Do you feel overwhelmed at Christmas with all the extra "stuff" in your home?
Before Christmas there are lots of holiday items taking over your home. And after Christmas there are all the new gifts that need "homes".
One of the best ways to simplify Christmas is to declutter in the weeks leading up to it. To help you do that, I've been doing a series of posts this month, sharing ideas to help you declutter your home for a simpler Christmas. Join me!
Today I'm sharing how to declutter "Entertainment" items like puzzles, games, DVD's, and CD's. It's a loose category so you can include whatever you want to declutter this week to prepare for Christmas.
I got my kids involved in decluttering this week! We went through their games, puzzles, Wii games, DVD's & videos {yep we still have some of those and a VCR to play them!}, CDRoms, and science kits/experiments.
Here's what our media stand in the entertainment area in our basement looked like when I organized it last year.
We also have baskets under the TV to hold some overflow games as well as Wii remotes and exercise stuff. Here's what it was like when I organized this area last year.
We've added a few Wii games and DVD's since that picture and purged some as well, but it still needed a good decluttering. Here's what it looks like now.
We added a Wii stand with space for a few games on top. My son keeps library games and his most frequently used games in there.
But I'm most excited about the fact that we purged over 40 CDroms, 3 Wii games, and 5 DVD's. There's lots of CD space now so I plan to move the kids' music CD's down here (which still won't fill up that CD rack but I'm thinking I might take part of it out and put in a few little shelves to make it more useable space since we don't have as many CDroms or CD's anymore).
There's also space now for a few new DVD's the kids are anticipating they'll receive for Christmas. I would have liked a little more Wii game purging, but they know they will have to purge even more if they get a lot of games or DVD's for Christmas since they have to fit on these little shelves. And after using Glee Karaoke a few more times during the holidays I'll probably purge it so that will make more space for the kids' Wii games :)
We purged so many CDroms that we were able to clear out most of the games basket below the TV. There are just a few left in the basket that don't have cases or whose cases don't fit in the stand. I'm thinking about adding Wii remotes and nunchuks to this basket since they pile up a bit too much in the other one.
Next we moved on to our games cupboard and cleared out 11 games that they had outgrown or had other similar versions of the same game or that had missing pieces.
Moving along, we went through both the kids' and the adults' puzzle shelves and purged 2 puzzles from each. We'd decluttered these not too long ago so there weren't many to give away right now. We also keep science experiment kits on the kids' shelf so we took a look through those and found 2 to give away or donate that they weren't using anymore.
As a result of the purging, I was able to rearrange the adult shelves a bit and now have half a shelf free for something else. And the kids' shelves have a bit of breathing room to add new puzzles or activities after Christmas.
I know I usually show my purge piles, but some of the items are being passed on to people who read this blog or their kids so I don't want to ruin it for them :)
Besides all the kids' entertainment items, I also decluttered a few more Christmas items this week.
I have some piano books I've collected over the years and this year I decided to purge a few of them too. I've kept my favourites and am letting go of these 3 that I don't usually play from anymore.
We also have a collection of Christmas CD's and a few cassette tapes. I still want to keep our favourite CD's, but with digital music so prevalent now it was time to purge a few CD's we don't listen to as often and those tapes. I plan to buy my favourite songs from the cassettes on itunes so I can still listen to them, but we only have 2 cassette players in our home and they both are temperamental so it's time to let go of our remaining cassettes :)
I also am donating one of our Gifts in a Jar books because it has virtually all the same recipes as one of our other books. I originally kept it for the extra tags that come in it to give with the jars, but lately I've been printing my own tags on cardstock, so there's no point keeping a duplicate book.
And I have a few Christmas books we've enjoyed but are ready to pass on to make room for some newer ones we've received.
I also Freecycled lots of things last week:
- Toiletries (I only keep enough to fit in the pockets in my linen closet organizer)
- Partially used craft kits (we only keep those that fit in our craft area)
- Some of the Christmas decorations I purged a few weeks ago)
- A few photo albums leftover after the Great Photo Purge Challenge
- A stack of extra Christmas cards from previous years or freebies we received in the mail (we don't send as many cards as we used to and we're often given boxes of cards as gifts, so it was time to give away some of the excess ones we've been storing year after year!)
It feels good to free our home of all these excess items and create some breathing room for the influx of new things new week. Yikes! Next week.
This coming week we're going to work on decluttering toys and books, again to simplify our home before Christmas. I'll update you on how that goes next Monday.
Ready to purge some entertainment items? {Or anything else that you want to declutter to simplify your Christmas!}
If you missed any of the Christmas posts I've shared this month, here are links to all of them.
You can also find more Christmas organizing ideas on my Christmas Organizing board on Pinterest.
And of course you can always find decluttering ideas on my Decluttering / Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
What games, puzzles, and movies can you declutter before Christmas? How do you declutter before the holidays? I hope you are able to have a simpler Christmas by decluttering first!
Happy organizing!
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