Easy Ways to Declutter Before Christmas

The holidays can be a crazy time of year with all the festivities and events it’s easy to miss out on the true meaning of Christmas. This is why it’s so important to declutter before Christmas. 

There are many benefits to decluttering your home year-round and one of the top benefits is creating more time. This is never more needed than during the holidays.

While most people tend to put off clearing out the clutter until after the new year, (after all, it’s one of the top resolutions made each year) decluttering before Christmas is an excellent time to clear the clutter from some key areas of your home.

Why You Should Declutter Before the Holidays

First, let’s be realistic, the holidays may not be the best time for a full house declutter. With everything else you have going on, a full house declutter is not what you need at this time. More likely than not, you’re already planning to organize and declutter your home in the new year.

Despite this, there really are some important reasons to declutter before Christmas. Let’s look at a few of them.

Reduce Holiday Stress

For starters decluttering before Christmas allows you to set things straight before all of the festivities and chaos of the holidays begins.

It is well known that clutter is a big contributor to stress. Taking the time to clear out the clutter in some of the important areas of your home is one of the best things you can do to reduce holiday stress. Clearing out some of the basic clutter (not a major decluttering and organizing project) will lessen any overwhelm the holidays traditionally bring.

Getting rid of excess clutter will help you manage all that goes on during the season. It really is the first key to enjoying a stress-free Christmas.

Time to Focus on Your Favorite Traditions

Decluttering before Christmas also gives you space to breathe and focus on the things that matter most to you during this magical time of year! We all have those favorite traditions or maybe even the desire to start new ones.

Not having to worry about constantly cleaning and organizing will free up your time for those things that make the holidays special to you.

Decluttering before Christmas Gives a Head Start on The New Year

There’s no way around it, Christmas brings with it a steady array of new items into your home.

In addition to all the gifts given to you and your family, most of us will end up purchasing some new items. Holiday decor, new holiday outfits, and other sale items usually come home with us as we spend more time shopping than normal.

It’s not long before your home is inundated with all kinds of new stuff. By decluttering now, you’ll resist the urge to impulse shop because you’ll know exactly what you need.

You’ll have a basic handle on the influx of new items. And by getting rid of the old clutter you’ll make your new year organizing goals so much easier. This is because you’re stopping things from getting worse.

Simplifying your home now will allow you to enjoy the holiday season so much more!

6 Things to Declutter Before Christmas

You know the benefits of decluttering before Christmas, yet you still don’t want to do a major declutter this time of year. So what should you focus on?

I’m glad you asked, let’s look at some easy areas of your home to focus your decluttering efforts on.

Remember by tackling the clutter in these areas now you’ll be making space to enjoy the season to its fullest!

1. Declutter Christmas Decorations

When you’re ready to start decorating your home for Christmas, it’s also the perfect time to declutter older Christmas decorations.

As you pull out the Christmas decorations take note of any decorations you did not use last year and don’t plan to use this year. Clearly, these are not your favorites or things you truly love. If you are not using them there is no good reason to keep them!

Next, for anything broken or worn out get rid of them or fix them. Then you can take note of whether or not you want to replace any of these items.

By doing this now you will see exactly what you love and want to decorate your home with. You’ll know exactly what you need and what needs replacing. This will stop impulse buying and you’ll avoid adding more clutter to your home!

2. Declutter Excess Home Decor

I love to decorate and change out my decor from time to time. If I’m not careful decor pieces can easily build up in a short time. I have learned not to buy something new unless I can think of something I already own I can get rid of in its place.

But if you have not made that commitment you may have a lot of decor pieces you don’t use or even notice you have out.

Add all of the Christmas decorations to an already filled space and your space begins to feel cluttered and chaotic instead of relaxing and peaceful.

Plus, your holiday decorations will have a lot more meaningful impact if they’re not surrounded by decor you no longer love.

As you set out your Christmas decorations notice the decor items that are there now. Are they pieces you truly love? Do they still match with your overall decor? Are they broken or outdated?

Now is the time to declutter any of the decor pieces that are no longer a reflection of who you are or what you love.

When you do your home will feel refreshed, cleaner, and more calming. Your Christmas decor will shine, perhaps for the first time in years!

3. Declutter The Toys

If you’ve got young kids (or even teens) they are going to be receiving a whole lot of new stuff for Christmas. Let’s face it, most of our kids have waaaay more toys than they need.

The thing is we love our children and naturally want to give them the best of everything. This makes decluttering the toys hard. But the truth is, having too many toys is not good for your kids.

In fact, most children actually enjoy playing more when they have fewer toys.

So to really give your kids the best of everything, one of the best things you can give them is to help them declutter before Christmas.

This will help them feel less overwhelmed when they open all that new stuff at Christmas. Your kids will be more grateful for what they receive.

Having your children declutter before Christmas also helps them understand the importance of giving to others who have less than they do.

Have your children pick out some of their toys, books, or even clothing items to donate to other children. This will also help to create space for all the new stuff to go.

Have each one of your kiddos pick out 5 to 10 items that they can donate to others and make room for the new stuff they will be receiving. I think they may surprise you with how willing they are to do this during the holiday season.

For your teens, you may want to help them sell some of their more valuable items. This will give them some extra money to be able to do their own Christmas shopping. It’s a little more work than just donating but, it may motivate them to be more willing to declutter.

4. Declutter Your Kitchen 

Cooking is really not my thing. However, I definitely find myself spending much more time in the kitchen during the holidays. Because the Kitchen is NOT my favorite room in the house, I do like to get in and out as quickly as possible. I am all about things that save me time in the Kitchen.

Now, unless you have a ton of clutter, you do not need to do a full declutter of your Kitchen at this time. However, you do want to make things easier on yourself, which a basic decluttering will do!

Declutter the Cabinets

Before the holidays start go through your dishes and glassware, bakeware, pots and pans, and food storage containers. Get rid of everything that is broken or not regularly used.

Take note of any items that need replacement or you may need for your holiday prep. The more you can get rid of the more space you will have for the things you actually need and use!

Declutter the Countertops

The next important Kitchen area to declutter before Christmas is your countertops. You’ll want to have your countertops as clutter-free as possible to make sure you have room for all the extra food for guests.

Start by removing anything from your countertops that should not be kept in the kitchen. Things like papers, mail, keys, sunglasses, and other miscellaneous items tend to get tossed there. You can place them all in a box or basket and have family members put their own stuff away.

Hopefully, you made a little extra room in the cupboards at this point and can store some of your appliances, away in the cabinet. This will make the actual work of cooking and clean-up so much easier. You won’t have to move things around and will have plenty of space to do what you need to do!

Declutter the Fridge and Pantry

With all the extra cooking the holidays bring, these are two areas that quickly become overstuffed.

Now is the time to toss out any expired food items. Donate to a food pantry any items that are still good but your family does not like and won’t use before the expiration date.

Before you do your big holiday food prep shopping trip take note of what you already have, this will help you avoid buying too much. You’ll also avoid buying things you already have.

The best part is this also makes your post-holiday clean-up easier because you’ll have space to store all those leftovers.

5. Declutter Seasonal Clothing

There is no better time to declutter clothing than at the start of the season.

Decluttering your clothes now has several benefits:

Saves Time

Decluttering your closet is one of the best things you can do to save time getting ready in the morning. By decluttering all those items that are worn out, don’t fit or you don’t love you will be left with what you do love and feel good in.

This makes picking out your clothes for the day a breeze.

You Know What Needs to Be Replaced

The other big benefit of decluttering your clothing before Christmas is that you’ll know exactly what needs to be replaced. When friends or family ask for gift ideas you’ll be able to easily give them a few suggestions. Do you need some new scarves? Gloves? Sweaters? Socks?

These are great Christmas gift suggestions that won’t add clutter back to your home because they are things that are needed.

Your Helping Others in Need

This time of year shelters and donation centers are often in need of warm winter and fall clothing items.

By decluttering your closets you will have needed items to donate to help others in need.

6. The Guest Room

I live in a pretty small home and don’t have an extra guest room. But I do have family that comes and stays during the holidays.

Having a space cleared out for your guests makes them feel comfortable and welcome.

So whether you have a designated guest room or other space for your guest to stay in, this is the perfect time to give that space a good decluttering. Things tend to pile up in the guest room or hall closets and you’re going to want to make sure you have areas that are guest-ready.

Where ever your guests will be staying, you want the space to feel like home and be cozy.

Make sure you have space cleared out for them to put away their clothes, and to keep toiletries. Have a designated space for them to plug in and store any electronics. Also consider whether they will need space for other items, such as strollers or playpens.

Having this area clutter-free ensures your guests feel valued and welcome. And it allows you all to create wonderful holiday memories together.

Enjoy a Simplified Christmas

The holidays should be a time for creating special memories and experiences. A simplified Christmas has its focus on gathering with family and friends and celebrating what is important to us.

To truly enjoy the most meaningful parts of the holidays declutter these key areas before Christmas starts. When you do, you’ll be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the people you love.

I’ve written before about how to plan for a simpler holiday season. But I want to give you one more thing to declutter. Something that will help you enjoy a simplified Christmas, one that will be full of meaning and joy.

Declutter Your Obligations

One of the tops things that prevent us from truly enjoying the season is an overpacked schedule.

If you need it, this is your permission to say “no” to the excess. You do not need to accept every invitation you receive or attend every holiday event that is happening. You do not need to keep every tradition you had growing up.

This time of year it’s so easy to fill up every white space on our calendars. To truly enjoy a simplified Christmas limit the excess obligations cluttering up your calendar. Instead, focus on fewer and more meaningful experiences and events.

Take some time to declutter before Christmas. When the holiday gets here you will be so glad you did! You’ll have created space to enjoy everything special about this time of year.