3 Easy Ways I Stopped My Living Room Looking Like A Mess on Christmas Day – Get Ahead of the Chaos and Reclaim Calm in Minutes
A tiny bit of preparation goes such a long way in the chaos of Christmas morning
The excitement of Christmas morning only grows when there are children in the house, and with them comes a truckload of mess and clutter.
That’s why, after nine festive Christmas mornings with our daughter, my husband and I have developed a three-step process that not only banishes that explosion of mess, but means once the presents are opened, all the clutter has already been dealt with, leaving your living room free from that chaotic sensation.
3 Ways to Stop Christmas Morning Clutter Chaos in Your Living Room
1. Put Wrapping Paper In a Trash Bag As You Go
As soon as a present is unwrapped, put it straight in a designated bag for recycling.
This isn’t genius by any means, but it’s easy to forget to do in all the excitement. After years spent on our hands and knees finding all the scraps of wrapping paper when everything had been ripped open in a flurry of excitement on Christmas morning, we reverse-engineered the fix.
Now, I keep a strong trash bag, available at Amazon, open and by my side, ready to receive scraps as we go. I remind our daughter to pop all her rubbish inside, too and make it more fun by telling her to scrunch it up into a ball and 'shoot' it into our 'net' (the trash bag). You'll be surprised how easily it energizes the group to get that rubbish in the bag!
We also make sure to grab any plastic boxes (hence the strong bags) and wrapping from gifts that can be recycled and put those in the bag too, then the whole lot gets tipped out to the recycling bin at the end of our gift opening session. It's always good to have an idea of what can't be recycled, so the whole batch doesn't get contaminated, but it might include paper with glitter on, for example.
What I love about this tip as a person who finds visual clutter stressful, is that the mess doesn’t build up as Christmas morning progresses, and I don’t get overstimulated or tapped out by the chaos.
As a person in chronic pain and with nervous system dysregulation, this is vital to my enjoyment of special but busy and potentially messy days like Christmas. If you are neurodivergent, you may experience the same, and this is a smart way of easily decluttering with health challenges with minimal effort or energy spent.
Professional organizer and KonMari® Master Consultant, Rebecca Jo-Rushdy of Spark Joy & Flow adds, ‘Trash bags are absolutely essential – and I love getting kids involved by turning it into a little game as presents are opened (wrapping and boxes straight into the bag). It keeps momentum going and prevents that slow build-up of visual overwhelm.’
It also means we don’t have to stop our gift-enjoying or festive eating schedule to reset our living space before guests arrive, because we’re actually doing the time-consuming tidying up as we go.
2. Allocate a Sturdy Bag to Each Family Member
Allocate a sturdy shopping bag to each family member so once they have marvelled and their new gift, they can pop it inside their bag ready to take home, or to their room later.
It’s a simple tweak and negates the need for a big tidy later on. Instead of piling all the presents around yourselves like a gift fortress, each person in your family should have an allocated large and sturdy shopping bag. I have lots of reusable shopping totes from Amazon at home to reduce my plastic, which are perfect for the job.
Once each person has opened a gift and finished marvelling at what good taste you all have, they can pop it straight into their designated bag.
Professional organizer Rebecca explains, ‘Allocate one per family member so that each person’s gifts have a home straight away. It makes it much easier to transport everything to bedrooms later without the inevitable armful-of-gifts-dropping-everywhere scenario.’
This is also helpful for guests who are with you for Christmas, but perhaps leaving soon.
I appreciate this tip a lot, as my daughter usually receives a mountain of gifts she refuses to put away for a while. Having a tidy bag we can tuck behind the sofa or place in a cabinet out of sight makes it easy to reset the living room for our afternoon lunch guests, whilst still keeping her array of goodies on hand for enjoyment.
Excluding children from age-appropriate tasks is something people with tidy homes never do, as it’s a great way to build sensible and useful organizing habits and skills that will serve them for life, first in your family home and later, their own.
3. Ditch Perfection
Perfection is overrated. Live your life and enjoy the day. Nobody is going to judge you for an item being out of place on such a busy day.
Housekeeping perfectionism was a mindset that it took me a while to train myself out of. I used to find it particularly stressful when I had guests coming to my home and I couldn’t 100% remove visual evidence of Christmas morning carnage from my most sociable spaces, such as living rooms and kitchens.
But taking the first two steps in this guide helped corral new clutter with next-to-zero effort in that in-between stage of the holidays, where you have a bunch of new items, and no time to find a permanent home for the plethora of gifts received.
This means cleaning things up quickly, not perfectly, so that your space is reset fast and respectable for any friends and family who are stopping by.
Having extra family-member-specific bags to hold new items is also handy when extra relatives or loved ones arrive and add to the chaos. This will prevent your home from descending into further chaos if extra people arrive.
Rebecca agrees, adding, ‘Perhaps most importantly, these tips are not about perfection or restoring your space to a picture-perfect living room. It’s about restoring flow. Clearing the visual noise quickly allows everyone to stay present and focus on what matters most: Being together, rather than feeling stressed by the mess.'
What to Shop
Once the chaos of Christmas is over, having a number of handy storage items to put decor away sensibly will stop them from breaking between now and next Christmas, as well as make it easier to clean up after Christmas.
This bin's space-saving design is designed to be kept on deep shelves, in narrow spaces, against walls, and under beds. Keeping porous paper in climate-controlled areas of your home will prevent mold and leave rolls ready for use next year.
Don't waste money next year re-buying gift wrap and tags. Store your leftover supplies smartly after Christmas in this storage solution that fits nine rolls. It also has a handy 19-inch pocket for storing scissors, tags, and cards.
Tuck away Christmas decor in these handy lidded totes. They'll keep out dust and pests till you're ready to use them again next year. And when it's time, you'll be able to see what is where as the bins are transparent.
This pack of six will make storing your Christmas lights without tangling or breaking a cinch. Each one holds 164 feet of lights and can be hung up to keep them clear of heavier items that might otherwise shatter bulbs.
Nab a dedicated bauble box to protect your baubles. It fits 128 three-inch ornaments and comes with adjustable dividers and pockets so you can customize it. The dual-zip closure and tear-proof outer layer will keep your baubles safe between uses.
This heavy duty tear-proof bag has reinforced handles and come with three reels inside for storing your lights. It's also water-resistant if you wish to store your festive decor in an area that doesn't have climate control such as a garage, basement, or attic.
Meet the Expert
With a background from Parsons School of Design, NYC, Rebecca is a KonMari success coach and professional organizer who helps clients around the world to declutter their homes, hearts, minds, and workplaces so they can instead become sanctuaries that spark joy and flow.
Next, lean into January decluttering rules to start the new year right.
