I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are excited for the new year. If you’re like my family, now is the time you look to declutter your home as you prepare for the coming year, and I’ve got some tips to help you do that more easily today:

1. Don’t wait. Don’t let weeks pass by as your holiday items sit in the home without a proper place. I recommend getting on the task of decluttering right away.

2. Prioritize. If you’re struggling to find a place for one or more items that you have, consider whether the items are something that you need to hold on to. There may be certain items that are important to you and your family, but there may also be other items that you’ve acquired over the years that you don’t really use in your annual decorating. If that’s the case, it might be time to donate or resell those items.

“A lot of your extra gift wrap and trimmings are recyclable.”

3. Organize gift wrap. It can be very easy for rolls of gift wrap to get spread out and take up a lot of room. Now is a great time to go through and organize that gift wrap to make sure you’re not holding on to scraps of paper that won’t help you in the future. Maybe you could repurpose those for a craft project or something else.

4. Recycle. Make sure that you’re not just tossing all of your extra gift wrap and trimmings in the trash. A lot of this stuff is recycled material and you want to properly dispose of it according to your local recycling priorities.

5. Prepare for next year. You may have things that you kept in storage and didn’t pull out for the holidays. I like to take this time of year to evaluate the inventory I have and see if any of them are ones I intend to hold onto in the future. It’s also just a good time to organize your stuff so that you know where everyone is. 

If you have any questions for me about this list or real estate in general, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.