How to Simplify the Holidays

Today I am sharing some easy ways on how to simplify the holidays. We have made five easy changes that allow us to enjoy the season without all the stress.

5 Ways to Simplify the Holidays

If you tend to get overwhelmed easily then maybe some of these changes could help you too!

I use to feel completely stressed as soon as Halloween was over. It meant Christmas was on its way!

Gathering gifts and decor, overbooking myself, and feeling like I had to do everything.

So today I am sharing these changes I made for a calm relaxing holiday season.

Don’t Decorate Early

We don’t have to decorate on November first. I made a rule to completely enjoy September with little to no fall decor and only decorate for Christmas in December.

This way I don’t have to see all the extra clutter around my home for too long. We can make decorating part of the holiday fun rather than a bunch of extra visual clutter.

Do you Need More Decor?

I rarely add new decorations. We have the things we like and the things that have memories attached to them. So before rushing out and buying more I ask myself if it’s really needed.

I also tend to stick with a more traditional holiday decoration theme of red and green. While trends are fun to keep up with they can also waste a lot of money and go out of style quickly.

Declutter Before Christmas

Clearing out the things you don’t need before the holidays makes room for the new stuff that is about to come into our homes. Not only do I look through and see what can go from my home I also look for holiday decorations I don’t use.

My rule is if I have not decorated with certain things the year before I normally don’t use it the next year.

Now I decorate my home and anything left in the box I donate right away.

Limit The Holiday Bins

Simply put a limit on the number of decorations you are willing to keep. I have made the rule that we will only have two bins for Christmas decorations. If it can’t fit into the bin we don’t buy it/ keep it.

You can take this limit idea further and set limits for everything during this month.

For instance, I don’t say yes to every party I am invited to. If I don’t feel like getting gifts I will opt out of the gift exchange.

With simplifying I have realized I can set my own limits and decide what is going to make me filled with holiday cheer or stress me out.

So instead of getting caught up in the race to fill the month with “FUN”, I think out how I want to feel during this time and only sign up to events that will make me happy.

Get Rid of Ornament Boxes

Do yourself a favor and get rid of all the ornament boxes. This won’t apply to everyone, but if you are like me and have been carefully wrapping and unwrapping ornaments for the last 20 years STOP!

We were sold a lie that these boxes and ornaments would be worth hundreds someday. Now I enjoy my ornaments for what they are on my tree and I no longer waste hours wrapping and unwrapping Hallmark ornaments.

Watch the Video How I Simplified Christmas:

Simplify Wrapping

Wrapping presents has become its own crazy next level of stress. LOL

Buying the wrapping paper and bows, spending hours wrapping each gift so it looks amazing under the tree. Why? For a photo on social media?

I simplified the wrapping process by making some reusable gift bags out of red and green material. You can also buy these in case you are not into sewing.

These bags can be used year after year and are very eco-friendly too! The best part is it takes about 10 minutes to wrap all my gifts now.