The Christmas and Thanksgiving season is crazy, but here are 5 steps to a home reset after the holidays. I have been doing this home reset for at least 4 years, and it gets easier every year. The first one takes a while and is hard, but if you stick with it, you’ll thank yourself!

Step 1: Put Up Holiday Decorations

Don’t be the house that has the rotten fall pumpkins sit on your porch until Santa comes by! Put up all your holiday decorations. As you are walking through your house gathering decorations start thinking about what you want to get rid of. Be ruthless: get rid of the things that don’t bring you joy. As you put away your remaining decorations, organize them in such a way that future you will thank you. Think about what you want your totes to look like when you open them up next year. Before you close the lids on the Christmas totes, walk through every room and space. Make sure you don’t have a red ornament buried in with the apples on your counter. Make sure to look in all the places where you don’t normally look.

Step 2: Dust Your Home

Now that your decorations are gone and all of your spaces are cleared off, dust your house. I mean, dust EVERYTHING. If this task seems daunting to you, you can hire someone to do it for you. However, I recommend doing the dusting yourself so you can see what you may be ready to get rid of. Donate, sell, or somehow get rid of the things. Don’t create a “purgatory” place you stash things that you “might use it later.”

Step 3: Make a Home Reset List

As you go through and get rid of, it may be tempting to immediately run out and buy something to replace it. Don’t fall into this temptation! As you walk through each room make notes of your needs and wants for each room. Once your list is complete, you can look around your house and see if you already have some of the things you need. Maybe you need a storage solution for something and forgot about your stack of baskets in the garage. If you don’t find something in your house to use for your list, THEN you can go to the store.

Step 4: Tackle the Toys

To do this step, it is easiest to get your kids out of the house. Start by going through the toys. They just got a bunch of new toys for Christmas, so this is the perfect time to eliminate some old ones. If they are broken, throw them out. If they are missing pieces, make a pile. Then make a pike of the random pieces you find. If you can match things from the 2 piles, great! If not, trash! If it is a toy your kids don’t play with, get rid of it. No purgatory here either. Be ruthless, be discrete. Everyone has a different opinion, but my kids do seem to be more content with less toys in the house. There is less to clean up because there is less to dump out.

Step 5: Closet Reset

Resetting your closet can be an emotional thing. Now that your house is reset, you have the space to take everything out put in your room. By doing that, you can see every piece of clothing. If it no longer fits, get rid of it. If you haven’t worn it in forever, donate it. I have an issue with keeping things because I know they were expensive. I am trying to get better with getting rid of those things because I know I’ll never wear them. One hack I am planning to try out is buying a set amount of wooden hangers. Then, the number of hangers dictates the amount of clothes I can bring into the closet. I’m planning to share this process on my Instagram stories. If you want to tackle your kids’ closets, I have another blog post discussing that.

I hope you can use these 5 steps to a home reset after the holidays to help get things organized for the new year!