Getting Your Home Ready for the Holidays

December can be a very busy time for most households. Along with the holidays come visits from family and friends, dinners to plan, and presents to buy. To help you get ready this year, we’ve put together a quick list of helpful tips to prepare your home for the holidays.

Kitchen

• Eat through the freezer. Make it a point to eat all the frozen dinners you have to make room for holiday cookies baked in advance for gifts and extra leftovers after large family meals. Eating through what you have will also give you a little extra room in the holiday budget for gifts.
• Purge the fridge! Make room in the fridge and freezer for holiday platters and leftovers by throwing out all the half bottles of salad dressing, tomato sauce, and anything else that’s in a jar that you can’t remember when it was first opened!

Bedrooms

• Make room for new toys in the kids’ bedrooms by donating old ones to your local thrift store or find a Toys for Tots drop off location near you. Get your kids involved and encourage them to pick out a few toys they want donate to a less fortunate child in the community, ensuring that more children will receive great presents this year.
• Now that the kids have donated something to charity, it’s your turn! Take a look in your closet and pick out a few items to donate. Professional attire is especially welcomed at thrift stores so people who are getting back on their feet can affordably look presentable for interviews.

Living Room

• Go through magazine racks, stacks of paper, and any other piles of things that have accumulated over the years. Recycle old magazines and cut down on the clutter so your guests feel welcomed into a chaos-free zone!
• The addition of a Christmas tree often leads to rearranging the furniture, so if you’ll be expecting guests, reposition the furniture in a way that best facilitates discussion with the whole group.

Closets and Entryways

• Dig through your closets to see if there are any coats the kids have out-grown or that you no longer wear and donate them. The Junkluggers also offers FREE pickups of coats and other clothing all year for distribution by local police stations or non-profits to those in need. Not only will this free up space in your closets for guests’ coats, but it also provides warmth for someone who would otherwise be left out in the cold this winter.
• Cut through the clutter in the mudroom or your entry way. Put away any shoes that are out of season, same for jackets. Anything that has been outgrown but is in good condition can be donated.