Decluttering after the Holidays

Picture this: it’s mid-January. It’s cold and there’s snow everywhere and your basement has approximately 750 boxes of Christmas decorations sitting among your other in-progress home organization hopes and dreams. Overwhelmed? It’s okay. We can help. First - pause. Take a deep breath. Organization can be a lot sometimes, especially after the holidays. 

Today our goal is to help you figure out what Christmas decor to purge, and how to organize what you keep to help your home feel less cluttered and more organized and help you feel more on top of things. So, take advantage of the snowy weather and get something accomplished indoors. 

Step 1: Identify What You Have

If you keep Christmas up long after New Year's - no judgment. Christmas is the best. Relish in your holiday joy a little longer and then jump in. If everything is still set up, you’re in a great spot to declutter! First, organize your decorations into piles or plastic tubs if you have breakables (hello, ornaments!), and group them by type. If you’re working out of boxes, hopefully, your boxes are labeled. Otherwise, organize box contents into piles of like items.

Step 2: Decide What You Actually Need

Once everything is laid out, take account of what you’re looking at, what you like, what you want, and what you’re keeping because maybe you might use it someday. This applies to any type of decluttering you might be doing, but today we’re just going to focus on Christmas. With this in mind ask a few questions:

• Are you going to do the same decor theme next year? 

• Did you like how your decorations looked this year? If not, it’s time to say goodbye. 

• Are there any broken ornaments or decor items that you don’t want to fix? 

Separate any items that you thought of after those questions, and make one more pass, this time more critically.  Family heirlooms, antiques, and special decor aside, it’s great to declutter your holiday decor each year. 

Once you have items separated, evaluate your storage options. Do you have Sterilite totes to put things in to save space? Old Christmas boxes are also great - we’ve even seen ornaments stored in an old Vitamix box. Once you’ve evaluated what’s staying, make sure you have storage for all of it. If things are safe where they are, take pictures of it all, run over to the store, and grab any totes or boxes you need to keep them safe for next year. 

Step 3: Keep, Toss, Give, Sell

So you’ve made a pass or two evaluating what you actually have and what you like - perfect. This step will focus on managing what you’re ready to part with. Check the condition of each of the items you set aside. If you want to try and sell on Marketplace or Craigslist, take some pictures of each and list them for a fair price. If you have friends or neighbors who you want to give them to, set those aside for them. Anything that’s broken beyond repair, used and abused (looking at you old tree runner that you spilled water on every week and the cat made a nest in), toss. That ancient fake tree that looks more like party confetti than a tree? Time to part with that. 

Step 4: Put it all away!

Remember the boxes and storage containers you needed to make sure you had in Step 2? You’ll need those now. For breakables, extra plastic grocery bags are a great way to pack them in safely, reduce clutter elsewhere in your house, and recycle something that otherwise goes in a landfill - wins all around! Make sure everything is clearly labeled, and take time to put every box back in a safe spot for next Christmas. This is your chance to organize your organizing! Do you like how your storage is organized right now? Repeat steps 1-4 as many times as you need. 

We Can Help 

Here at Ballistic Junk Removal, our goal is to be your one-stop shop for junk removal. As you’re cleaning up your Christmas clutter, if you encounter more trash than you anticipated, or even large and annoying to move items - we’re here to help. We can save you a trip to the dump, take care of the manual labor for you, and are here to simplify your to-do list. You’re busy, let us take the junk for you.