Monday 12 December, 2022

How to Avoid New Clutter This Holiday Season, Part 2: Gifts


Struggling to deal with holiday clutter this Christmas season? In Part 1, I shared some ideas with you to avoid decoration clutter. In Part 2, I am going to focus on how you can avoid clutter related to the gifts you receive. Because let’s face it—a lot of new items can show up in your […]


Struggling to deal with holiday clutter this Christmas season? In Part 1, I shared some ideas with you to avoid decoration clutter. In Part 2, I am going to focus on how you can avoid clutter related to the gifts you receive. Because let’s face it—a lot of new items can show up in your life all at once during the holidays, and you may have no clue where to put them.

Here are a few tips and ideas:

• Get some large plastic storage totes before unwrapping gifts this year. Label one of them “re-gift,” and another “donate.” That way you can decide immediately what to do with each incoming item. The longer you put off those kinds of decisions, the harder it can be to make them. This prevents unnecessary buildup of clutter to begin with.

• Don’t forget that you can also re-gift items to your own family members. Maybe a relative sent you a pair of socks you hate, but your daughter loves them. Just pass them across to her, and she will find a place for them. It would be pretty silly to let them clutter up your sock drawer when they could be on your daughter’s feet.

• Contact friends and relatives well before the holidays to let them know that you are trying to cut back on the amount of stuff you own. Ask them if they would be okay with not exchanging gifts this year—or switching to something like gift certificates which do not take up any space. You shouldn’t feel bad about doing this. You have goals you are trying to achieve. And you might be surprised. The other party could be just as relieved to stop accumulating clutter as you are.

• Have items you don’t want in your home to begin with? Donate them or gift them this year. If they are in good shape and you know people who would value them more than you, they could make good presents. See what you can clear out each season.

• Be mindful of what you do with gift certificates. If some people do end up giving you gift certificates, you may be tempted to use them to buy things you want but do not need. Consider hanging onto them for a while, and maybe using them to purchase practical supplies instead.

A lot of people get really preoccupied with figuring out what to do with unwanted Christmas gifts. But the trick is not to over-think it too much. The longer you hold onto those types of gifts, the more likely they are to turn into sentimental clutter. And figuring out how to get rid of sentimental clutter can be even harder.

The tough part of dealing with unwanted gift clutter during the holidays really is just starting new habits. Once you figure out what works, it should be much easier in the future to keep gift clutter from taking over your home.

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