What Day is It? The Fog After Christmas and the Christmas Clutter Clean-Up

All the preparation and anticipation, and it's over in a blink. The gatherings and frenzy of kids opening presents is done for another year. Now, it's a weird week. I will be asked at least once daily...what day is it, Mom? Not...What is the date, as in the 28th or 27th?? No, they don't know if it's Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday. When did they last shower? Did anyone eat something besides cookies today? Who knows??

The Reason for the Season

I allow myself a couple of days to recoup from the early Christmas morning wake-up and see which presents get swooped up into bedrooms without prompting. If the kids don't have an activity planned, I give them time to soak in any new items they are excited about, help them open, put them together, or do whatever they might need. Then, it's time to start getting the house back in order. These three big items make a difference in controlling the Christmas clutter.

1. Sort through the present opening aftermath and separate garbage versus recycling, a new clothing pile, and a pile of non-clothing items. Depending on the timing of the garbage day, I may be forced to pull those items sooner. It's nice when we don't need to rush.

2. I sort and wash all the new clothing. Before the kids put away their new items, they must look for anything they don't wear to be put in our donation pile. It's a good time to pull out some items they don't need.

3. The pile of non-clothing items is put away. If I want something in a specific place, I will take care of it. There might be candy or food items I don't want disappearing into bedrooms or games I want in our central game closet. Otherwise, each kid has a pile they must claim and put away.

The process doesn't take long, and it's nice to have the house back to pre-present shape before we host any New Year's Eve events. Then, we relax a little on cleaning duties until we put away our Christmas decorations.