What To Declutter Before Christmas This Year

Before the holidays every year, it’s always a good idea to go through your home and consider declutter. Thanksgiving and Christmas are times of the year where we bring a lot of new things into our home. Before we begin to stock up on all the new things, let’s consider getting rid of some of that clutter. It’s also a good time to take inventory to determine if you really need to gift your spouse that new shirt, your kids that new toy, or get yourself that new casserole dish.

Let’s dive into what to declutter before Christmas this year.

Kids’ Toys

This is the biggest area to take a look at, especially before Christmas. If you haven’t gone through your kids’ toys in a while, now’s the time. Bring them all out of the closets, cabinets, toy bins, etc. and lay them all out. What are the toys they’ve outgrown? Do they no longer play with certain ones? Are there some that takesup way too much room, but don’t add a ton of value? If you want an even deeper dive, check out my post on how I got rid of 75% of my own children’s toys (no regrets!).

Keep in mind that the less toys your kids have, the more they will play and appreciate each one. If you’re looking for ideas for Christmas gifts this year that aren’t toys, I’ve also got a post for that. So be ruthless with this process and know that you’re doing your kids a huge favor by simplifying!

Serving Dishes, Casserole Dishes, Cooking Supplies

Another great opportunity to revisit an area you may not have looked at in a while! If you host Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, you may have collected quite a lot of “serving utensils and dishes” that are unique to these events. Make sure to take inventory of what you own and most importantly, what you use. If you don’t use all those serving bowls, spoons, special butter dishes, etc. maybe it’s time to simplify. If you cook Christmas dinner and don’t need every casserole dish or just buy the one-use ones anyway, let’s let go of those large bulky items that take up a ton of space in our cabinets.

Gift Wrap, Bags, Bows

Time to pull out that gift wrap organizer and get rid of old bows, wrapping paper that you aren’t going to use, bags that are torn, the extra boxes you don’t need and trash it (or give to someone else who may need those extras!). If you’re holding onto it for the “just in case” time you need it, remember, you can buy new wrapping paper, bags, bows, etc. from the dollar store! So don’t feel guilty getting rid of things you truly don’t think you’ll need. We tend to stock up on this category especially and then save the leftovers for next year. But if we only ever stock up and save, we end up keeping so much extra that there is no way we’ll ever use it all. And then we have to worry about storing it, organizing, cleaning, etc.

Digital Photos

This is a fun one. I don’t know about you, but I have thousands of videos and photos in my phone that I never go through a look at. There may be a few that I absolutely love, but the majority are ones I definitely don’t need to print and hang up or keep. I also never block off time in my schedule to go through and do a digital declutter. But maybe it’s time. This seems like as good of a time as any, especially since we are about to flood our phone with even more photos of the holidays! So take an hour out of your day and go through and declutter all those old videos and photos. On the fence about deleting or keeping? Print it out! Order it to your local print shop and make a cute photo album of some of the photos you love but no longer need to be on your phone. What a fun way to spend some holiday family time together going through these photo albums that you just created!

Winter Clothing

Now that the temperature is dropping, it’s a great time to revisit that winter wardrobe that you’re about to bring to the forefront of your closet. Do you need all the hats, scarves, gloves, boots, winter socks, slippers, sweaters, cardigans, jackets, etc.? Does everything still fit? Is it all still in good condition? Do you need as many sweaters as you have? Before I start hanging up my clothes for the new season, I like to make sure that I still love everything I have before I put it away.

If you need a quick tip, as you hang your clothes for the new season, turn all of the hangers around. As you wear the clothes, you can turn the hanger around the right way. If at the end of the season, there’s clothes on hangers that still aren’t turned back the right way, you’ll know you haven’t worn it the whole season and can most likely pass it along.

I hope you’re excited for the holidays and have great times with friends and family planned ahead!

Happy decluttering!