The holidays consist of family parties, lots of food, and an overflow of presents. It’s fun while it lasts, but then you have the daunting task of reorganizing your home after the holiday chaos. It may seem overwhelming, but these simple tips will assist you in getting your home back to normal in no time.
- Decide what you can recycle. At the holidays, people accumulate 25 percent more trash so try to recycle some. You can recycle wrapping paper. In addition, you can recycle all those Amazon boxes from your online shopping, as long as you remove the packing materials and collapse them. See if your county will pick them up or if you’ll need to drop them off.
- Throw away the rest. Throwing excess plastic wrap and bows will make a dent. Getting rid of the extra holiday cookies and pies to avoid a sugar coma is an added bonus.
- Evaluate your Christmas decorations. Begin by throwing away any ornaments that are broken or that you no longer like. Do the same thing with your tree. Are the branches falling apart and does it look more pitiful than beautiful? It might be time to get rid of your tree and invest in a pre-lit Christmas tree, which means fewer lights to store, and they’re on sale after Christmas.
- Store the remaining holiday decorations away. Wrap your lights around old wrapping paper tubes so they don’t get tangled or broken. Instead of wasting tissue paper, consider storing your fragile items in holiday napkins or towels and then place them in a storage bin.
- Put your gifts away. They can’t stay strewn around the living room forever. Find a designated home for each gift, whether it’s hung up in your closet, displayed on the wall, or organized in a toy bin. If you can’t find a home for a gift, either make room for it or start a re-gifting shelf or bin for easy shopping in the future.
- Deal with unwanted gifts. It’s okay to keep a few in case you need a quick gift in the future but keeping too many just leads to excess clutter. Set aside a day to donate your unwanted gifts to various local organizations and charities where people will enjoy them. Keep a list of which charities you donated to so you’ll have it on hand for the next year.
Decorating for the holiday season can be overwhelming. Hopefully, these tips make cleaning up from the holiday season a little simpler. For more organization tips, please Contact Refresh Organizers & Designers at (510) 570-1292.
