Monday 05 December, 2022

How to Avoid New Clutter This Holiday Season, Part 1: Décor


While the holidays are a wonderful time of the year to reconnect with loved ones and take a break from daily life for something a little more festive, dealing with holiday clutter can be a righteous pain. In fact, the biggest problem with post holiday clutter is that it often sticks around a lot longer […]


While the holidays are a wonderful time of the year to reconnect with loved ones and take a break from daily life for something a little more festive, dealing with holiday clutter can be a righteous pain.

In fact, the biggest problem with post holiday clutter is that it often sticks around a lot longer than intended. Whether you leave it laying around or you stash it in a basement or attic, it ends up getting in your way time and again.

There are a few different reasons why clutter becomes such a problem during the holidays, but one is that every year, we feel a temptation to go out and purchase (or make) a ton of new décor. You may even think of it as a tradition.

What can you do to keep new decorations from turning into unwanted after Christmas clutter? Here are a few recommendations.

• If purchasing new holiday décor is a tradition in your family, consider setting some strict ground rules. For example, each child could be allowed to select one new tree ornament every year.

• Love making holiday décor? Consider making decorations primarily for friends and relatives as gifts this year instead of making them for your own home. That way you will not end up with a lot of new clutter as a result of your hobby, but you will not have to cut back on your creativity either.

• Before you purchase any new item of décor, ask yourself if you really need it. Will you treasure the item year after year? Can you imagine it being as important to you in ten years as it is now? Or will it just become another half-forgotten ornament you pull out of the attic each year, taking up space?

• If you do not have a Christmas decoration organization system in place, take care of that this year before you think about buying anything new. Purchase some plastic containers for Christmas ornaments and other supplies to help you stay organized.

• Do some decluttering. If you have holiday decorations which you no longer value, there is probably someone else who will. In fact, if they are in excellent condition, you can even consider giving them as gifts. You also can take unwanted holiday decorations to the thrift stores. After you finish decluttering, do not return to your old habits of purchasing decorations pell mell. Be as selective as you can, keeping your new acquisitions to a minimum.

It may take more than one season to pare down your holiday decorations to an amount that you are truly happy with, and it will require a little extra effort each year until the project is complete.

But once you have holiday decoration clutter out of the way and are no longer adding new clutter each year, you should find that setting up and taking down décor becomes a lot faster and easier, making the holidays a more enjoyable time all around.

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