How to reset your home after Christmas to restore a sense of calm

The run up to Christmas is always a rush. There’s a lot to get ready and it’s pretty full on, but what about after the busiest season of the year? If you’re wondering how to reset your home after Christmas, there are a few simple steps you can take to get things back in order.

The best way to banish post-Christmas blues is to breathe new life into your space. Restore a sense of calm and create a fresh start for yourself with a post-Christmas reset. Sprucing your house up, finding a home for new gifts and creating a space that’s a joy to be in is the best way to boost your mood at this time of year.

While tidying up and getting back on top of the washing can feel like a mammoth task, if you set aside just one day, you can reset your home after Christmas and look ahead to the new year. Try a Sunday reset, using the whole day to focus on restoring order.

1. Find a home for new gifts

While it’s lovely to receive gifts over Christmas, they can often end up in a pile for several weeks. As soon as possible after Christmas, organise the gifts you’ve been given, find somewhere to keep them, or consider regifting them if they’re not quite right for you.

‘The task of finding new homes for your gifts ideally begins before the festivities with a pre-Christmas clear out,’ suggests Maria Owen-Roberts, Professional Organiser from TWT. ‘If you don’t have the time to do this, the decluttering rule - one in, one out - may work for you. For example, for every gift you keep, consider donating an unused item to charity.’

‘Most gifts have excessive packaging; unboxing items straight away will save space and make them more accessible and easier to use,’ she continues. ‘We all receive gifts that may not always suit our needs. If this happens, consider creating a re-gift pile. It can save you time and money in future when you need to provide a gift, just make sure that you keep a note of who gave you each gift to avoid any awkward situations.’

2. Pack away decorations

Christmas decorations ‘officially’ should come down by the 6th of January, but there’s nothing to stop you from taking them down sooner should you prefer. While it’s nice to have them up for as long as possible, it can feel pretty good to pack them away and start to focus on the new year ahead.

‘After the Christmas festivities, taking down the decorations can sometimes feel a tedious task,’ says Marsha Bull from The Secret Organiser. ‘To make the event as seamless, and as enjoyable as possible when the time comes around again, it’s really important to spend time organising your decorations before they are packed away.’

‘Contain all decorations from the same room together, and clearly label which room they are for. Taking photos of your displays can also help you remember where the items were placed. Take time to coil lights, and place baubles back in their boxes. There are some fantastic storage solutions in the stores at the moment too,’ advises Marsha.

3. Deep clean

A post-festivities deep clean for your home is a must to fully reset your home after Christmas. With more people in the house, more mess is created, and unbeknown to you, there might have been the old spillage of mulled wine creating sticky spots on the floor, or drops of gravy off of the kids' forks onto the table. So this is the time to clean carpets, and upholstery once all the guests have left.

Give everything the once over, including floors, surfaces and bathrooms.

‘One of my favourite things to do after Christmas is have a deep clean to start the New Year off right, enhancing both your living space and overall well-being,’ recommends Bella Middleton, Creative Director of Norfolk Natural Living.

‘The first thing I do is bring the outside in with some bulbs, it brings signs of spring into the home! I wouldn't be without our Scented Vinegar - it's my go-to wonder product for a fresh, natural clean throughout the house! It’s a lifesaver for any tough stain and it smells divine - bringing a little joy to your daily cleaning routine.’

4. Recycle packaging and wrapping paper

Christmas gifts often come with a lot of packaging, especially as we order a lot of them online. All of this can pile up, and before you know it you’re left with a huge amount of cardboard and paper that has to go out with the recycling across several weeks.

If you have the time, try and keep on top of breaking down boxes and putting them out to the recycling in the weeks before Christmas, to avoid a big buildup. If this isn’t possible, soon after Christmas gather up all of the cardboard, paper and anything else that’s accumulated and run it to your local recycling centre. The sooner you can get it out of the way the better.

Before adding any wrapping paper to the bags you can use the scrunch test to check if your wrapping paper is recyclable.

5. Wash guest bedding and towels

Don’t leave guest bedding to be washed for when you next have visitors to stay. Strip the beds and pop everything in to wash now, it’ll be one less job hanging over you. Once the bedding is dry and you’ve deep-cleaned your guest bedroom, you can remake the beds so that the room is ready for any last-minute visitors.

‘After guests have left, don't hang around and let used bedding lay unwashed for weeks,’ suggests Bella Middleton from Norfolk Natural Living. ‘I like to get it sorted as early as possible.'

To soften sheets ready for the next guest try adding white vinegar to the wash, this hack also works for softening guest towels.

6. Clear out the fridge

The fridge is always well packed full for Christmas, and hopefully, most of the food has been eaten and you can now see what’s left behind. Rather than just leaving it and letting things go off, why not clear out the fridge now and see what you’ve got left? You can use up any leftovers to make tasty dishes to see you through those last few days of the Christmas break.

‘We sometimes purchase seasonal or one-off special items for the Christmas period, which can be easily forgotten once the celebrations are over,’ explains Maria Owen-Roberts

‘It’s always a good idea to take stock of what’s left in the fridge to use up (or discard) any items that might otherwise be overlooked. It’s best to tackle one shelf or section at a time, emptying all items from that space. Bring foods close to their use-by date,

or nearly empty jars or packets to the front of each shelf,’ she recommends.
‘To organise your fridge, grouping similar items, such as vegetables, dairy products and deli items, can create a clear visual inventory. Consider freezing any items that you can’t consume within a suitable time frame, provided they are freezable.’

7. Add a fresh scent

Now that you’ve packed away the Christmas decorations, deep cleaned and found homes for all of your gifts, your house should be feeling much fresher and calmer. The final step to reset your home after Christmas Is to add a fresh scent, boosting that ‘just cleaned and tidied’ feeling.

If you’re not quite ready to move on from festive scents, try something Christmassy such as cedarwood and pine needles, which suits the time of year but is refreshing too. Try a reed diffuser or two in your most used rooms, or light a candle when you sit down to relax in the evening, just to mark your hard work and elevate that feeling of restoring calm.

When planning your time over the Christmas break, work in a day to get back to normal after Christmas. While setting aside a whole day might feel excessive, it will ensure that the rest of the time you have off is spent enjoying yourself, rather than worrying about all of the jobs you have to do that you’ve been putting off since Christmas Day.