show that a minimalistic approach can increase your wellbeing, so it’s worth donating or giving away things you don’t use. With less clutter in your home, you’ll likely spend less time cleaning and tidying, too.

Naturally, we all have things that hold sentimental value and that we want to keep. A good way to preserve these important items and their associated memories is to create a memory box. You could have one for each child, one for your own childhood items, or a collective box for everything. Not only does this keep them safe, but you’ll know exactly where to go when you want to reminisce. Follow this decluttering tips can make it easier.

Clean the kitchen

Christmas is often a time when delicious food is flowing. Giving your fridge and freezer a deep clean pre-holiday ensures that there’s as much space as possible, by getting rid of any out of date food and leaving a nice clean area to stash your holiday treats. You shouldn’t keep any food in your freezer for more than three months, so this is a good chance to check what you have in stock.

It’s amazing what you can find at the back of your kitchen cupboards. Broken birthday cake candles, old spices and that packet of custard from 2001 can all be chucked out to make more space for when Christmas rolls around. Use this time to bring appliances or cooking equipment to the front, and ensure everything is working and clean so you can jump straight into Christmas baking when the time comes.

Minimize toys

Kids accumulate a lot of toys in a very short amount of time making home decluttering a challenge. Whilst almost every toy will hold some sort of sentimental value, try to be realistic about how often each one is actually played with. The stacking cups they loved two years ago but have been collecting dust under the bed could be donated to a younger child who will love to play with them. If your children can’t name or remember that one teddy that hasn’t left the toy box for months, they won’t miss it.

Interestingly, research suggests that the less toys children have, the better. Having fewer toys inspires children to play more creatively with them, and actually engages them for longer periods of time. Keep this in mind as you declutter the toy boxes and try to leave the toys you keep in easy accessible places to spark your children’s imagination and entice them to play with them.

Make it a habit

If you have never decluttered before, you may have copious amounts of stuff that will make cleaning and organizing your home a mammoth task and that is when decluttering tips will come in handy. If you need to, you can hire a clutter removal service to help you start from a more manageable place. Otherwise, just take each area in turn and do what you can to start enjoying the benefits of a clutter free and well organized home. Following decluttering tips making it into a habit, and doing it twice or thrice a year will help you keep on top of your possessions and ensure everything you keep in your home has a purpose. 

About Jennifer Hanzlick

Clutter Trucker is a Denver-based hoarding clean-out company founded by Jennifer Hanzlick. Jennifer leveraged 15 years of corporate experience in to start the company in 2008. Her mission is to help and educate individuals and their loved ones who have hoarding disorder. A featured speaker at Ted X Boulder, Jennifer works directly with community and non-profit organizations to boost public awareness about the condition. To that end, she founded the Colorado Hoarding Task Force in 2015.