While the holiday season is a time of joy, fun, festivities and food for a good many Americans, once it’s over, many want to return to a sense of normalcy as quickly as possible, and decluttering plays an important role in this.
With this in mind, here is your guide to getting rid of all your post-holiday clutter, so that you can start afresh and get the new year off to a clean, tidy and healthy start:
Holiday decorations
It’s all too easy to pluck the decorations from the tree and stash any other festive items into a box and stash it away for next year. But, it’s worth taking the time to review all of your festive decorative items to see whether any of them may have seen better days and be fit for the trash.
Baking supplies
If you enjoy baking festive goodies for the holidays, now is as good a time as any to check over your supplies and see what you want to keep, and what you might want to donate or toss. After all, who wants their kitchen cabinets or pantry filled with things that only get used once a year, and only then for a very brief period.
Toys and games
Even if your kids didn’t receive any new toys or games for Christmas, January is always a good month for decluttering such items, particularly as your kids are growing older and their tastes and desires can change rapidly. Get your children involved in the process, and have them assess what they want to keep, and what you can donate to a charity or thrift store. For toys and games that are in poor condition, tossing them in the trash or recycling them into something else (if you or your kids are creative), might be the only option.
Holiday mail and packaging
Some cards you received over the festive period may have sentimental value, in which case there’s no harm in popping them in a drawer or box. But, for everything else, recycle or reuse it as soon as possible.
Unwanted gifts
Some unwanted or duplicate gifts at Christmas time is inevitable for most households, and many folks hold onto them out of feelings of guilt, even though they either don’t want them, or already have them. However, if you feel it’s possible, it’s best to either regift such items as soon as you can, or donate them to your local thrift store.
Leftover food
Oftentimes, our festive refrigerators become jampacked with leftovers, and sometimes, these don’t all get eaten in time. If your fridge has no space for new, fresh food and beverages, it’s time to adopt a ruthless approach to food disposal. Anything past its expiry date must be gotten rid of at the earliest to avoid contaminating other items in the refrigerator, and this is also a good time to take everything out and clean the shelves and drawers etc.
Your emails
Why not seize the day and declutter your inbox, too? With less frequent checking of your emails amid the festivities, your inbox may have become crowded, making it hard for you to see the wood for the trees. If this is the case for you, take a few minutes to go through everything in your inbox, and either place those you need or want to keep, in files, or delete accordingly.
Once you’ve decluttered your home from top to bottom following the holidays, why not schedule a visit from a professional cleaning company, and get that truly clean feeling that we all yearn for at the beginning of a new year?
