With Christmas just around the corner, many households are bracing for a wave of new gifts, decorations, and overnight guests. To ease the transition, three professional organizers suggest a pre-holiday purge of six specific categories, ensuring your home is ready for both the festivities and the inevitable influx of belongings.
Carly Booze of POP Organizing, Katherine Picott of Tidy Milso, and Kristina Pinkerton of Organizing Huntsville each offered their expertise on what to part with before the holiday rush. Their collective advice focuses on creating space and reducing clutter, which they say can make hosting and daily life during the season far more manageable.
Holiday Decor and Cards: Out with the Old
Booze recommends reviewing your holiday decorations as you take them down this year. Any items that no longer fit your style or that you didn't use in recent months—whether from Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas—should be donated. This not only clears space but also allows others in your community to purchase secondhand pieces for their own celebrations.
Similarly, holiday cards from past years often accumulate, but Booze notes that "people rarely go back and look at them after the year is over." She suggests recycling cards when you dismantle your decor, keeping only those with genuine sentimental value.
Coats and Sheets: Preparing for Guests
Picott points out that the coat closet often becomes a catch-all, especially during winter. Decluttering it now not only simplifies finding your own outerwear but also frees hangers for guests' coats. She also advises donating gently used coats to local drives, which are common this time of year.
For overnight visitors, Picott suggests limiting sheet sets to two or three per bed. Extra sets can be donated, ensuring you have enough without hoarding linens that rarely see use.
Kids' Items and Kitchen Gadgets: Streamlining for the Season
Pinkerton encourages parents to sort through children's toys and clothes before Santa arrives. "Clearing out items they've outgrown or no longer use not only frees up space but also makes it easier for them to enjoy their new gifts," she explains.
In the kitchen, Pinkerton calls a pre-holiday declutter "a game-changer for anyone hosting guests." She recommends clearing the pantry, evaluating small appliances, and discarding unused cookware to create more functional space for meal prep and entertaining.
By tackling these six areas now, homeowners can enter the new year with less clutter and a more organized living space, reducing post-holiday cleanup tasks.
