6 Things to Declutter Before Christmas for a Clean Slate for the New Year
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The month of December is the perfect time to clean out your house before Christmas and more items make their way inside. I love helping others declutter their homes, but we must remember that decluttering is a process. As long as we live in our homes and bring items in, we also must take items out. Sometimes we get behind on this process, which is totally ok! It’s always a good idea to set aside a little time and do some decluttering.
Today I’m going to share seven areas you can declutter before Christmas, as well as offer some decluttering tips. Of course, you can pick one of these areas, or all of them. It’s totally up to you!
What To Declutter Before Christmas
We are going to choose from these seven target areas for a great Christmas declutter!
- Holiday Decor
- Closet
- Toys
- Bakeware
- Linens
- Refrigerator or Pantry
Declutter Holiday Decor
You’re already pulling out all of your holiday decor, you might as well go through it while it’s out. Now is a great time donate any decor you never plan to use again, and throw away broken items. You definitely don’t want to keep storing items that have no use to you.
I always end up finding interesting things in our Christmas decor box. Sometimes even Christmas trash makes its way back in to the box when we are packing up the Christmas decorations.
Decluttering Three Step Process
When I declutter anything, I go through a three step process:
- Declutter
- Clean
- Organize
This works whether you are decluttering a decor box, a drawer, a closet, or an entire room. So, for the holiday decor box, I would pull everything out of the box, declutter all of the items, clean the box out, and organize any remaining decor that I want to keep in the box.
Closet or Wardrobe
Our family typically switches out our clothes shortly before Christmas since it stays warm here for so long. This is the perfect time to do a declutter of your wardrobe. When you’re putting away your summer/fall items, go through them and get rid of any items you never plan to wear again.
Likewise, you can get rid of your winter clothes when you’re pulling those out. I keep my wardrobe paired down because I really don’t need a lot of clothing and I hate an overwhelming closet.
I also go through my kids’ clothes during this time. I will get rid of tattered clothes or things with holes and completely reorganize their closets and wardrobes for the new season.
Toys
If you are planning to declutter toys, I would do this earlier in the Christmas season. If you are donating gently used toys these could possibly be Christmas gifts for other children. My kids have a lot of toys and I know how easy it is for the toy bins to overflow!
We love to make room for the new things they will get for Christmas with our four gift rule, and it’s always nice to have a clean and organized space to play with the toys and to have them organized so the kids actually know what they have!
Bakeware
If you’re like most people. you are probably doing a bit more baking this time of year than usual. If you are already in your baking cabinet, go ahead and go through all of your bakeware and get rid of anything that you won’t use or that needs to be replaced.
Don’t forget the three step process. Once you’ve got that baking cabinet decluttered, give it a good clean before you reorganize your items back into it.
Linens
Who else likes to sleep with warmer linens when the temperatures begin to drop? Now is a great time to go through all of your linens and donate or toss items that you either won’t use, or that are worn out.
We have managed to amass a collection of blankets and sheets, so for my own sanity I often have to purge them just so we have space for the ones we decide to keep.
Also, if you’ve had your towels for several years like we have, it might be time to go through those, too!
Refrigerator/Pantry
After Thanksgiving and before Christmas is a great time to clean out your refrigerator and pantry! Toss old and expired items, actually give the refrigerator and the pantry a good scrub, and reorganize everything back into place.
It feels so good to have a clean fridge and an organized pantry. If you need help with the cleaning part, check out my ultimate guide to cleaning your refrigerator.
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