The holidays are coming up and for most of us, that means an influx of guests. While it’s wonderful to have family and friends visiting it can get really stressful. Most of the people you’ll have in your home during the holidays will be there just to relax and have a great time and you should too! That’s why you should spend some time NOW getting your home ready for the holidays so it’s one less thing to stress about.
Let’s face it, most of us have clutter somewhere in our house. Whether it’s the old VHS tapes you just won’t let go of or the dozens of boxes you shove under your bed.
According to NBC News, one in four Americans has a clutter problem. Let’s delve into some items that will help you declutter, organize and maximize space in each room of your house.
Items to Help you Declutter, Organize and Maximize Space for the Holidays
Storage Ottoman (Living Room)
The first room guests usually see when they walk into a house is the living room. Since the living room is where most people end up during or after the festivities, it makes sense for it to be one of the tidiest.
It’s easy to accumulate clutter in this part of the house. Magazines, books, and DVDs are often what you see piling up on end tables or mantels.
Incorporating a storage ottoman that doubles as a coffee table will kill two birds with one stone. You’ll have extra storage space and a surface to place your things all in one.
Be conscious of what you put into the ottoman because you don’t want that to become cluttered too. It should only be used to keep important things tucked away, and not as another space to store unnecessary items.
A Buffet (Dining Room)
A messy dining room table can make the entire room look disorganized, and that’s not something you want during a holiday like Thanksgiving.
The plates, silverware, and decorative centerpieces pieces that are supposed to make the room look nice can sometimes have the opposite effect. These items can actually make your dining room table look chaotic rather than decorative.
While you can put all of these items in the kitchen, it’s not recommended because it will only be adding clutter to another part of your house.
Instead, consider purchasing a buffet or sideboard. The cabinet will give you a place to put dishes, centerpieces, and other dining room essentials while freeing up table space for your entire family to eat.
While you’re contemplating what to put in your buffet, consider donating some items that you may not need any more, so you have less to store.
If you’re scared that removing your table decorations will make your dining room look bland, don’t worry. With the right style buffet, it can serve as a statement piece and add life to the entire room.
Food Containers (Kitchen)
When the holidays come around, people usually use the kitchen more often and as a result, the kitchen can quickly turn chaotic.
Since you’ll spend a good amount of time prepping meals for your guests here, you want to make sure the space is as clean and organized as possible.
Making sure the dishes and countertops are clean is easy, but there’s only so much you can do to make the food in your pantry, or your cupboards look organized and appealing.
There are too many oddly shaped and mismatched products for it to look neat. Uniform containers that hold your food can help transform how your pantry and cupboards look.
Randomly sized boxes and cans are harder to arrange than slender rectangular containers. That’s why food containers are a necessity because they are easier to stack, and you can easily organize them in a neat concise way.
Being able to stack them opens up more space in the cupboard, or pantry all the while making it look better. Before you know it, you’ll have a Pinterest worthy pantry.
Baskets and Jars (Bathroom)
Your guests will have to use the bathroom at some point, it’s inevitable. With that being said, that’s why it should be one of the neatest places in the house.
Since the bathroom can house so many miscellaneous items that take up space, decorative containers can help sort them out. Placing a few jars on your sink for bobby pins, Q-tips, and other small items can help to clean up the surface.
You don’t even have to spend money, you can repurpose old food jars into beautiful bathroom accent pieces.
For larger items like towels and cleaning supplies, use decorative baskets to get them in one centralized spot and increase organization.
Place the baskets in the linen closet to tidy up the way your bathroom looks and create more space.
If you don’t have a linen closet, then putting them under the sink is a great alternative.
While organizing, make sure to get rid of products you don’t need like mostly-empty shampoo bottles and old medicine bottles to free up more space.
Murphy Bed (Bedroom)
To end a long day after being the host or hostess, it’s crucial to be able to seek comfort in your bedroom, and that can be hard if your room is messy.
For most people, the most cluttered part of their bedroom is right underneath their beds. It’s easy to quickly shove something under your bed because you don’t know where else to put it. To stop this habit, a murphy bed, which is a bed that pulls out of the wall, might be just what you need.
Since the bed folds into the wall, you most likely won’t want to put things under it because you won’t want to look at a mess when its time to fold the bed up again.
No under-bed clutter equals more space. Murphy beds are usually associated with being uncomfortable, however, that’s not the case. It’s just like any other bed, as long as you have a comfortable mattress and some cozy sheets, you’ll be good to go.
Let Go
It’s understandable that you may have a hard time parting with some items in your home, especially ones you’ve had for a long time. However, sometimes letting certain things go is for the better and if you want your house to be in tip-top shape for the holidays then it’s a necessity.
Using these tips, you’ll be able to sit back, relax and have a great time knowing your house is clean and clutter-free.
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