Along with planning for the Christmas celebration at home, you should also make plans for cleaning up. Below are some suggestions on what you can prepare ahead, so that this task will be easier and you can still enjoy the rest of the holidays:
1. Prepare for the unwrapping.
Instead of garbage bags, have a big stash box ready before unwrapping presents so you can easily pick stuff to put away. "Take a large, empty box and wrap the sides, then set it near the tree. On Christmas morning, it's so easy to toss all the trash inside," suggested Chica on Chic and Jo. "Using the trash box on Christmas morning, you'll notice that the box looks perfectly at home around all the people and gifts. Much better than an ugly plastic bag would look!"
2. Ready yourself for re-gifting.
Go over the gifts and reduce the clutter by gathering unwanted presents. You can give this away to friends or relatives or donate to a charity of your choice.
3. Collect next year's Christmas card list.
Gather all the holiday cards you received and jot down the names and addresses on a list. You'll need this list to send cards or gifts next Christmas. You could recycle the cards and cut the images to use as gift tags or to decorate gift wrapping papers.
4. Iron out that table mess.
Deal with candle wax on tablecloths and water rings on wooden surfaces using an iron. They need to be attended to as soon as possible, so that these won't set on the surface.
5. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Send used wrapping paper, boxes and cards to a recycling facility. Your local area might have a Republic Services recycling representative, which you can contact and schedule to haul paper, boxes, plastic and other recyclable stuff in your community.
6. Make next year's decorating process easier.
The most laborious task to holiday cleaning is taking down the Christmas tree and stashing the ornaments and lights. Traditionally, you can do this after the "twelfth night" or sometime after Jan. 6 per, The Guardian. This task is best done slowly and carefully, with items properly packed back into their containers, so that you won't have a hard time unraveling the items when you set up next Christmas, according to Good Housekeeping. Christmas lights should be wrapped in cardboard to keep them from being tangled, as shown in the photo below.
7. Organize your ornaments.
Make sure to keep your ornament boxes intact and handy. If you no longer have these, buy stackable and reusable containers already. Christmas ornaments must be wrapped and cushioned in their containers to avoid breaking them.
8. Taking down the tree.
Find out when your trash pickup is scheduled after the holidays, so you can plan taking down the Christmas tree at least a day before. This way, you won't have to keep it by your curbside for days waiting for the garbage collector to arrive, per Molly Maid.
