How to Declutter After the Holidays - 7 Easy Decluttering Tips

7 Easy Tips on How to Declutter After the Holidays

Learn how to declutter after the holidays. You don’t need to dread tidying up your home after the Christmas celebrations. These simple tips will help make decluttering after the holidays easier and less stressful.

Christmas night is always anticlimactic for me. All our guests and family members have gone home and I look around at the scraps of discarded wrapping paper and tossed around bows, the piles of gifts that need to find a place in my home and feel a bit blue.

I actually used to dread the need for that after Christmas decluttering of my house. But over the years I have learned to take it in stride.

I also found that I can even reduce the amount of work needed for the after Christmas decluttering project by doing a bit of decluttering before Christmas and some pre organizing.

I thought I would share some of these decluttering tips so that perhaps you too will find that decluttering after the holidays is no big deal.

Decluttering After the Holidays – 7 Easy Tips

#1. Take Care of those Extra Dishes Immediately

As soon as Christmas dinner is over, several members of our family get together and do all the dishes. That way we can put all the dishes we use once a year away right away, which is our way of decluttering the kitchen after the holidays are over.

The good China gets put away as well as all of those serving dishes that we only use during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

#2. Pick up Your Wrapping Paper and Bows

One of the first things to do when clearing up that Christmas Clutter is to pick up all that discarded wrapping paper and ribbon and those used bows.

This not only gets rid of the waste but also allows you to see what else needs to be done.

One of the things we have done in our house for a number of years is to set a couple of empty waste paper cans around the living room (where we unwrap gifts).

This way everyone can dispose of their wrapping paper and bows as they unwrap their gifts. Thus cutting way down on the amount of time it takes to pick up the debris left from unwrapping gifts.

#3. Prepare the Gifts You Need to Return or Exchange

There always seems to be some gifts that are either not useful to the person who receives them, or new clothing items that don’t quite fit or are the wrong color, or is something you already own.

Make a pile of those gifts that you need to return or exchange along with the receipts so you can exchange the gift as soon as possible.

Then take them back to the appropriate stores as soon as you are able.

#4. Sort Through Your Christmas Decorations as You Take Them Down

As you prepare to take down all of those beautiful Christmas decorations and put them away for another year you should take the time to sort through them.

What I like to do is start with those decorations that I did not use during the current Christmas season. I sort through these items and decide whether or not I am likely to use them the next year.

Those items I have not used for a year or two I remove and put in a pile to either be thrown away or given away.

I next sort through the old lights, garlands, and tinsels and dispose of those items that are no longer looking good.

Then as I take down the tree, I add any worn out or no longer wanted pieces to either the dispose or the giveaway pile. That way everything in my decoration boxes is ready to be used the next year.

#5. Organize and Store Unused Wrapping Paper and Ribbon

Once I have organized and put away the actual Christmas decorations, I then organize and store the unused and still good wrapping papers, ribbons and bows.

If possible, pack your paper and ribbons in sturdy plastic containers to keep everything looking fresher.

#6. Sort Through Your Kids Broken Toys to Make Room for the New Ones

If you have kids then chances are that they will be getting some new toys for Christmas. Unfortunately, most kids already have a lot of toys, some of which they no longer play with or are broken and unusable.

If your children are somewhat older they can help you sort through the toys.

However, with younger children, you may want to declutter their toy chest when they are not around since young children seem not to want to throw any toy away even if they no longer have an interest in it.

When my sister’s kids were young, we would declutter their toys the week before Christmas break while the kids were in school.

And the decluttering was done before they opened their new toys so they could simply put them away once they were opened and played with for a while.

#7. Make Room for New Clothes

In our family getting clothing as a present is a favorite gift. As individuals, each of us adults tends to spend a lot of money on ourselves so getting new clothes that we wouldn’t purchase ourselves is a real thrill.

However, for some of the members of our family, that means decluttering dresser drawers or closets to make room for the new items they receive.

Decluttering your clothing simply requires that you go through your dresser or closet (or both) and remove those items that are worn, stained or you no longer wear.

If you have decluttered your closet and dresser preparing for fall and winter you may not need to declutter again unless you have purchased new items fairly recently.

However, if you are one of those people who tend to have more clothes than you will ever wear, then you still may need to declutter to make room for those new clothing items.

How to Declutter after the Holidays – Conclusion

Decluttering after the holidays will never be one of my favorite chores, but the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years have made that post holiday decluttering simpler and easier and far less stressful than it once was. Hopefully, some of these tips will be helpful to you as well.