This is a collaborative post
With kids around, Christmas morning can turn a neat home into a bomb site in five minutes flat!
It’s loud, it’s chaos, and it’s great.
But once it’s all settled down, how do you reclaim your living space so you can get on with life? Making room for Christmas toys starts way before the big event, but there’s still time to get organised.
Have a Declutter
It’s a lot easier to stay on top of Christmas chaos if you clear the decks before the explosion of wrapping paper and new toys.
Go through old toys and decide which ones aren’t used much any more. They fall into and out of favour so fast, and with all the excitement of new stuff, a few old ones won’t be missed. Don’t throw them away, though, because kids will probably want them back at some point. The idea is to clear some space, not get rid of favourite items.
Any time you’re having a declutter or clear out, renting some self storage space for the duration can help you be a bit more drastic without worrying you’ll throw away something you want back. There’s loads of self storage in Luton where I am, and there’s bound to be somewhere close to where you live, too.
Having tackled toys, move onto clothes and cull anything that’s getting a bit tatty or is outgrown. Kids are bound to get new stuff for Christmas, even if it’s just pyjamas or hats and scarves.
Downstairs, go through your cupboards and drawers armed with a big bin bag and collect all the bits and bobs you’re ready to throw away. You’ll be surprised how much space you can make to keep useful things like spare batteries for Christmas day, fancy napkins for dinner guests, or impromptu storage for toys and games until they move upstairs into the bedroom.
Creating Extra Storage
If you’re always a bit pressed for places to put stuff, whether it’s your spare towels or all the toy collections that litter the little ones’ bedroom floors, try not to keep so much at home. A fairly new approach to lifestyle, that lets people with smaller homes live a larger life, is to take a seasonal approach to storage. Put winter things into self storage during summer, and vice versa.
You can do it with everything, from garden equipment, toys and furniture to seasonal clothing.
If you clear summer clothes out of wardrobes and drawers now, packing it all away neatly in plastic tubs or even your summer suitcases, then pop everything into a self storage room, you’ll practically double your storage space at home. There will be acres of space for new Christmas toys.
Storage Furniture
With so many new things coming into the house over Christmas, you’ll have more space if you take care of storage for everyday items. A few items of storage furniture will help you corral all the little things that generally clutter up surfaces.
- End tables with drawers or shelves, coffee tables with lifting tops, decorative baskets or storage footstools can all help to tame living rooms on Christmas morning.
- Upstairs, go for ottoman or divan beds in place of bed frames. The lifting mattresses or built-in drawers are really handy for linen or bedding storage. And also great for toys and games in kids’ rooms, helping keep things off the floor.
- Vanity units around bathroom sinks provide places for bottles, shavers, aerosol cans and spare toilet rolls. It’s also a place for bathtime toys so you don’t have a bath full of ducks when you wanted some relaxing bubbles! You can get vanity units that fit around normal sinks so it’s not always necessary to replace bathroom fittings.
There may not be time to organise all these ideas before Christmas this year, but hopefully, a couple have given you some ideas for how to cope. And then there’s a whole year to get ready before we cheerfully do it all again!