’Tis the season to be jolly… and stay calm. I love the build up to Christmas and channeling all the festive joy. I don’t necessarily love the materialism and feeling no control over stuff entering the home. If you are on your decluttering and tidying journey, you might have concerns this season will unravel some of your hard-won progress. Please do not feel disheartened! Holiday clutter fears have been brought up by several of my clients in the past few weeks so I’m sharing 7 tasks you might consider during November and early December. Set a 15 minute timer. Avoid distractions during this “focus time” and give it your best go. You may not complete the whole job in 15 minutes but you will make real progress on some open-ended tasks and have the satisfaction of ticking off others. Moreover, the intention will help you reduce clutter. Mindset is everything. Try it and your January self might thank you!

1. Unfollow & Unsubscribe: It’s that time of year where tailored social ads and inbox alerts from brands go into overdrive. Now is a great time to reduce exposure by unfollowing, muting, unsubscribing or even setting up a separate email address for mailing lists. Get into the habit of unsubscribing those retailer newsletters that are not sparking joy or improving your life. Just because you signed up for their new joiner discount 5 years ago, does not mean they deserve your attention! Ditto social media accounts that do not spark joy or utility. The noise becomes louder during Black Friday, Christmas shopping & Boxing Day sales.

   15 minute timer task: Search your emails for the word “unsubscribe” to bring up mailing list emails and spend 15 minutes doing just that!

   
   

2. Write your Christmas gift list: Not decluttering in the physically but decluttering mentally. Write down the specific names, the amount you want to spend for each and brainstorm gift ideas. I find the sooner I do this my mind feels lighter and the more intentional I can be. You can take advantage of discounts with less chance of panic buying 20 candle sets at a discount that you’ll be trying to offload next Christmas too (no promises though!) Don’t forget planned secret Santa gift exchanges and teacher gifts.

   15 minute timer task: Put pen to paper and get listing!

   
   

3. Start communicating (& reiterating!) your boundaries to close friends & family: Boundaries is a buzzword (I know!) but please hear me out because it has been a learning curve dealing with the #firstworldproblem of toy overwhelm! Anyone else relate? My husband and I used to give no guidance. Now we start reminding both sets of loving grandparents well in advance to please stick to the 1-present rule and give some hints. Some family members also proactively ask us in advance which is lovely. Let’s face it, one gift from each grandparents is magical… 10+ presents some of which are taller than them in addition to all the other gifts they receive is less magical! Like any boundaries, they need to be communicated, reiterated and reinforced. In our case, some grandparent gifts ultimately stay in their homes rather than ours and we are all on the same page with this. Secret Santa gift exchanges, being prescriptive with hints, and adding to existing toy set your kids love (Tonies characters for a Tonies box or clothes set for a doll for example) are all communications that reduce clutter and stress for you... and save time, energy and money of the gift-givers. There is still room - I’d argue more so - for surprise and magic without excess, however that is defined by you! Don’t forget it is up to you what comes into your home. The magic of Christmas, particularly though children’s eyes, is so more than volume of the gift pile don’t you think?

   15 minute timer task: Communicate any gift boundaries before shopping season. You might try: “It’s lovely you give so generously to the kids. We are keeping it simple so please stick to one gift per child. They have a lot of toys and we end up giving a huge load to charity which feels very wasteful. They will be delighted with anything like xyz / they’ve been dreaming of xyz book or toy. Let’s make sure we spend quality time over Christmas together…” or whatever feels natural to you. Some of us are more direct but you get my drift. 😆

   
   

4. Declutter toys: The festive season = more toys. Now is the perfect time to joy-check your children’s toys. If they are young, consider doing a first cull then involve them in a manageable way. You could get out all their vehicle toys or all their board games for small chunks of decluttering. Children as young as 3 may be able to joy-check with guidance. Check out my free guide ‘How to tidy, organise & declutter with children’ for ideas. Take your children with you to the charity drop so they understand the life cycle of their belongings. We tend to buy our kids’ Christmas outfits and gifts secondhand too so it is an opportunity to browse. Fara Kids is a beautiful kids charity shop with several branches in London.

   15 minute timer task: Pick a smaller subcategory of toys for your family (e.g. vehicles, legos, dolls, small figurines, board games) to declutter. Use my guidance if it is helpful and see how you get on. Do a few more bursts if you feel up for it.

   
   

5. Plan activities & experiences: For me this takes the focus away from buying stuff. I’d rather spend my time, money and energy (all limited resources) on experiences. Set your budget for activities and choose ones that spark joy and are within your means. Baking gingerbread at home, Christmas movies on the sofa, museum trip, theatre show, seeing the lights in the West End, iceskating, crafting, making cards, wrapping gifts together with a drink in hand, wrapping up on Wintery walks in nature, socialising with friends and family, a year end review dinner with my husband - it’s more fun than its sounds but that’s a story for another time! What are your traditions? Do you prefer quiet downtime and keeping it simple? Do you love to go all out for party season? A mix?

   15 minute timer task: Brainstorm activities and diarise/book a couple that make your heart sing rather than the stuff you think you should be doing.

   
   

6. Audit your Christmas items before you put up decorations or start Christmas shopping: Gather it all, whether packed away in boxes or around your home! Christmas jumpers, Christmas decorations, leftover wrapping paper & cards, Santa socks that you end up wearing all year round because they stayed in your drawer, novelty Reindeer mugs, festive candles, kids Christmassy book collection, reusable advent calendars. Furthermore, do you have a generic “gifts to give” pile? Get clear on what you already have before you start a) Christmas shopping and b) putting up decorations. Go through these items and ask yourself do they spark joy? Donate what you no longer need or love - that outgrown kiddie Christmas jumper might be perfect for someone else this Christmas. You will save money (and clutter) if you know your existing stock of wrapping paper, gift tags, cards and “gifts-to-give.”

   15 minute timer task: Look around your home as systemically as you can to locate all the Christmas stuff to prepare.

   
   

7. Dig out the stamps: Locate stamps you own. Use them up this Christmas before stamps sans barcode are defunct!

   15 minute timer task: Find the stamps & write your Christmas card list accordingly!

Wishing you a joyful festive season! Tanya x