With less than 3 months until the holidays, it is never too soon to get organized! Decluttering and organizing your home before the holiday season only allows for more time to be spent with friends and family. Your home is your safe space. So many of us leave a stressful work environment and walk into a different stressful home environment. Between work, kids, family, sports, activities, and a host of other things, sometimes our home ends up getting the least attention when it should be a priority.

 

Many people use the upcoming months as an excuse not to organize, thinking “if I can just get through the holidays, I’ll have more time”, when in fact this can just add to the anxiety and clutter and make the delayed effort more difficult. One person familiar with the psychology of organizing is Mary Wilson, owner and proprietor of Mary’s Mess Management. Mary has worked with many families in Hunting Hills and brings a unique background in childhood education, psychology, behavior and mental health to her organizing projects.

 

If you want more joy and less stress this holiday season, then simplify things, and part of that is decluttering and organizing your spaces. Think of the hot spots, as Mary likes to call them; your kitchen, dining room, entryways, pantry, and family rooms. This is where you and your guests will spend the most time, so organizing them now will make for a more enjoyable time later.

 

Being organized is about purpose and functionality. Everything you own has a home, serves a purpose and is functional. Functionality allows you to perform tasks, in whatever environment, efficiently and in today’s society, we can all be more efficient. As we are talking about the holidays, a primary focus for functionality is the kitchen. Ample space to prep and serve is important and sometimes the kitchen counters hold everything but what’s in the kitchen.

Make clean countertop spaces a priority. Organize and replenish your spices and non-perishable cooking supplies. Sort through old cookware and donate or dispose of duplicates. Clean out the refrigerator and organize leftover storage containers so they are readily accessed.

 

Most people will be venturing into their storage areas to retrieve holiday decorations, which seem to grow each year. This is a great opportunity to reduce and reorganize, with the intention that quantity does not always win over quality. Making room for a few special holiday decorations can be more rewarding than cramming in everything that you put in a storage box a year ago. Before the holidays is a great time to declutter toys if you have kids. They may need help depending on their ages, but informing them that you won’t have room for anything new if they don’t let go of anything they currently have can be a good motivator. It also helps you to identify which items are most special to them. Mary does this every year with her child and donates to those in need. Additionally, everything that clients purge is donated to local non-profits and those less fortunate in our community.

 

The first thing you and your guests see when you come home is often your porch or entryway. When those areas are filled with clutter, you immediately don’t feel welcome in your own home. Reducing clutter in these areas can be simple and build good daily habits.

 

“Many of my clients have stress and anxiety around clutter,” said Mary, “Their ability to see through the mess is limited and this feeling of being overwhelmed and paralyzed in their space is a very real feeling." Holiday stress can add to this, as can quantities of items that have sentimental value or that have been passed down from loved ones. If the scale of decluttering is intimidating, and it’s difficult to even get started, then calling a professional organizer like Mary can be the solution. “These are my clients. People that need a little extra support to feel calm and peace in their safe space,” said Mary, “My business not only provides a necessary service to our community, but it utilizes my unique skills in the field of mental health to help people.”

      

Jessica Hilbish on Remington Road has already enlisted Mary’s services to tackle some areas of her home where items with sentimental value have anchored themselves. “When my mom passed away during the pandemic, after a long illness, I thought I would just keep a few special things, like her Bentwood rocker and our family recipes in this decrepit old cookbook… maybe her silver baby spoon?  I soon realized that deciding what to keep and what to give away was going to be utterly impossible for me!  I took all of the Rubbermaid totes with her letters, photos and souvenirs home with me to sort through at leisure…  and they’ve been staring at me from the den… ever since!  In this case, de-cluttering is actually an emotionally charged activity and it turns out… I just need a little help.”

 

Regardless of the scale of the task in your home, take heart that real progress can be made one room at a time. Decluttering one small area can motivate you to the next small area, which soon can become multiple rooms, and the good feelings will motivate you to continue. If you’re stuck, call a professional like Mary Wilson for help!