Clever Organizing Ideas to Prepare Your Home for The Holidays

Mike Beard • Nov 09, 2021

The holidays are an exciting time, but also overwhelming if you’re hosting family and friends for a celebration in your home. The key to keeping calm among the chaos is staying organized.

Clever organizing ideas to prepare your home for the holidays include:

Clean and Get Rid of Clutter
Organize Your Decorations as You Unpack Them
Clean Out Your Pantry and Fridge
Organize Your Gifting Accessories
Find Places for DIY Decorations

Read on for some creative and helpful home organization tips to get into the holiday spirit!

Clean and Get Rid of Clutter

Before you unpack your holiday décor, it’s a good idea to make sure you don’t have any excessive clutter around. Whether it’s the pile of mail you’ve left on your kitchen island for weeks or the sweatshirts you’ve kept hanging on your coat hooks – start with a clean slate. Putting things back in place or getting rid of any junk lying around will automatically make you feel more organized. Additionally, it will allow you to plan exactly where to set up your decorations.

As you’re sorting and organizing everything, it’s also a good time to do some deep cleaning. Even if you clean weekly, use this time to go the extra mile. Prioritize the areas that your guests will be in during celebrations. Better Homes & Gardens suggests a "7-Day Holiday Cleaning Plan" that touches all the major spots to think about.

Organize Your Decorations as You Unpack

After you've freed up some space and spruced up some spots within your home, it’s time to start unpacking your decorations. After unloading boxes from the attic, basement, or garage, you’ll probably notice that some pieces were either poorly packed or randomly spread out due to the madness that occurred last year. Going through all your stuff and deciding what you’ll be displaying may be time-consuming, as you’ll probably have to empty each box. The silver lining in having to go through an unorganized mess is the opportunity to turn it into an organized masterpiece.

As you’re unloading items, designate certain areas of the room into categories and group the appropriate items there. For example, maybe you have an area set aside to group together Christmas tree ornaments, another area for outdoor decorations, or an area for wall signs. This will let you view your inventory so you can decide which room you want it to live in.

Furthermore, this process will dictate how you should store your stuff. Grab a label maker and some storage cases and decide upon where everything will live when the holidays come to a close. This will be a huge help when it comes to packing everything up and save you time the following year when you’re preparing your home once again.

Clean Out Your Pantry and Fridge

Even if you’re not a chef or baker, you should go through your kitchen like you are. It’s likely that you have accumulated ingredients in your pantry over time, be it seasonings and spices or flour and sugar, without realizing they expired. Take the time to go through your pantry (or spice rack) and check the dates. If you’re hosting the holidays, this is especially important so you know for certain if you have everything you need for that perfect dinner.

Likewise, even if you're not hosting any sort of gathering, you will probably reap the benefits in the form of leftovers in some capacity. For this reason, it’s ideal to go through your fridge, throw out anything expired, and reorganize the items so you have enough room for that extra apple pie that grandma made you.

Below is a small guide to keep handy to figure out which spices have expired.

Allspice, Black Pepper, Ground Chili Powder, Ground Cinnamon, Coriander, Cumin, Nutmeg, Paprika- Expires after two to three years.
Basil, Bay Leaves, Cayenne Pepper, Cilantro, Dill, Oregano, Parsley-If these spices are fresh, they will only last around five to seven days. If the spices are dried, they last about two to three years.
Peppercorn-Five to six years.
Cloves-Fresh cloves will be good for up to one week. Dried and ground cloves last two to three years. Whole cloves last four to five years.
Garlic- Fresh garlic is good for four to six months. Dried or minced garlic can last two to three years and refrigeration is recommended after opening it.
Mint- Fresh mint is good up until 10 days after purchase. Dried mint can last up to three years.
Rosemary, Sage, Thyme- Fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme can be good for up to 14 days when refrigerated. Dried or ground forms last between three and four years.
Turmeric-Ground turmeric lasts three to four years.
Salt-Salt does not expire.

A great tip from Wide Open Eats, is to attach either a label or painter’s tape on the bottom of your spices that note when you got them. This way, you’re able to figure out exactly when it’s time for them to go.

Organize Your Gifting Accessories

How many years have you gone to wrap a present and realized you either ran out of wrapping paper, tissue paper or didn’t have enough bows? People usually have a designated area of a closet where they throw rolls of wrapping paper, present gift tags, or any assortment of gifting accessories. Most times that area gets wrecked throughout the year so by the time the holidays roll around, you have to really search that closet for whatever you need.

Be one step ahead and organize all gifting accessories before you even start buying holiday gifts. Stock up on the essentials – tissue paper, wrapping paper, bows, tags, and don’t forget the tape! If you shop early enough for this stuff, you’ll probably save some money as well. You can still keep everything organized in that designated closet with either an over-the-door organizer or gift wrap storage box.

Find Places for DIY Decorations

Now that you’ve cleaned, organized, and unpacked your holiday decorations, you can finally unleash your creativity. Before you go out and purchase expensive decorations to really spruce up your home, consider less expensive and more DIY projects. Here are some quick DIY decorations:

Take any big frames you have hanging up and wrap the front and ends in wrapping paper. Then add some curling ribbon and a bow. When you hang them back on the wall, they’ll look like giant presents.
Get a low vase at a craft store and fill it with candy canes as a cute little centerpiece on your coffee table or dining room table.
Add garland that you may not be using for the tree or thicker ribbons you don’t plan on using for gifts and wrap your staircase banister for some extra spirit.
Purchase small birdhouses and make them holiday-themed. Either paint them in holiday colors, add little twinkling lights or draw in snowmen. You can also add a small hook to hang your stockings on. This is a great project to do with kids too.
For a cute front porch design, get some galvanized buckets sold at craft stores and fill them with either real or fake pine or fir branches. You can use a chalk pen to write a holiday message on the bucket or draw out some snowflakes.

Conclusion

Preparing for the holiday season doesn’t have to be the production it once was. Simple organizing tricks and tips can make it much simpler and add fun back into it. After all, the holidays are exciting – so the preparations should be too!