When it’s time to get the family together for the holidays, there’s nothing more troublesome than trying to cram everyone and all of their suitcases into an already-cluttered home.
Whether you’re someone who has just a little too much decor, or hasn’t cleaned in a long while, there’s likely a lot of things you’d like to throw out before your big Christmas lunch – or before the few weeks that you have family and friends staying at your home.
We know just how hard it can be to really get into cleaning and decluttering for the holidays, so we have a few tips and tricks for you below. These might make it a little easier to get your home in tip-top shape just in time for the arrival of mum, dad or the siblings.
Take a look at our decluttering tips for the holiday season below.
Push Everything Off All Flat Surfaces (Literally or Figuratively)
One of the first things we ask that you do, is to simply clear off every single flat surface in your home.
These ‘zones’ should always be clear for most of the year anyway, though there’s a chance you’ve seen a little bit of clutter building up on them over the past few weeks. With this in mind, we say grab a trash bag and simply throw out anything you don’t use, without remorse.
Whether it’s outdated decor, old items or even rubbish – bag it up and toss it.
Once this step is done, you should have a table, countertop, breakfast bar, desk and bathroom vanity with little to nothing on it. The perfect start to getting your head clear and ready to clean your home!
Take a Trip Around the House
One of my favourite tips is to take a journey through your home, and look at it with a new frame of mind.
For this task, it’s pivotal to look around the space and judge it harshly! Ask yourself, ‘should this be there?’ ‘Does this look too visually cluttered?’ and so on. Once you’ve finished this, and ideally listed out all the things you’d like to move, you’ll be ready to start step two, and that’s rearranging as much of your space as possible.
There’s almost a certainty that a vast majority of the items in the home aren’t really meant to live where they currently are, and so putting things back in their place or tucking them away in a cupboard, a backpack or a purse is a good place to start.
For those items that are larger, and aren’t easy to throw away, consider getting in touch with services like 1300 Rubbish. This way you’ll be able to get rid of larger items like benches, couches and basically anything else you’d like without issue.
Don’t Overdo It
If you’ve ever tried a big decluttering you’ll know that it takes a monumental amount of self-discipline to actually get it done. So here is the hack we’d like to share with you; don’t do it all at once.
Nothing gets done if you have a list of 500 items to clean and tidy, and so keep your to-do list to around 5 per day and work away at each room over the course of a few days. This way you’ll see a bigger impact on your hard work, with each room becoming nice and tidy rather than tackling a little of each room throughout the day.
Check Everything Has a Home
Another point to keep in mind, especially when decluttering is concerned, is making sure that every item in your home has a place to go. If you’re buying and hoarding too many items then it’s probably time to consider throwing things away that don’t have a home.
As mentioned above, if all of your flat surfaces are laden with items that simply don’t belong there, then this is telling you that the clutter is simply not needed. There’s too much, not enough space and it’s time to wind things back a little bit.
If you’re desperate to hold on to a few of the clutter items, then it might be worth considering investing in a secondary cupboard or hideaway storage boxes, for example. This way you can tuck a few things away and keep the main spaces in your home nice and clutter-free for guests.
Conceal What Can’t be Thrown
To end our list of tips, we suggest you work your magic on those items that can’t be chucked away.
In a similar vein to hideaway storage, you’ll want to make sure that all of the ‘things’ that don’t fit anywhere else are simply well-hidden or masked as ‘decor’ for the house. Some items can be used as table decor, weights for your table cloths and even artwork if they’re quirky enough.
There’s typically always a secondary way for a ‘clutter item’ to be used, you just have to be smart about it!
Conclusion
With some of our quick tips above, we’re sure that getting on top of any and all clutter in the home is going to be a breeze this year. Be sure to have a plan in place and work away at your home room by room and you’ll be more motivated to keep on going when you find a little too much to clean up.
And to end, what you can’t find a home for, and don’t want to throw away – do your very best to conceal it!
