Pre-Holiday Home Reset
Make the holidays even happier by setting you and your home up to manage the influx of items that enter your home during this season. Between the decorations, hosting supplies, gifts (both waiting to be gifted and received), plus that household calendar that seems to fill up so quickly, I’ve got some ideas to help tame the clutter and help you maintain your storage systems this season.
Decorations
Whether you go all out with decor or have a more minimalist approach, avoid purchasing any new decor until you’ve had a chance to take stock of what you have. When you put up your decorations, anything that doesn’t make it out of the bin, consider donating right away. This way it can be enjoyed by someone else this season. Now is a great time to make a list of any spaces you’d like to add decor, helping you be intentional when you are out shopping. This kind of intentional shopping can be applied all year round - more tips on this in my Intentional Shopping blog post.
To avoid feeling overwhelmed by the added decor in your home during this season, consider removing some of your year-round decor and temporarily store it in your now emptied holiday decor bin.
Hosting Supplies
The more neutral you can go with your hosting supplies, like winter themed napkins, instead of Christmas/Hannukah/New Year etc. themed napkins, the easier it will be to re-use throughout the holiday season. If holiday themed napkins are what bring you joy this season, go for it! But chances are you will end up with odds and ends of napkin sets, and I wouldn’t recommend storing those for 365 days. Instead, use them up as everyday napkins into the new year.
Gift Giving
Before the gift shopping gets shoved in the back of the closet, now is a great time to carve out a space to temporarily store and organize your gifts. In my 80/20 Philosophy blog post, I talk more about setting up empty spaces in your home for when temporary items come in and out of your home. Now is a great time to take inventory of that “gift” bin (or rather “regift” bin). Make a plan for anything in there. Be honest with yourself and donate anything that you realistically wouldn’t gift, it doesn’t deserve space in your home. Skip those “just incase I get invited somewhere and need a gift” gifts and opt for a quick baking recipe you can easily make on an as needed basis. On that note, now is the time to restock your baking supplies, so you have everything on hand for that quick, go to recipe (mine is chocolate chip oatmeal cookies). Opting for edible or experience gifts also helps cut the clutter in the homes of those you are gifting to.
Gift Wrapping
My gift wrapping is organized in a way that I can easily access it to wrap a one-off gift, but also easy to grab from the storage room to set myself up to wrap multiple gifts at once, in front of the TV of course. I like to keep things simple by wrapping the majority of my gifts in brown craft paper. I like that I can write directly on it, and skip the card/tag. My kids can decorate it with stickers or drawings, or I can add a festive touch, like candy cane tapped to the outside. My family celebrates Christmas, and with two kids, I’ve found wrapping each kid’s presents in a unique wrapping paper has helped organize the gifts.
Gift Receiving
As you prepare your own wishlist, or shop for others in your home, think about where these new items are going to live after they are unwrapped. If you’ve read my Intentional Shopping blog post, you’ll know this is a habit I live by all year round, but I think can often get forgotten in the business of this season.
Calendar (Bonus Tip)
Now is a great time to place holds on your calendar for the things you want to do this season before other people’s plans decide for you.
