Taming Chaos Through Decluttering

Eliminating the clutter that lingers in homes after the holidays can refresh the soul and maybe restore some sanity.

By Jill Bold

Illustrations by Conny Gonzalez

Remnants of the end-of-the-year holidays float around American households every January — old and new toys, clothing, electronics, food, decor and straight-up trash. This clutter invades our physical spaces, and it can feel suffocating.

As the excitement of the holidays subsides and everyday life settles back in, it’s time to tidy up a bit. It’s time for a reset.

Getting rid of all the old material things that have accumulated over the year — especially after that surge of stuff that you added to it last December — is crucial to keeping 2023 on track with a clear mind and a clean home.

The plan of attack is twofold: address all categories of clutter and attack them in a specific order. Set up a bag/can each for trash, recycling and donations. Have additional bags and boxes ready to go.

Categories Of Clutter

Holiday Decor

It’s January and the tree’s still up, as well as the raggedy wreath that hangs on the front door year after year. Take a quick assessment of what holiday decorations remain in your living space. Gather up sturdy cardboard boxes or plastic bins with lids to store the decor. Room by room, pack up everything, but observe the condition of any of the decorations. Anything that’s old, broken or unwanted is destined for the trash. Using storage bins or boxes that are red and green is festive, and it helps you quickly know what’s inside of those boxes: holiday decorations. Add detailed labels of the contents if desired and whisk them off to storage till next season.

Toys & Clothes

The top Christmas holiday retail category in 2022 was clothing, and toys were not far behind, so chances are you’ve experienced an influx of both. Take the time to sort through all that systematically:

Identify any clothes you want to donate; add them to the donate box.

Throw away any old clothes that are not suitable for donation.

Remove tags from new clothing and all other packaging and throw away or recycle.

Throw any of the clothes that are machine washable into the washer and wash them.

Grab any other dirty laundry in your space and gather it in one place, preparing it to be cleaned as well.

Continue to process the laundry as you tackle the rest of the list.

With toys, sort through the total volume (new and old toys) and eliminate 30%-40% (or more!). Trash unwanted toys that are junky and donate the gently used ones. If these are kids’ toys, have your little ones help you sort.

Electronics

If your personal technology received a glow up this holiday season, it’s time to take inventory of everything that’s accumulated. Recycle the copious amounts of packaging you’ll be dealing with and arrange to properly dispose of old unwanted electronics through a local e-recycling company.

Food

A fresh fridge makes any day brighter. A thorough cleanse of the refrigerator is always due at this time of year. The fastest way to tackle this is to pull out all the contents of the fridge, wipe down (scrub and rinse if needed) the fridge inside and out, and only put back the food you want to keep. Leave any expired or unwanted food on the counter; then dispose of it when you’re done sorting. Look through every leftover container and empty and rinse any container with old food. This may mean you’ll have some dishes, so load up the dishwasher and move on to the final stage.

Trash & Recycling

Easily the fastest and most satisfying stage of this super clean, the final task is to address all the trash and recycling. Gather it up and take it to your dumpster, garage or curb. Check all trash cans in the house and make sure they are emptied and clean. All that should remain is the donation box, so take the time to schedule a pickup or place the box in your trunk so you can drop it off at a donation location.