6 minute read
De-cluttering
ROSIE BARRON IS THE TIDY COO
An award winning Professional Organiser, who works with clients to help them Declutter and Organise their homes and live a more relaxed life. A Master KonMari Consultant and member of APDO (the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers), Rosie lives in Aberdeenshire with her husband, four Home Educated children, eight ponies, five dogs, three cats, two bunnies, chickens, ducks and fish which all Spark Joy.
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As we come to the end of the year, our thoughts swing to Christmas. I love Christmas! I love spending time with my family. I love roaring fires, hot chocolate and mulled wine, and the excitement of the children as we build up to that day.
Decorations
We decorate our tree and house on the first weekend of December and the first thing that we do is to get all our ornaments and
Images: Laura Walter Photography
decorations together to check that we still love them. Most of our ornaments and decorations are old favourites, bought over the years on our travels, and many have specific memories associated with them, so I don’t have a beautifully put together tree and house, but
somehow it all works together. When the festive season is over, and I’m packing the decorations away, I’ll check them over again at that point to see if there are any that are broken, because there is no point in me storing something for the entire year, only to get it out next Christmas and discard it! As you are putting your decorations up this year, bring them all out, have a good look through them and release any that are broken. Any that you are not sure about putting up, ask yourself why, and if it is because you no longer love them, then let them go.
Gift Wrap and Cards
This is also an excellent time of year to look through your gift wrap. I frequently come across large stashes of paper, ribbon, bows and labels that will not be used, but that the owner does not want to get rid of because they feel it is wasteful. If you are not going to use it, it is a waste regardless of whether it clogs up your home. Let the excess wrapping go and enjoy the experience of wrapping without being buried by paper. If you truly cannot bring yourself to do this, then put a moratorium this year on buying any new paper until you have used what you have already and if this makes you sad, you know what I am going to say! I have friends who use fabric to wrap rather than paper and they do this for environmental reasons. Do make sure if you are going down this route that the fabric will be reused as if it is just used once and discarded, then the footprint is much higher than for paper – better just to use recyclable paper in that situation. The people I know who use fabric successfully send the same piece of fabric back and forth between them each year, or simply gather the fabric up once it has been used and take it back to use it again. that people have received, again, it is not that unusual for me to find stacks of them reaching back into the past. Be honest with yourself when you take the cards down at the end of the Christmas period about whether or not you are actually going to look at these cards again, and if you are not, then let them go. I know that there are people out there who make beautiful tags or art out of their old Christmas cards, but the people who actually do this (as opposed to just intending to) are vanishingly rare. Please don’t let your legacy be piles of old Christmas cards!
Gift Giving and Receiving
When it comes to gifts, regardless of your religion, it is worth remembering that Christmas is a time of celebration and family, rather than a competition to see how many gifts we can give and receive. The children are delighted to open their stockings from Father Christmas regardless of how much may have been spent.
We try to run to a saying ourselves that goes along the lines of:
Something they want,
Something they need,
Something to wear,
Something to read.
Now that doesn’t mean that they only get 4 presents, but it is a good reminder when the elves start running around panicking that there is not enough...
With gifts from relatives, we generally ask that they contribute to a larger gift, or an experience for the children, or a charity donation that the children have picked, rather than end up
Christmas cards are similar to wrapping paper in the stashes that I find. Every year, people buy new ones and the excess from last year lies unused for the next decade. Either use these cards, or let them go. When it comes to cards
with a hundred different presents for children who really already have an abundance of belongings. If you feel like the prospect of Christmas and being inundated is filling you with horror, do talk to your relatives about it. Most people are delighted to fall in with your wishes once they understand your motives behind the decision, but it is a subject best approached tactfully and with the understanding that the people buying presents are doing so out of love.
I come from a large family myself, and for the last decade or so, rather than everyone try to buy everyone else a gift, among the grown-ups, we do a Secret Santa, with each person being given another family member to buy for. It means that each person gets to open a thoughtful gift without adding too much of a strain to finances or homes that are bulging at the seams or minds that are already fraught with the pressures of the festive season.
Over the Christmas period, almost invariably we will end up being gifted something that we don’t love. The job of a gift is to show love and respect – if you don’t love the gift you have been given, receive it with gratitude remembering that it has been given with the best of intentions. However, once it is in your possession, do not feel that you have to keep it! Whilst we should never intentionally hurt someone else, if a gift does not bring you joy, then you can (quietly) let it go.
This Christmas, do remember what it’s all about. Don’t turn yourself inside out trying to cook the perfect meal, or bankrupt yourself buying presents, or add excess to your home. Spend time with your family and friends and enjoy yourself.
If you are struggling for a Christmas Gift, my book, Easy Life – from chaos to calm with minimal effort, will be in all good online retailers before Christmas. To keep up-to-date with its progress, do feel free to sign up to news about it at www.thetidycoo.com.
Visit: www.thetidycoo.com
