Guests Are Coming Soon! Let’s Clean Up That Space For Them.
It’s that time of year. Walmart looks like the North Pole exploded. Target is wishing you a Merry Christmas. Lights are going up all over this great land, and small town downtowns are wearing their Sunday best. The world feels right again, and the family is about to start heading into town to stay for a while.
But here’s the deal: your house might be a little bit cluttered. We get it. After a few years, stuff starts to add up. When Auntie Wendy and her tribe are coming over from Christmas through New Year’s, where are you going to put your stuff?
1. Why Prepare Your Spare Room Now?
Well, like it or not, the holidays are upon us. You still have another month for Christmas and Hanukkah (remember, Hanukkah starts on Christmas Day this year), and about five weeks until New Year’s. But you know as well as I do that those weeks will go by in a flash.
And let’s face it: you want to put your best foot forward when you have guests over. A neat and tidy space free from clutter.
2. Assess Your Current Clutter Situation
The second step is one of the toughest: taking a look around at what you’ve got going on. How much clutter is there to take care of? Is it something you can take care of with the present storage at hand, or do you need a little extra help with a self-storage unit.
No shame in that. A self-storage is the best way to reduce clutter when you prepare for guests. Of course, you can use it for a lot more than just overflow. Why not keep your Christmas decorations in there? That’s a great place to keep your stuff. And you will be surprised at just how much you can keep in a storage unit. Our smallest units are 8×10 and are adequate for a 1-bedroom house or apartment. So if you are using one of these for holiday storage, you probably have room for some additional stuff. Checkmate, clutter.
3. Use Smart Holiday Storage Ideas to Maximize Space
Make a list. It can be pen and paper, the Notes app, or whatever you want. Write down exactly what needs to stay, what you have that are maybes, and then what needs to go.
Once you know what you need to keep and what needs to go in storage, you will be much better prepared to do what needs to be done.
Once you know what needs to go, you can plan out how to maximize not only space but time. When items going into storage are organized, you know exactly where they are, what they are in, and most of all, you optimize the storage space to fit the most clutter possible.
4. Invest in Holiday Storage Solutions
The first major investment you need to make for storage is a self-storage unit. It is the most affordable way to get stuff moved out of your living space and make room for what you want and need.
Figure out the size you need (we offer 8×10, 8×20, and 8×40 self-storage units) and rent one.
Next, you need storage solutions to maximize space. The most common are large plastic tubs by Rubbermaid or Sterilite. Other good solutions are cardboard boxes and large storage bags, but it really depends on what you are storing. If it is a lot of breakables, you should consider tubs and wrapping your items in bubble wrap and brown paper. I do suggest tubs over cardboard because you might decide to do this every year so why re-buy boxes? Just buy the tubs once and they will last for years.
5. Store Your Holiday Decorations the Right Way
This is important. Storing your holiday decor properly will save you so much time and frustration down the line.
We suggest you go to the local big box store (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc) and shop for holiday decoration-specific storage items. You can get tubs for just about everything you can imagine like ornament-specific tubs to keep breakables from breaking.
Also, these storage solutions are usually made to be stackable so you can optimize space in your self-storage unit.
6. Create a Guest-Ready Room
You want to put your best foot forward when Uncle Clark and Aunt Fern come over to share in the YuleTide traditions. That looks a lot like having the room set up with open space, which is kind of hard if you have been using that room for storage.
No worries.
My Storage Box is the solution you need. An 8×10 storage unit is usually enough to take care of a single-bedroom house, so it should be ample for a spare room or two (plus whatever else you want to put in there).
7. The Benefits of Decluttering Before the Holidays
Here’s an easy one: declutter before the holidays so you aren’t spending them stressed out over the clutter. You already know that there’s going to be more toys, more boxes, more clutter after Christmas gifts are opened. If you’ve got young children like I do, you know it is about to get real messy in your house no matter how much you try to mitigate it. Stay ahead of the 8-ball and declutter that house beforehand so you don’t have to worry about it.
And let’s face it: the easiest and fastest way to declutter your home, or even just spare rooms, is to take that extra stuff somewhere else. Not your garage, not your storage shed, but a storage unit. Pack up your stuff, bring it over, and lock it up.
8. Wrap-Up: Start Now and Stay Ahead of the Holidays
You don’t have to overcomplicate anything. You have just a few days now to get things in order for visiting family members. Or maybe you know that holiday chaos is coming and you want to mitigate it by getting your house as tidy and uncluttered as humanly possible. Whatever the case, we can help. Check out our storage units available in the Ponca City area and see which one works the best for you!