This December, we all look forward to a long Christmas break to spend quality time with our family and friends and perhaps revel a bit in the holiday spirit! But where there is a celebration, there will also be clean up and packing away all the holiday decorations. The New Year is a time for fresh starts, and there is no better way of kicking all this off than with a good clear out of your home.
If your home is like mine and is overfilled with all the new items from Christmas, such as extra toys, clothing or large household equipment, why not take this time to sort through and remove some of that clutter? The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day can be a good time to plan for this as you can often find some quiet time to go through your things, declutter and organise your storage and rooms.
If you did not want to take multiple trips to the nearest recycling centre or are unable to make the trip yourself, why not check out Clearabee for your rubbish clearance. They are the UK’s largest man and van rubbish removal company. They operate across the UK using their own in-house teams and fleet of more than 100 vehicles. They also offer skip bags and skip hire that allows you to fill up with the peace of mind of a fixed price! Do note that putting the skip on the road may be a bit trickier than usual because there might be more cars/visitors visiting or parking on the road. It is best to keep the road/paths clear.
I love to declutter every so often but I am no Marie Kondo! I just love to have a clean house which incidentally also makes more spaces for new items! Like the old Chinese proverb says, “If old things don’t go, new things will never come”.
Here are some suggestions which I hope will help you to make that decluttering task a reality! Decluttering does take a lot of courage and patience! Most importantly, you should never be beaten by the thought process of decluttering. Step one, get yourself mentally and physically prepared! Arm yourself with a lot of rubbish bags and cleaning products to help clean along.
Step two is to try to get someone/adult to help you along the way, especially with large furniture items or gardening tools. We have recently removed 15 off-cuts and rolls of carpets left by the previous owners from the loft! I had to tread carefully along the beams to reach those filthy carpets to pass to my husband on the other receiving end! The amount of rubbish was astonishing and took us two hours to clear! Also, you should avoid asking help from a child as they will hinder and potentially jeopardise the whole decluttering process! They won’t let you throw away anything!
Step three, be as ruthless as possible! Useless things like ornaments can look attractive and do not look like things you want to get rid of. But remember, you probably do not need them at all. They can make their way out! If this stuff has been sitting in the garage/loft gathering dust, you can’t care about it that much so it is time to get rid of it. If this stuff on your shelf has not been used in the past six months, either tidy it up or discard.
Of course, not everything needs to be thrown away, especially if it is good quality furniture, clothes, games, books etc. that might be much better donated to a charity shop. There are a few charity shops that will come and pick up your things for free! We love to use the British Heart Foundation as they will collect your furniture and electrical items that they can sell in their shops. But if you have bought a brand new table to replace your old broken one, it is best to get rid of them. If you use a skip, they will organise your rubbish at their sorting facilities accordingly so not everything goes into landfill.
I find if I declutter and pack up items around the home during the Christmas holiday period, it helps to keep our home less cluttered and clean for the new year. So how do you keep your Christmas clutter under control? Do you do it as you go or do you require a wake-up call to get you started? I would love to have you share your ideas in the comments below.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.