Saturday, December 26, 2015

After Christmas Decluttering & Organizing

We made it through the holiday! I'm guessing most of us have more stuff now than we did at the beginning of the month. Although, I did make an extra effort in December to find things to let go of, hoping we might end up at least even with the amount of things we have in our home. I didn't keep track so I'll will assume I still have more!



You might want to attempt to count the items you received. If you come up with a number. Make that your first goal. To declutter at least that same number of items. And the sooner the better!! 

This is a time to consider if any of the items you received could be considered replacements for something you already own. I received a pie server as one of my gifts. If I already owned one, I would likely get rid of the old one now that I have a new one. This is that one in, one out rule so many organizers like to mention! 

As you put your new items away, you might notice if any like items need to be purged. I did just buy myself a new shirt and when I put it away I realized that I had a couple similar items that I was no longer wearing. Again, one in and several items out this time. 

Make a plan now for the items you may need to return. The sooner the better, if you are apt to forget and later find these gifts stuffed in a closet. If you return the item now, the money is back in your pocket for more important things or you have the opportunity to exchange it for something you will use. And sometimes you get more for the money spent on you by making a return because everything is one sale! That might motivate a few of you right there. 

And please can I suggest that if you received anything you didn't like that cannot be returned that you decide to donate it now! There is no joy in holding something in your home that you do not love. It's empowering to know you have the choice to decide even if the gift was given with love and good intentions.

Finally, based on my own experience it feels really, really good to drop off, at Goodwill or other charitable organization, as much stuff as you can find before the end of the year! Ending the year lighter is a great place to start finding more space in your home for those people and things that you love. You have six days including today!!

Are you ready to get yourself organized and declutter? I am!!

4 comments:

  1. Great tips! I am planning on doing many of these same things this week. Like you said, we have 6 days before the end of the year.

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  2. It's just too cold to work in the garage whose wall-to wall shelving units are the collection point for seasonal items, those that are no longer used enough to warrant prime space or the collection point for items needing repair/repurpose or recycling.

    Tomorrow I'll have DH re-stock the bar trolley, I noticed we've an over abundance of gifted wine and not sure what to do with excess that overtakes the under-the-stairs, PVC pipe wine rack DH made last century. I plan to refill the tea 'caddy' as that too needs re-stocking from new gifts. People must think we drink a huge amount of exotic tea.

    Tomorrow I'll try to create a menu plan to get more control in pantry and deep freeze. I'm procrastinating doing the final Net Worth as a lot of our investments have crashed. I don't want to face the ordeal of creating a new plan, everything I look at and research comes to a bad end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's just too cold to work in the garage whose wall-to wall shelving units are the collection point for seasonal items, those that are no longer used enough to warrant prime space or the collection point for items needing repair/repurpose or recycling.

    Tomorrow I'll have DH re-stock the bar trolley, I noticed we've an over abundance of gifted wine and not sure what to do with excess that overtakes the under-the-stairs, PVC pipe wine rack DH made last century. I plan to refill the tea 'caddy' as that too needs re-stocking from new gifts. People must think we drink a huge amount of exotic tea.

    Tomorrow I'll try to create a menu plan to get more control in pantry and deep freeze. I'm procrastinating doing the final Net Worth as a lot of our investments have crashed. I don't want to face the ordeal of creating a new plan, everything I look at and research comes to a bad end.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ohhhh, yes. We got three (three!) coffee mugs for Christmas (all wonderful, and suited to us 100%) and there isn't going to be room in our cupboards on the coffee cup shelf for them all, so some of our plainer ones will have to go. But really, we would much rather use Star Wars mugs than plain white ones anyway!

    ReplyDelete