Organizing after Christmas Chaos

Christmas is so much fun, but can also bring a lot of “stuff” into your home. These are my tips for organizing after Christmas chaos. {originally shared December 2013, updated December 2017}

We had an incredible time celebrating the holidays and our home shows it! All of the gifts that we spent hours meticulously wrapping need to find a home as well as the paper itself. As the week comes to an end, I am taking the day to organize our home after the Christmas chaos and am sharing my tips with you today! 

Our once organized home is covered in toys, clothes, boxes, plastic bags, dishes and laundry. Before I can regroup and move forward, I have to clean and declutter. I’m sharing my tips for organizing after Christmas:

{ps how precious were they?}

1. Remove items from their packaging: Boxes consume double the space. Open items, maintaining any assembly instructions and recycling packaging.

2. Create a recycling “center”: For quick cleanup, I used a big box that a toy came in in the living room for all recyclable packaging to go in. I used another large box for the upstairs, which kept me from running to the recycle bin frequently.

3. Sort existing toys and donate while you still have a chance: I find that the easiest time to openly donate clothes and toys with kids is when something new enters the home. Seize the opportunity {quickly} and talk to them about making room for their new toys and work through their toy room or bedrooms together to see what they are ready to let go of.

4. Rotate toys: Move existing toys that you want to keep to a storage closet or basement when they’ll go unnoticed. Kiddos can be so enamored with their new, that for a short time, they won’t notice the old. Again, take advantage of this opportunity while you can and rotate toys. In a month, you can rotate them again, bringing new life to the older toys you have chosen to keep. I used another large box and the girls helped me “pack” it before we moved it downstairs.

5. Assess what you have and where it will go: If you’re like us, toys linger around the living room, because that’s where they were opened. Divide into piles/areas. I placed clothes, bedroom decor and toys that will go upstairs in the foyer and made piles in the living room for toys that will go to my office {where their play kitchen is} and our hearth room {where I have an amazing coffee table that discretely stores toys and books}.

6. File away! Start putting it all away. This should be easier now that you have completed the previous steps. While doing so, I take it one step further and find additional items to recycle, donate or dispose of. i.e.: The girls each received new clothes, with a quick once over of their drawers while putting them away,  I found a few I could donate to make room for new.

7. Drop off donations. The sooner you remove things from the house, the more organized you’ll feel.

8. Take down the greens. The day before your Christmas tree pickup, remove any fresh greens so you can immediately take them to the curb, eliminating needles lingering in the garage.

I hope you enjoyed these tips for organizing after Christmas. Now you can kick back, relax and enjoy a glass of wine and start thinking about the new year! You can find all of my organization posts here with free printable labels to organize your laundry room and kitchen, beautiful ideas to organize your linens, organize cleaning supplies, organize paint colors, and SO much more!

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