Have you ever felt overwhelmed during the month of December with all the stuff that enters your home? The trick I've found helps me is to declutter throughout the month. Will you join me in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge?
Each day this month I'll share some decluttering tips and ideas so you can end the month with the same number of items in your home (or maybe even less!) than what you started the month with.
Today I'm sharing tips on decluttering your holiday dishes.
Today's Suggested Decluttering Task
Do you entertain a lot during the holidays? If so, you probably have quite a few special holiday dishes. You might have special serving dishes. Or holiday dishes that you set your table with to make it festive. Perhaps the holidays don't really start until you've had a glass of eggnog out of a decorative glass. I personally love having hot chocolate out of holiday mugs. Maybe you even have all of the above!
Holiday dishes are a wonderful way to make this month feel that much more special. But the problem comes when you have more holiday dishes than you have space to store the rest of the year. Or when you have so many special dishes that you don't use them all. Or can't find what you're looking for because all your dishes are safely wrapped up in different bins.
So, here are a few tips to help you declutter your holiday dishes:
- Declutter dishes that are chipped or cracked
- Let go of sets that are missing too many pieces to have everyone match (unless an eclectic look is something you value)
- Give away holiday dishes that you didn't use last year and won't use this year (it just means you have others you love more so let someone else enjoy your extras) *Note: this accounts for the fact that maybe you host dinner every other year
- If you have a lot of holiday dishes that are family heirlooms, ask other family members if they would like some of them (e.g. you have a full set of your grandmother's holiday china as well as some pieces from your mom's set, not to mention the fact that you have some dishes that you and your spouse received as gifts that you'd like to use more)
- Find the treasures - the items you use all the time - the ones that are sentimental - the pieces you love. Keep those and let go of others that are less special.
Note: I'm not saying you should declutter all your holiday dishes! Just evaluate what you actually use, and be realistic about your storage space in deciding what to keep and what to let go of.
Decluttering My Holiday Dishes
My Progress in the #NetZeroClutter challenge
In tidying the house for having our families over, I realized I hadn't actually recycled and give away the gift wrap that I'd set aside when I organized my gift wrap in my Wrappy last week. So I finally did that!
I recycled 14 gift bags that were pretty worn or torn, 5 pieces of tissue paper that were ripped, 24 scraps of gift wrap (why were we keeping all of these?!), 1 cardboard tube (it was just sitting empty in my old gift wrap bin!), and 9 bits of cardboard tubes that we had tried to use to keep the rolls of gift wrap from unrolling (didn't work well and these fell down to the bottom of the bin).
I gave 1 empty gift wrap box to my sister-in-law and tossed 1 scrap of pink tulle and 3 ribbons.
I also gave 17 gift bags to my sister-in-law.
And between decluttering so much and using my new Wrappy gift wrap organizer, I had 1 empty bin! I'm throwing this out because the latch part is broken.
That's 76 items out of my home today :)
So that puts me at -47 items today in the #NetZeroClutter challenge and -348 overall. Woo hoo! Even on my biggest "in" day, I decluttered more than I took in :)
What's Next For You?
Take some time today to declutter your holiday dishes. Or anything you'd like to declutter! Take some pictures and share your progress on social media using the hashtag #NetZeroClutter. Let me know how you're doing in the challenge so I can cheer you on!
Sign up to receive my blog posts by email so you get each day's post in your email inbox every morning. You can unsubscribe after the challenge is over if you don't want to continue receiving my blog posts by email.
I'd also love for you to join our 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group as you do this challenge! You'll be able to share with others what you're decluttering and feel encouraged and inspired by everyone else who is also decluttering!
If you'd like more decluttering ideas, you can check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
So that's today's post in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge! I'm enjoying doing this challenge and I'm excited to have you join me. I love hearing all the stories of how much more you're enjoying your holidays because you're not overwhelmed by all the stuff in your home!
How many holiday dishes did you let go of today? What do you enjoy most about having special dishes for the holidays?
Happy
I link up at these great parties - Check them out!
Here are all the posts in this challenge in case you missed any or want to share some with your friends or family!
