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Learn how to reduce clutter during the holidays, so you can enjoy the season with a neat, clutter-free home. Great for families!
Boots. Witches. Angels. Mud.
Is that what’s in store for your home this winter?
Cooler weather and the upcoming holidays are the perfect opportunity for clutter to rear its ugly head.
Creating a plan now to conquer clutter through the holiday season will help reduce stress and keep your home looking great. To help you control clutter this winter, I put together 5 quick tips to help you learn how to reduce clutter during the holidays.
What Causes Holiday Clutter?
There are many reasons why clutter builds up during the winter months. The top 4 are:
- More garments
- More people
- Less time
- More stuff
We’re inside more because it’s cold out (For most of us, anyway). We also wear extra clothes, like coats, hats, scarves, and boots, to ward off the chill. We have friends and family over to celebrate the season. Finally, gifts from loved ones might mean loads of extra stuff.
That can add up to a lot of clutter during the winter months!
Plus, between work, school events, parties, and visits with family and friends, you just don’t have as much time to keep clutter under control during the holdiays.
How to Reduce Clutter During the Holidays
If you’re struggling to figure out how to keep holiday clutter out of your house, not to worry. These 5 tips will teach you how to tackle clutter all winter long, so you can have your house back!
Have a Plan to Corral Extra Outerwear
For most of us, with winter comes cooler weather – and more outerwear.
Although you can’t keep winter outerwear out of your house, you can have a plan to corral your family’s mucked-up rain and snow boots, hats, scarves, and coats.
First, you probably need to clean out your coat closet or mudroom. Put away any lightweight jackets and other outerwear and shoes that aren’t in season. Then, ensure there are plenty of hangers or hooks for family and guests to hang their coats. You can provide baskets for extra hats, scarves, and gloves.
Next, put an inexpensive doormat inside your door, so visitors have somewhere to wipe their shoes once inside. As a result, you’ll have fewer messes to clean up in your entryway.
You might also want to create a place to store wet or muddy shoes. This DIY drip-dry tray on Pinterest is a great solution. You could put a basket of clean socks next to it, to encourage guests to remove their shoes after entering.
If you have guests frequently during winter months, make sure you have space for their stuff, too. If you need help getting your house cleaned before guests arrive, check out my speed cleaning checklists for last minute guests, and get your cleaning caddy ready to go!
Switch Out Seasonal Décor in a Timely Manner
Holiday decorating is fun! From Halloween, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever your family celebrates, it’s a great way to feel the season.
What’s not so fun? When those decorations are left up past their prime. True confession – I once left some (indoor) Halloween décor up until MARCH. 🤦
As soon as you’re no longer feeling the spirit of the holiday, take those decorations down and put them away. As a result, you’ll be ready to decorate for the next holiday. Plus, your Halloween witch and Christmas angel won’t be staring each other down from across the room.
Bonus points if you get rid of decorations you no longer want, because it’s always good to declutter.
Have Systems to Tackle Paper
You might be surprised that I mentioned paper in a post about how to reduce clutter during the holidays. But if you aren’t keeping paper under control during the holidays, you’ll have a huge pile of paper come January.
Christmas cards, school information, and online orders mean lots of extra paper around the holidays. To keep paper clutter from taking over your kitchen counter, you should find ways to tame each incoming piece of paper.
Here are some easy ideas for how to control clutter during the holidays when it comes to paper:
- Deal with incoming mail and papers every day, and immediately shred or recycle papers you don’t need
- Find a fun way to display greeting cards, such as pinned to a string across your mantle or vertically in your kitchen
- Keep invitations and flyers in a binder in date order near your family calendar, and recycle them after each event is over
Finally, the holidays are busy enough without the stress and anxiety of a huge mound of mail on your kitchen counter. As a result, you should make an effort to sort and deal with incoming mail every single day. You might want to check out my biggest secret to taming paper clutter too!
Choose Experiential Gifts Over Buying More Stuff
Another big source of clutter during the winter is all the extra stuff we buy or receive as gifts.
When deciding what to give your family members for the holidays, lean more toward experiences rather than things. As a result, you’ll enrich their lives without cluttering up your home.
For example, you could gift tickets to the zoo, a theme park, or a concert. You could even book your loved one a massage, a pottery class, a beginning sewing class, a canoeing session, whatever you think they’d love!
Ask your family what kinds of things they’d like to do in the upcoming year, and plan their gifts around their ideas. They’ll grow in character, but the amount of stuff they have won’t. It’s a perfect solution for how to reduce clutter during the holidays.
By the way, these ideas will also come in handy when friends and relatives ask for gift ideas for your kids or spouse! 😉
Have Evening Pickup to Declutter as a Family
What’s evening pickup, and what does it have to do with how to reduce clutter during the holidays?
Simple. Every evening (preferably right before bedtime), each family member visits each room in the house, and picks up any belongings, trash, or dishes that belong to him or her.
This works year-round too, but it’s especially effective during the winter, when kids are home from school or stuck inside, there are extra people coming and going, and a busier schedule in general.
Evening pickup works great for a few reasons:
- Everyone has to participate, so no one feels singled out
- You aren’t stuck picking up after your entire family
- You’ll avoid adding to the mess and clutter
- It’s a lot easier to have everyone declutter once per day than doing it yourself once per week or less
You might want to try making it fun by putting on some holiday music or moving through each room as a family. You could even give a prize each night to the person with the least amount of clutter! This is probably the most effective approach to how to reduce clutter during the holidays.
How to Keep Holiday Clutter Out of Your House: Conclusion
I hope the 5 tips above will help you get a handle on holiday clutter in your home. Here’s a quick recap of my tips:
- Corral extra outerwear by cleaning out your coat closet, using a doormat, and providing a space for wet or muddy shoes
- Switch out seasonal décor as soon as you’re no longer feeling the spirit of the holiday (Halloween, Christmas, etc)
- Have systems to tackle paper by dealing with mail daily and organizing flyers and invitations in a folder or binder
- When choosing gifts, give experiences (Tickets, classes, activities) rather than things
- Have each family member pick up his or her belongings in each room of the house each evening (Evening pickup)
Want even more helpful cleaning and organizing tips for working women? Join the ShowMe Suburban community and learn simple habits and routines to keep your home clean and organized, so you can relax away from work without feeling the stress of a messy home. Sign up below!