A little custom design is all that’s needed to figure out how to reduce closet clutter after the holidays, meaning you can worry less and celebrate more.

Joy fills the air as the holidays approach. When you are preparing for Christmas and looking forward to the downtime of the holidays, the unwrapping of presents, and opening all of those incredible Christmas cards, you may feel elated with excitement from all of the festivities.

But beneath that bright, bubbly joy is a hint of dread because you know what happens after the holidays, too. No matter how organized and clean your home might be before festivities, afterward you’ll be surrounded by an overload of toys and gifts, cards flung all over the table, and messes scattered about that can really make you feel like your household—and your closets—are out of control.

This year, give yourself the gift of a simple solution for all of that complicated chaos. A little custom design is all that’s needed to figure out not just how to reduce closet clutter after the holidays, but how to do it without stress—so you can worry less and celebrate more.

How to Reduce Closet Clutter without Hassle

Ensuring Christmas presents, decorations, apparel, toys, and “stuff,” fit back into your closets can call for some serious reorganizing. Reducing clutter without the hassle involved will help you clear your mind, your home, and your closets. But what can you actually do with all that stuff?

Here are some easy ways to prepare and organize—and, in doing so, end the frustration and start the New Year with a new closet and a clean slate.

Preparing Your Closet

Do you have a place already in your home where you stow your Christmas ornaments or Hanukkah décor? Maybe it’s in the garage or in the closet under the stairs? Plan ahead for that area and consider reorganizing other closets for apparel, gifts, and toys. Here are some key steps:

1. Purge your closets of any unnecessary clutter. Figuring out how to reduce closet clutter often begins with giving yourself and your closets a fresh start by cleansing your current space of any unnecessary items, while opening up room for your holiday storage.

2. Determine if you need to include additional sturdy shelving units for housing bins and boxes. Measure carefully according to the height of the containers you plan to store on them. Adjustable shelves work best—especially when you are dealing with boxes of varying sizes and shapes.

3. Install shelving and organize (or reorganize) your décor according to type and size.

4. Determine if you have enough chrome bins or boxes for your holiday materials, such as wrapping paper and gift boxes, and decide whether you need to consider adding dovetail dresser drawers within the closet for stowing away valuable or fragile items.

5. Decide if you want to keep your Christmas cards or special holiday newsletters. If you do, consider adding a cabinet in your garage to better organize these keepsake items.

6. Sort through your children’s toys and gifts, categorizing them by how often they are played with. If the items are going to be used frequently, make sure they have a home in your children’s’ bedrooms or closets. Toys or other objects that are likely going to be used only on special occasions—like for a birthday party—can be stored in a hall closet or other out-of-the-way space. If they are specifically for the holidays, make some room for them in your new holiday storage area.

7. Consider where you might keep new clothing or special occasion holiday attire. You may need to reorganize your wardrobe—or even the closet itself—to make room for new items, depending on the type of closet organization system you currently have in your home.

Organizing Your Custom Closet Storage Space

Organization helps bring back balance into our daily lives. Using chrome bins and baskets for specific purposes, as well as other cabinetry, drawers, and closets for this process, will ensure you’ll be back to normal even sooner. Here are some suggestions:

1. Use chrome bins for holiday blankets, bath and hand towels, or other materials that you only use for the Christmas season.

2. Repurpose any salvageable wrapping paper into a tidy chrome bin. Or, you might consider setting up a wrapping station for not only the holidays, but also birthdays, baby showers, and other special occasions. You can include one bin for each of the categories on your custom-built adjustable shelves.

3. Use dovetail drawer boxes within your closet for wrapping and protecting your valuable ornaments and fragile items such as crystal candle holders and that precious angel that tops your tree. Wrap breakable items in tissue or newspaper and organize within the dresser or custom closet drawer with dividers and plenty of extra padding.

4. Save back used paper towel cardboard rolls and wrap your holiday lights around these rolls to keep them tidy and separated from other strands of lights. Place these in the appropriate chrome basket or box.

5. Add garage storage cabinets for your Christmas cards, photos, and special keepsake newsletters. Cards and newsletters can be kept in boxes organized by year or by decade. Photos are best kept in secure containers that won’t be affected by any moisture or humidity.

6. For your children’s toys and gifts that will be brought out and used more frequently, place these items in a chrome basket just inside your child’s closet. That way, they can be easily grabbed for playtime. For items that are only used once in a while on occasion, place them in a grab and go bin just inside the garage or attic. 

7. Organize your stylish wardrobe. Your wardrobe area should be beautiful and stylish. Prepare that space by donating the old and replacing with your new holiday apparel gifts. If you don’t have enough room still, consider incorporating a wardrobe lift for seasonal clothing you won’t need as frequently.

8. Use a valet rod for preparing your brand new items for daily wear in your custom walk-in closet.

Launch Into the New Year with Clutter-Free Custom Closets

If you are overwhelmed with the idea of implementing custom closets, shelving, cabinetry, and all the components that go into a custom-designed closet (and especially if you’ll need to reorganize multiple closets), why not seek out help from a custom designer and manufacturer that specializes in custom closets and their precise fit into your home?

You’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the New Year while they do all the hard work for you. A custom designer with a lifetime service guarantee and warranty can meet your needs—from start to finish—for design, quality and custom-made components, and streamlined installation. And that very well may bring back the holiday joy to your family all over again!

Ready to get your closets into shape and prepare for the post-holiday clutter cleanup? Closet America can help you make it happen—contact us today for more information, or go ahead and schedule a free design consultation to get started.

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