How to streamline and organise your home this Christmas.

This is a collaborative post

Every year around November time I start getting worried about the space we have in our house. With Christmas coming and two children’s birthdays I know we will have an influx of stuff. So I start going crazy organising, stream lining and adding storage solutions to our house to find some extra space.

Here are just some of the ways that I streamline and organise my home ready for Christmas.

Start with the toys

I start off by streamlining the kids toys. I do this with them and have done every year since they were little . I explain to them that if they have a toy that they no longer play with or like . We can donate it to a charity. Then other children can play with the things that they no longer want. This will bring both joy to them for being thoughtful and for the other child as they have a new toy to play with.

It works really well and it’s amazing to see what rubbish you accumulate over the year . The amount of broken toys ( from the dog chewing them) and rubbish McDonald toys we had was not even funny.

We like many families have the ikea Kallex unit in the children’s play room. I like to before Alby’s birthday on the 4th December make sure that at least 3 spaces are toy free. This way I know that I will enough space to house all the new things they may get for both Christmas and birthdays.

Shoe storage

We are a household of shoe lovers. We each have far too many shoes, so making sure that our shoe storage works is a must.

In the past we have done shoe racks but the reality of shoes racks are . They become messy and cluttered. Too much weight is put on them and they break.

So we now use some storage boxes from ikea . They have a flap at the front which means you can pop your hand in and grab the shoes you want. We have two of these under our stairs one for the children and then one for the adults. In there we have our shoes that we always reach for.

The other shoes are then kept in draws under our bed which we don’t need to reach for daily. This works really well for us but just like the toys I at least once a year go through the tubs and make sure all the shoes fit them. If they don’t then they are donated to charities like Sals shoes.

Organising your documents

One of the areas I hate to organise in our house is the paperwork draw. It’s just so overwhelming, there is just so much to go through. I recently found a pay slip from 2011 which I know I don’t need.

However this year I have made it my goal to tackle this once and for all and put together a system that works. So I have used plastic wallets for each type of paper work . So car , house , insurance etc. I have then gone through the piles of paperwork and made sure all I have kept is the most recent version.

I then pop all plastic wallets into a Smartbox storage box and put them to the back of my wardrobe. So I know where they are but they are not actually taking up any space. Which also means I have a draw back in the kitchen I can use for a different purpose.

I have made a promise to myself that every time I get a new version of a document I take the old one out of the wallet and shred it and replace it with the new one. Meaning the horrid overwhelming task I used to hate will no longer be a thing.

Sort the Garage

This is the first house I have owned that has had a garage and gosh I love it but my life it becomes a dumping ground. I find myself throwing things in there and think oh I will do a tip run soon and sort that out. When the truth is it just accumulates until I cannot get anymore in.

However this time of year the garage is the perfect place to store all things Christmas. What I like to do is put all the kids presents straight into the garage when we get them. This is mainly because they never go in the garage so will never see it.

I then in the garage sort the presents into sections. Gifts for birthdays, Gifts for Christmas, gifts for others. I like to do it like this so if for instance someone pops round unexpectedly and I have a gift for them I know where it is straight away.

I can also see what we have got and then make a list and plan if we need to get anything else.

I hope you find these a handy way to streamline and organise your home this Christmas.