Decluttering Your Home in Preparation for Christmas

Get your home feeling really festive this Christmas by organising your space to make room for all the friends, family, decorations, mince pies and of course, gifts that are about to arrive in it!

There are five key areas that are worth decluttering now in preparation for Christmas so here’s a few tips on tackling them in time for the lovely, silly season:

Kitchen Cupboards

Still got half a packet of marzipan from last Christmas lurking at the back of the cupboard somewhere? What about that gigantic roasting tin for a Turkey – do you know where it is? Go through your kitchen cupboards now and be ruthless with the contents.

Throw out any stale or out of date ingredients that are taking up room and put all the mince pie tins, cake tins, baking trays and cooking equipment you’ll need for the big day in places where they’re easily accessible.

When you’ve done that, you can see what you need for the biggest dinner of the year and write a shopping list for it.

Toys

They’re everywhere aren’t they. In the children’s bedrooms, under the sofa, on the lawn, in the garage and even in the boot of your car.

If your kids are old enough, you can involve them in this decluttering project, you don’t have to do all the Christmas prep yourself!

However, if they’re young or prone to suddenly getting reattached to the one-legged Action Man they haven’t played with since January, you’ll need to wait until they’re out of the house or master ninja-level smuggling skills to get rid of their old, unwanted playthings.

If you’ve never transported a punctured ball, a headless doll and 27 pieces of a 30-piece jigsaw puzzle up your jumper to the wheelie bin before, this may be a steep learning curve for you.

Sort toys into three piles: Keep, chuck, and donate or sell and then get them organised. Plastic storage boxes are ideal for creating order out of chaos and making use of under-bed or on-top-of-wardrobe storage space.

Your Bedroom

In the next few months your bedroom is likely to be used for wrapping and hiding gifts (or eyebrow-raising till receipts!) and become a place that you retreat to just to get some respite from all the festive madness.

Make it a really useful haven by decluttering any surfaces, wardrobes and drawers now.

Out of season and occasional clothing can all be packed away into unused suitcases or plastic storage boxes and stowed in the loft until you really need it, making it easy to see what you have and what you could ask Santa for, and create the space you need to get a few secret jobs done.  

Christmas Room(s):

Most households have one or two rooms where all the Christmas action takes place. This is where your tree will go, Santa will arrive and everyone will eat their massive festive dinner.

Declutter any sideboards or surfaces and rearrange your furniture to make space for the tree, dining table and Christmas decorations. Anything that’s non-essential for the holiday period can be stowed away temporarily.

Decorations

Don’t wait until you’re ready to decorate your home before going through your Christmas decorations. They will have quite inexplicably become tangled, broken or missing altogether since last year.

Go through them now to see what you need and then get some plastic storage boxes so you can put your decorations away neatly in the New Year and save yourself this headache next Christmas!

B&M Top Tip: As you go about decluttering your home you’ll come up with plenty of ideas for gifts, experiences or personal touches that you and your loved ones would like for Christmas - write them down!

By the time you’re done, you’ll have a clean, organised home and a list of half the things you need to buy or do to make this Christmas really special.

You can find all the supplies you need for decluttering and organising your home in preparation for Christmas, in-store at your local B&M.