Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - It‘s time for a Clutter-Free Christmas! | Clutterbug Podcast # 117

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

So many people struggle with depression and lack of motivation after the holidays and I believe a BIG part of that is the huge amounts of new "stuff" that we now need to find homes for and manage. Clutter affects our mood, so let's be mindful of that while gift giving this Christmas.        You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're talking about Christmas and how we can make it clutter-free. I've been working so much lately. I find the time to sleep. Yeah, spend my time. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about clutter-free gift-giving. I'm actually really passionate about this because I'm trying to simplify my life.

And I know you're trying to simplify your life too. And I've never met a person who hasn't been burdened by their self. stuff at one point or another in their lives. And most of the people that I know right now today are feeling really burdened by their stuff. They're on this constant cycle of tidying and cleaning, just to have it messy again. And we all want to get organized, but we can't organize when we have excess. We have to let go. We have to declutter. And that's the hardest part. So every time we have a major holiday, I feel like as wonderful and joyous as incredible as it is, it sets us all back. because we end up with so much stuff. And I certainly don't want to complain. And it feels almost

wrong to complain for sure. I have such a lovely giving family who spoils us and they spoil my three children. And it's gotten a lot better with lots of clutter-free gift-giving ideas that they do now. But still, it adds a lot of things to our home. And a lot of those things are things we wouldn't have chosen to enter our home. But we're accepting because they're a gift and it's filling and it's adding to the complexity of our lives. Everything we buy is something that we have to manage. We have to think about it. We have to remember where we own it. Remember where it is. We have to clean it. And it's taking up space. And so we have to put boundaries on ourselves. And I'm so passionate about this because when my kids were first born, especially our first daughter is about,

She's the first grandchild on both sides. My parents went in nuts and so did Joe's and so did aunts and uncles. And I remember one Christmas we had to take two van loads filled. We had stone goad the seats. The entire back of our van was filled with gifts. And we had to come back to pick up another load. Our entire living room was full of gifts, which is lovely and incredible. but when you already have a small space and you're already strapped and don't know where you're going to put things

and don't know how you're going to keep things clean to suddenly get more stuff to manage can be really defeating. And I think this is a big reason why a lot of people come January right after Christmas do feel a bit of a depression. We've just spent more money than we should have on Christmas gifts. But also our home is now full, more full than it was in December. And if you're like me and you're really working to simplify, this can set you back. So let's talk about some clutter-free gift ideas. Not only that you can give to other people, so you aren't contributing to other people's overwhelm and burden and clutter, but also things that maybe you can have an open conversation with your loved ones and suggest some of these things, which are amazing, but clutter-free.

The first thing, I mean, it's a given, but food. We eat food. food isn't really clutter. So anytime I get a gift basket that has like lots of goodies in it or a chikudery board gift basket, I can never say charcutory, charcutory, whatever. Do you know what I'm saying? Like meats and cheese. Those type of things are amazing. If you have a coffee lover, different kinds of coffee or tea or wine or chocolates, this is something that is still a lovely gift, something to unwrap, but it's clutter-free because it's consumable. The same thing with like self-care type things. So anytime you're giving like a home spa basket or their favorite lotions or creams, this can go both ways. If you don't know if they're going to like it,

and you go to Walmart and you get one of those like $10 baskets that has terrible lotions, that contributes to clutter. But if you know it's something that they love, that's a consumable gift. But let's talk about other things that you can get. I personally love getting, I'm not a early girl, but I loved one of the best gifts I ever got was a gift certificate for a facial. I'd never had one before. It's something I never would have spent the money on. Pedicures, manicures, a personal trainer if they go to a gym, even a hair salon, their favorite hair salon. Gift certificates for these type of things, it's such a lovely gift because it is an indulgment. It is an indulgment that a lot of people wouldn't spend on themselves. I think that goes a long

with lessons or classes. So getting someone a couple of cooking lessons, maybe not your spouse, you know, that could go wrong. Or photography or organizing classes or lessons. I don't know. I don't know what you are into or what somebody else is into. But I just love that as a gift. And the other thing that I think is really cool that I know I would, it's a little bit pricey, but it's called master class. So it's a subscription to a ton of online class. by famous people. There's like Gordon Ramsey and a bunch of different people doing different types of classes. I want to say it's around $200. But I think this is a lovely gift if a couple of people went in on it to give to somebody who is looking to have self-improvement,

somebody who's into changing their life for the better. We know about movie gift cards, gift cards to restaurants, but every year my parents give Joe and I a little, it's an adorable little package. It has gift cards to a movie, gift cards to a restaurant, and an IOU babysitter. So they take my kids for the weekend and Joe and I have a date night. And it's a complete package gift from my parents to Joe and I. And it's a lovely, lovely gesture. My mom does something very similar. She actually gives us frozen steaks and potatoes. It's weird. I know it's weird and a bottle of wine even though I don't drink and neither does Joe but it's the thought that counts but then she also takes the kids for a weekend so we have a date night inside which is really

cool too this is something that I wish someone would give me which is a car detailing gift certificate my car is nasty okay and getting a car detailed is really expensive even a gift card towards the cost if it's a $50 gift card and it costs $100 to detail your car, I would be so grateful for that. I just, that's something I personally would really like. And the other thing that I wish someone would get me as a gift is home cleaning services. There's a lot of maid services that you can buy a day clean or a half a day clean or a gift certificate towards a clean. And I think that's such a treat. It's something that I would love to have a cleaner come in, but it's something I feel really guilty. doing and so to have somebody gift me that even if it's just one day where I can take a day off and I

can go to the mall or go to the movies and have someone else clean my home is the most amazing gift my parents who used to spoil my kids crazy with vanfuls of giant toys I learned when I had a very tearful honest conversation with them about the fact that I wanted to declutter and I felt so guilty getting rid or donating the things that they had just bought my children and I begged them to think of something different and I suggested taking the money that they would spend on gifts and taking my kids away for the weekend instead and that was about five years ago and they took them to just two hours away a hotel that had an indoor water park and it was the greatest gift my kids have ever gotten. And now every year, my parents wrap up a little note that says where they're taking

them. And they take them there in January or February. But the gift that they give them is a note saying where they're going and then a little photo book from the last year's gift. So my kids have something to unwrap. They love their photo books. But they're so excited for this gift because they get to spend quality time with grandma and grandpa and grandpa and do something really, really fun. So I think a weekend away is a really great gift. You could also do like subscriptions, maybe to Disney Plus or Amazon Prime or Netflix. And when we were in New York, we wanted to go to all, we were living in New York for a couple of months. We wanted to go to all the zoos. It was so cheap to get the New York City Zoo Pass. I think it was $80 and it gave you access

for the entire year to all the zos. zoos, but there's so many tourist passes that are an amazing price in your town. Check that out. See if they have something like that. I think that makes a great gift. Something I really want to do for my sister, this might be weird, but I'm just going to say, okay, my sister is trying to start her own business as a health and wellness coach. She is a social worker, but she's not great with technology. Her birthday's coming up, and I thought about giving her a blog or a landing page for a web, site that's already designed. So I would, because I'm good with technology, well, I'm not good, but I'm okay with technology. And I'm really familiar with creating blogs. I thought about signing her up

for Squarespace or something like that and just getting her started or a one page landing page for her business where I can do the design and then hand it over to her so she can take it over. It's something that people always want to do. I hear so many of my friends and family who say, I'd love to start a blog or I'd love to start a podcast, but they don't know how or where to start. And so I think this is a really kind gesture and a really sweet gift that's just your time. And whatever it costs to set it up of giving them something like that. In the past when my sister turned 35, I registered, she was a budding photographer, and I registered her business name with the city.

so she became a legit registered business. It was $60 for the business license, but it wasn't about that. It was about the fact that it was a kind gesture, something she really appreciated, and it legitimized her business. So I think that's a really fun thing to do. Another thing that we do quite often for Joe's parents, and we've done for my parents in the past too, is we've hired a family photographer and did a family photo session as a gift to our loved ones. So for Joe's mom, for her 60th birthday, we got all the grandkids together and all her kids together. And we had a big photo shoot in the park. And she said it was the greatest gift she had ever gotten. And we've done it for my mom too, where we've had all her kids and the grandkids together.

And we've taken photos. Not only does she have photos then of her with the grandkids, but she had her with my stepdad. And Joe's mom had like his parents, just pictures of them by themselves. It's just a really, it's just a really lovely gift. So many photographers do what is called mini sessions. Our photographer is $200 and she'll take tons and tons of photos during that time, no matter how many people we have come in. So for $200, we're able to get lots of group photos.

And then all of us kids split on the price. So it's a really, really inexpensive gift to give to a loved one that they'll cherish forever. And last but not least, I think event ticket. make a really good gift. So if there's concerts coming up, especially now that we're getting near the end of COVID, hopefully I'm knocking on wood, there's a lot of events coming back. And I think giving a concert ticket or I take it to a play or something like that is just such a lovely, lovely gift, especially since we've all been cooped up in our house for so long. I really want you to think about this with your holiday gift giving, not only for yourself giving ideas to your loved ones who are

shopping for you of things that can be clutter free so that you're not burdened in the new year by more stuff coming in your home. But really think about what you can gift to other people and be really mindful about their own home and their own clutter situation and that you're not contributing to it and that you're not burdening them. Everybody loves getting new stuff. But as soon as that initial like, yay, that was awesome. I love this. We're off. We end up feeling overwhelmed with even more to care for. So giving clutter-free Christmas gifts is such a kind thing to do for so many reasons. Plus, it's definitely outside of the box. It's something that people don't usually think of, but they're so appreciative. So whether you give your dad a

card detailing gift certificate or your husband a weekend away in a hotel or your mom a family photo session or give your kids tickets to something really fun like a concert or a play that they would love to see you're not only giving a lovely gift a lovely gesture but you're keeping them clutter free at the same time all of us need to let go and have less stuff so let's stop it before it even enters our house especially this time of year and we might even save some money at the same time thank you guys so much for listening and i'll see you next time time.