Dealing With Holiday Clutter

30 November 2009 5 Comments

Dealing with clutter is a year-round battle, but the holidays can present special clutter challenges. Take control with the following tips:

Increased junk mail.

Tis the season for more catalogs in your mailbox! If you enjoy browsing through them, have a designated spot to store the keepers (a basket, space on your shelf). Be sure to purge the old copies when the new ones arrive. If you’re an avid online shopper, keep a list of website addresses instead of the catalogs. Then browse and shop online without the buildup of clutter.

To reduce the catalogs you receive, visit www.catalogchoice.org.

Holiday Greetings.

It’s wonderful to receive warm wishes from your family and friends, but the cards, envelopes and holiday pictures can quickly become mounds of paper piles.

Get into the habit of opening cards by first checking the return addresses against your mailing list. Note any updates and write the year next to the name. Then recycle the envelopes before they pile up. Next year, when it’s time to send cards, you will see at a glance who you did not receive cards from the previous year, in case you want to update your mailing list.

If you like to display your cards, have a system (the mantle, a basket, a special wall display). When decorations come down in January, you will have to decide what to do with your cards. For those with personal messages that you’d like to save, store them in a box designated just for holiday greetings. In years to come, it will be nice to read through the special notes. You can even incorporate the box into your holiday décor next year.

For cards with no notes, recycle them or re-use them in craft projects. If you are a scrapbooker, use the holiday photos in your album. Or purchase a basic holiday album and simply add pictures each year as they arrive in the mail.

Simply yours,

Debbie

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5 Comments »

Joan said:

Great tips as always! I get laughed at a little, but I have a Christmas scrapbook that I do each year, and I make a list in it of who we received cards from, then I include the letters, holiday pictures, and any special messages on those scrapbook pages, in addition to our regular holiday photos. We did the same thing for our wedding, in that scrapbook. It was a great way to keep all those great well-wishes without taking up a lot of room!
Joan´s last blog ..Meet my garage!

# 30 November 2009 at 7:42 am

Debbie Jordan Kravitz (author) said:

I love the idea of scrapbooking events. It keeps all those little sentimental bits and pieces together in one confined and compact place. And the laughing? Well, that’s just jealousy!
Debbie Jordan Kravitz´s last blog ..Dealing with Holiday Clutter

# 30 November 2009 at 9:15 am

Michelle @ [ real neat ] said:

And, then… to deal with the holiday aftermath, I grab a pair of craft scissors and cut out my favorite images from the cards that I received. Then, I stash my ‘clippings’ away with the holiday wrapping paper to use next year as gift tags! Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Michelle @ [ real neat ]´s last blog ..Holiday Helps : Budget Forms

# 8 December 2009 at 10:56 pm

Debbie Jordan Kravitz (author) said:

Great tip, Michelle! That’s a task you could even hand off to your kids to get yourself some help during the holiday clean-up. Thanks for sharing!
Debbie Jordan Kravitz´s last blog ..Put Paper in its Place!

# 9 December 2009 at 7:07 am