Post-Christmas Clean Up: Clutter Cutting Ideas for Year's End
Christmas is here, and New Year's Eve is on the horizon! Even in the midst of holiday cheer, it's time to look ahead to a clean and organized New Year.
Ready to swing into the coming year from a clutter-free and organized home? Try these year-end tips to cut clutter and start the New Year on an organized note:
Santa's Rule: Get One, Toss Two
Try this simple idea to pack a powerful clutter-cutting punch as you put away new holiday gifts: for each gift received, toss two counterparts.
As you put away holiday gifts, take time to make extra room throughout the house. For example, for every new Christmas DVD you add to the shelves, remove two older titles. Did Nana gift the children with new holiday pajamas? Find two outgrown sets to add to the donation bag. If craft supplies made it into your stocking, be sure to remove double their number from your stash before adding them to the craft closet.
Whether you recycle, donate or sell the tossers, each gift will reduce clutter in your organized home--and the excitement of new possessions helps cut the ties to old, outworn items.
Get One, Toss Two: short, sweet and painless way to declutter for the New Year.
Observe Oosouji
In Japan, clearing dirt, clutter and the disorganization from the old year is an integral part of Japanese New Year tradition. Because each year is seen as separate and distinct, the final week of the old year is devoted to cleaning, decluttering and organizing.
To observe oosouji, Japanese homes receive a top-to-bottom cleaning. Business offices are sorted and organized and children clean out school desks. "Removing the dirt from the old year" creates a clean state of mind to welcome the New Year, and invite prosperity in the year to come.
Sort Before You Stow
Once the New Year arrives, most families take down holiday decorations and store them for the following year--but too often, there's a sense of "sling it in there and worry about it later" when it comes to putting away Christmas ornaments, holiday linens and outdoor lighting.
This year, pay it forward: sort and declutter holiday decorations, linens and specialty cooking items as you store them. Cut the non-working, the tattered, and the tired from the herd as you put away holiday decorations. Has-been decor items can be recycled or donated; stained linens can be repurposed as cleaning cloths.
Streamline holiday decorating next year: sort before you stow!
Send White Elephants On Their Way
When it comes to holiday giving, it's the thought that counts. But when those thoughts leave you scratching your head? Come up with a plan to wrangle the year's white elephant gifts: those "really, you shouldn't have!" gift items that have entered your home during the season.
Before they can become clutter in your New Year's home, try these strategies to sort out white elephant gifts:
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Consign "regifting" candidates to the gift closet
. Did the big, bountiful gift basket include a lovely cheese board, spreaders and dipping bowl--just like the other three now living in your cabinets? Nosh on the snacks, but set the unneeded items aside in the gift closet. Next year, they'll be the start of a lovely gift basket when packed together with some good cheese and a box of specialty crackers.To prevent regifting faux pas, scribble a short note outlining who gave what for each new gift closet find. Hint: make a note on the original gift tag; it'll prevent you from regifting unneeded items in the wrong circle.
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Hold a White Elephant exchange in January. Inviting friends for dinner on January 1st or hosting a Super Bowl party this year? Ask everyone to bring a wrapped white elephant for a post-Christmas gift exchange.
You'll clear clutter and breathe new life into white elephant gifts. Who knows? Your white elephant may be someone else's favorite gift! Just be sure to avoid circulating gifts that have been given by your guests!
