Making Space for Holiday Deals

Now that the holiday sales have come and gone, here’s how to make space for those new finds:

We all love a good deal, but we’re often unsure where all the new purchases will go. Now that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday & Cyber Monday have come & gone, it’s time to make space for the deals you got for yourself.

Here’s how you do it:

Step 1:  Think about where you’ll most often use the item. Some things are going to be easy, like an air fryer. You want to keep that in your kitchen for optimal use. Some things will be a bit trickier, like keeping a back stock of holiday candles. Those could end up in several spaces, from a linen closet to a basement storage room. To decide on the best place for them, think about Step 2.

Step 2: Identify how often you’re going to use the item. Is it an everyday use item? Weekly or monthly? Once a quarter? Yearly? Things you use once a quarter or less make the most sense to organize in a basement storage room. Things you use daily (like a coffee maker) make sense on the kitchen counter. Items you use weekly or monthly go into secondary storage in the main living space.  

Step 3:  Make sure the space you’ve picked is also where other like items live. You want to organize like with like from your basement to your attic. So for the air fryer, make sure it’s with other small appliances like a small appliance garage/cabinet in your kitchen. That holiday candle back stock? They should live where other holiday items are stored, like the basement storage room.    

Step 4: Go to the storage space you’ve identified as the best-suited home for your new item. We’ll use a kitchen cabinet for a weekly/monthly item as an example. Is there space in that cabinet to store the new item with similar items? If there is, wonderful! Place the item in its new home, and you’re on your way! But if there isn’t, move on to step 5.

Step 5: Sort and purge the cabinet/space. To make room in a space, you’ll want to start by sorting and purging, meaning you’ll go one item at a time and figure out if you need, love, or use that item. If you don’t, it’s time to donate/recycle/throw away the item. If you do, it’s a keeper and it’s time to figure out if this space makes the most sense for it. Finding stuff for the laundry room in the kitchen cabinet? Redistribute these items to the laundry room. As you purge, sort the remaining items you’re keeping in the cabinet like with like. Pulling everything out as you go will give you a blank slate to work with. In the end, this will give you an idea of the total volume you have of each type of item. You may purge some more once you see that you have multiples of an item with some being in better shape than others.

Step 6: Reorganize the cabinet. Now that you are left with only the items that you need, love, or use for this cabinet, PLUS the new item, you can see what you’re working with. Reload the cabinet putting items you use less frequently toward the back and items you use most often toward the front, for example. Make sure you’re reloading like with like. If you can’t organize and keep the like items together this may not be the best cabinet for this category and you’re organizing may have to spill over into another cabinet. That’s the domino effect of organizing and the domino effect of bringing those holiday deals into your home! It’s okay to be led to the next space naturally this way, but don’t let it overwhelm you. It’s better to dig in and take the time to do it right than to shove the new purchase into a cabinet all willy-nilly.  
Following these six steps will keep your home tidy as you put away your new bargain treasures. Don’t let the holiday sales turn your house upside down, and stay Utterly Uncluttered in the process! 

Merry Organizing,

Melissa Fortino