3 Easy Decluttering Tips For A Successful New Year

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Let’s make Organizing & Decluttering fast & easy with tips that are simple to implement but have a big impact as we start the New Year. The New Year is already here, Christmas activities are over & we need a plan to Declutter & Organized our homes.

Put Away Christmas Wrapping Clutter

For the past 8 years, we have set up a wrapping station to make wrapping Christmas present easier and more fun. We have a 3rd-floor office with a TV (so I can watch my favorite Christmas movies while I wrap). My husband Jim set up a long table, one you can get at Costo or Sam’s.

It is long enough that you can set all your supplies and gifts 🎁 out. It is more comfortable to put a folding chair to sit so you are not on the floor or bending over a bed.

Make sure you have plenty of ribbons, bows 🎀, tape and wrapping paper.  It is a lot of fun and exciting to have a specific wrapping station. Look to see if you have a spare room or a basement area that you can block off so you can store presents and keep little ones away.

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I have a free printable to help you Declutter 1 Small area of your home each week. If you Declutter & Organize 1 Small area each week you will have 50 areas organized by the end of the year (50 as we all need at least 2 weeks of vacation)

A special wrapping station is so useful but by Christmas Eve, it is a Mess. Tags, bows, boxes, and scraps of paper everywhere. This is the first place to start to declutter, organize and put away for the New Year.

• You want to start by throwing away all the paper products packing equipment and scraps first. You can save the shopping bags from all the presents so you can use them as trash bags to get rid of all the trash. 🗑
• Have a designated space to keep all the Christmas wrapping supplies.
• Buy extra supplies for next year now that Christmas items are on sale. One of the best stores you can find sales is at CVS & Walgreens.  Their prices are a little higher so they always have Christmas stuff leftover and now on sale at 50% to 75% off.
• Inexpensive JoAnn or Home Goods sturdy bags are perfect to store bows & ribbons and small boxes.
• Keep scissors & ribbon striper in a desk drawer so you have them for other holiday gift wrapping.

Here is my “non-highlight reel” picture of how the room looked before I started my clean up.

Put Away One/ Through Away One – Rule

Make a mental decision to find one thing to through away every time you put away one item in your storage area. Start putting away the wrapping papers & tags and look for one item that you can throw away.

Going back and forth putting away all the Christmas wrappings with one or more items tossed for each trip. This method will not only get your wrapping station cleaned up but your storage area just a little neater.

If you are like I am, I seldom have big blocks of time to clean a whole room. Having a mindset to find trash in each area I go in makes a lot of progress in small blocks of time.

All a sudden my wrapping station is clean up and put away. I then got in the groove and I spent an hour tossing away items that were just trash and old boxes and bags that I will never use.  I found so much trash and useless items that I had to toss the trash out of the 3rd story window. The bags & boxes of trash were too much for me to run up and down three flights of stairs.

You will have a great feeling of accomplishment when you have your Christmas stuff away and your storage room less cluttered.

One of my goals this year is to find one item that should be tossed in the trash or given away whenever I go in a closet, drawer or shelf. It is these small steps that will add up over time.  Let me know if this method helps you make progress in your organization.

I have a free printable to help you Declutter 1 Small area of your home each week. If you Declutter & Organize 1 Small area each week you will have 50 areas organized by the end of the year (50 as we all need at least 2 weeks of vacation)

Quick Declutter To Make Your Living Areas Livable Again

• Take a look at your Living Room. Put away all of the gifts that belong in another room. Toys in the kid’s rooms, games in the family room, clothes, and jewelry in your room.
• Take a deep dive into the refrigerator.  Get rid of any of the Christmas & New Years’ food that is more than 3 days old. Take a deep look for any food that no one has eaten or wants to eat. All of the leftover fast food and condiments are more than 4 weeks old.
• Put away all of the Christmas dishes that you are not going to use again or items that are sitting out. Start putting away all of the serving dishes and special dishes that are only used at Christmas.
• clear off your kitchen counters as much as possible.  It is easier to create and plan when you have a clean area to work in.
• Give away or throw away any kitchen items you do not use or have a new Christmas present that replaces it. Start the New Year with a cleaned-out kitchen to make a fun new healthy recipe with all the new Christmas presents you received.

You can tackle the New Year Clean Up over a weekend or one day in two weekends, but it feels so good to have all the holiday prep clutter packed up, organized, and put away. Even if the decorations stay up a little longer it will feel like a new home again to start putting away the items that are not needed. As well as all of the trash that comes with all of the fun!