Cleaning up after Christmas

On December 24th, everyone feels great about how pretty and clean the house looks.  But what about after Christmas?  If you hosted Christmas Day at your house, there’s a good chance there are toys and presents scattered around the room.  Here are a few steps and strategies to get your house cleaned up in no time.

Step #1:  Separate items to Reuse – Recycle – Trash

Items to Reuse: Gather all of your gifts bags and bows that can be used again.  Bring them to your gift wrapping storage area.  For ideas on storing gift wrap paper and bows, check out our separate article located at the end.

Items to Recycle: Gather bags, boxes and cardboard you do not plan to keep.  Take a large box or two and put everything in it.  Just make sure the boxes meets any town recycling requirements.  Our boxes need to be less than three feet long.  Otherwise we need to cut them up into smaller pieces.  Bring these out to the trash.

Items to Trash: Collect any remaining pieces of wrapping paper and small plastic pieces that held toys in their boxes.  These can be placed in a trash bag and brought outside.

Step #2: Sort Gifts Room by Room

Next, you’ll want to group gifts according to their final room destination.

  • Did you receive a few kitchen gadgets?  Make a pile for all kitchen items.
  • If your son received toys and clothes that will go to his room, make a pile for those gifts.
  • Are you lucky to have a playroom?  Excellent.  Make a large pile for all toys going to the playroom.
  • Did you receive a few toys or gadgets to use outside?  Group these items together so they can go out to the shed or garage.
  • Be sure to keep all of your gift cards together as well.  Add these to your existing gift cards.
  • You may also need to make a pile for all items that need to be exchanged or returned to the store.  Keep these items together so you can easily get them when you’re ready to run errands.
  • If there are items that you don’t want to keep and cannot return, consider giving these to charity.

Step #3:  Move gifts to appropriate room

Now that you have sorted items into piles, move the items to the appropriate places.  Enlist help from family members to get the job done.  Before you know it, the gifts will be put away.

You may want to vacuum the family room to pick up any glitter or crumbs left over from Christmas Day.

Step #4: Put Away Gifts in Each Room

Now that the gifts are in the correct rooms, you’ll need to spend time putting them away.  Cut the tags off new clothes and put them in the hamper to wash before wearing.  Do one room at a time, and you’ll make progress.

Plan to clean up a little everyday

It can be overwhelming, so do some cleaning up everyday.  It’s better to make a little progress, than none at all.

Happy cleaning! 🙂

Here are a few more articles you may enjoy:

Simple ways to organize gift wrap paper and bows

Organize Your Gift Cards

How to Keep Track of Your Charitable Contributions