Decluttering and Organizing to Create a Welcoming Space for the Holidays
December 10, 2025
If you want to truly enjoy the holidays and not just operate in survival mode, take some advice from Santa Claus himself, who’s known for “Making a list and checking it twice.”
While you could potentially remember everything that needs to get done and also smoothly delegate along the way, why would you do that to yourself when you could plan it out and recycle and update those plans year after year? You wouldn’t be the first person to wing it and then gasp when they realize they’re missing a particular gift, key ingredient, or even the tickets to the annual holiday lights show that they never miss.
Today in ARTIcles by Artifcts, we’re sharing tips from the pros in hopes of keeping your holiday season merry and bright.
The following is based on the Fall 2023 Evenings with Artifcts episode featuring C. Lee Cawley of simplify YOU, Jill Katz of One to Zen Organizing, and Samara Goodman of Samara Interiors. If you prefer to watch the Evenings conversation, pop over to YouTube now.
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Shift Your Frame of Mind and Start with Clear Goals
The holiday season is filled with micro changes to your routines and your home, which can make even the most laid back among us a bit stressed out and edgy, Jill told us. While Jill specializes in organizational services for neurodivergent people, you’ll discover her strategies and tools can keep us all in the holiday spirit.
WHERE IS YOUR MIND AT ON ALL THINGS HOLIDAYS?
To counteract feelings of frustration and anxiety, Jill suggests shifting your frame of mind about the lead up and the moments that make up your holidays in two key ways:
First, embrace that preparation is part of the holiday fun.Give yourself the space during the weeks ahead for prep activities like:
Choosing gifts thoughtfully, not frantically
Hand writing notes on holiday cards
Planning menus that come together to light up everyone’s taste buds
Creating music playlists
Second, absolutely avoid urges for perfection. Take a step back and remember why you are doing all this to start with and breathe. What do you want to remember about this holiday one year from now? Five years from now? We bet it’s about how you felt, not whether that centerpiece matched Martha Stewart’s design or that cake looked as good on your table as it did for Ina Garten.
WHAT WILL SUCCESS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
Now let’s consider your goals for the season. Are your holiday plans designed to guarantee more family time? Are you seeking to create a new holiday tradition this year?
To reach your goals and avoid madly racing thoughts that will detract from what’s important, track your holiday routines and to-dos. This will also help you to avoid starting from scratch next year. While you might like a pad of paper or digital note, hands down our panel recommends digitally accessible and customizable spreadsheets.
Before you decide spreadsheets are too intense or complicated, hear us out. A spreadsheet lets you simply list out your to-dos based on when they need to be done, e.g. 4 weeks out, 3 weeks out etc., so you can keep track of the multitude of tasks and subtasks that are part of your holiday routine.
Common holiday to-do items from our panelists’ own spreadsheets:
Taking out and putting up decorations
Buying tickets for a holiday event
Planning the menu and its corresponding shopping list
Ordering custom holiday cards (and noting the “no later than” date for getting them mailed)
Gathering or buying materials related to annual traditions
Making any needed repairs around the house before guests arrive
Choosing and selecting a hostess gift for parties you’ll attend
Tackling cleaning tasks big and small
Pressing tablecloths and napkins
Buying flowers for the table or around the house
Ordering items that will sell out early or have shipping timelines that could threaten your fun
Creating a Welcoming Space
Hosting this year? Great. We’re ready with tips for you.
PAPER CLUTTER
As the holiday season begins, get a strategy in place for one of the top sources of holiday clutter: paper! We’re talking about cards and flyers, donation requests from charities, and holiday cards, too.
C. Lee suggests buying or repurposing a decorative bin (with a lid) that you don’t mind setting out in your space to catch all the incoming catalogs and other generic mail. “But have a second box just for holiday cards that you do not want miss and may also include checks, cash, or gift cards.”
You’ll also likely generate some necessary paperwork during the holidays that C. Lee recommends you place into a durable labeled folder. What might this include? Copies of travel documents and itineraries, last year’s holiday card (to help you decide on this year’s), gift lists and ideas, receipts, and more.
Pre- or post-holidays, our handy Get Papered checklist can help you declutter all that paper! CLICK THE IMAGE to access this list and others and download for free!
ALL THINGS HOLIDAY
Clutter aside, let's move on to holiday decor and more! As an interior decorator who naturally embraces many principles of home organizers, Samara suggests that in decorating for the holidays and preparing for guests you think about all five senses.
“Often people think about what the room looks like, and what the menu will taste like, but what about touch? Cozy blankets and that feeling of warmth around you can be so inviting. As for sound, music sets the tone, ranging from upbeat and playful to quiet and calming, and helps you to transition through an event, too. And smell can go beyond your menu. Keep a pot of simmering mulled cider on the stovetop to evoke memories and warmth. And use cloves and cinnamon sticks to fill a decorative vase.”
Samara also favors natural decorations that are compostable, inexpensive, and reusable. You can check out ideas from her here. A simple glass hurricane with a white pillar candle can be filled with red and green candies during the winter holidays, sand and shells in the summer, and acorns or lentils in the fall. Likewise, you do not need a Christmas bowl. An elegant neutral bowl of clear glass, bronze or silver, or smooth wood can grace your home during any season or occasion. Just add festive ornaments at Christmas and enjoy!
Iconic gingerbread houses offer instant, homemade, and compostable decor! CLICK THE IMAGE to view this Artifcted house.
GUESTS WHO WILL SPEND ONE NIGHT OR MORE
If guests are coming to stay, you can easily discover online list upon list of items that you may want to have out and about to make your guests feel at home. Some things are small and easily done if you think of it, such as a small sign with your wi-fi password in a high traffic location as well as by their bedside.
Other things you maybe already have and/or do by routine anyway. Our favorites:
Laying out a sleep mask in case the sleep space is brighter than in their home
Providing a fan or sound machine in their bedroom
Clearing closet space and adding spare hangers along with a luggage rack
Placing a carafe or similar for water in their bedroom
Topping up or replacing basic toiletries
C. Lee also suggests repurposing wine glass tags for regular coffee mugs and glasses to avoid stress and confusion as to which glass belongs to which guest (and reduce dishes). And we also love her suggestion to leave out a note along with some plates/bowls, breakfast foods, and coffee/tea directions so that they can help themselves when they wake up and you can relax into your day.
A breakfast treat like coffee cake can be made ahead (even well ahead and frozen), and pulled out for all to enjoy at whatever hour they roll out of bed!
It's Okay to Control the Chaos When Guests are Staying
About those guests of yours: Keep your eye on the prize. Priorities shift when guests are in the house. Do you feel more like, "Your home, your rules?" Maybe treat your rules more like guidelines.
Set boundaries only where necessary to keep everyone (pets included) safe and to preserve your sanity. We’re willing to wager that more often than not your friends and family will follow along if they know your boundaries and general modes of operation. Just give them a nudge! For example, add a temporary over-the-door rack to hang multiple coats so people know where they can store coats and bags if you don’t want them strewn about. And if you are a shoe-free household, post a little sign and offer skid free socks to put on for their comfort and safety.
Guests are gone? Now is when you can reset and return things to normal around the house. Do not try to do this while they are there; it’s like fighting gravity. Is that really how you want to expend your energy while they are there and you’re trying to enjoy time together?
Tips for Making the 11th Hour Less Stressful
Remember that spreadsheet? We mentioned sorting it by weeks. Well, you may also want to create a timetable for the day of your event, says C. Lee, so you and everyone else remembers/knows when each thing needs to happen. When does each dish need to go in the oven? When will you light the candles and start the music? Who is arriving and when?
And what are old school sticky notes good for when it comes to the holidays? Delegation! Jill reminded us all to ask for and accept help. And even if you truly have it under control, you can appreciate that you’ll have folks joining the festivities who will feel more comfortable if they can help in some way.
Pop a sticky note next to the salad bowl, ingredients, and recipe, and say, “Make me!” Or add a note next to the stack of plates, flatware, and glasses and, write “Ready for the table.” If you coordinated in advance or simply know who will want which task, label the note with their name.
Samara encourages you to work ahead to set the table, which can be a serious effort depending on the number of place settings, the distance your table is from where all the essentials are stored, and how many layers of decorations, flatware and glasses, and more you add to complete the table.
“And if you don’t have a separate table you can decorate in advance, create a table setting box with everything you’ll need, including the tablecloth, napkins, candles, candle sticks. For items you can’t put in the box, like place settings, platters and glasses, make a list and add to the box to check off as you set the table.”
One more 11th hour prep tip is about gift opening. Have your helper tools stationed and ready. This might mean a bag for ribbons (to reuse) and another bag for non-recyclable wrapping and tissue papers. And to avoid losing anything in that holiday mess, have a box set out where small gifts can be popped into temporarily. Oh, and don’t forget to have a safety cutter on hand for eager gift receivers to open tough tape, boxes, and plastic covers without landing in the emergency room.
The Final Word
We asked our panelists for their final few words of advice to avoid getting our tinsel in a tangle. Here’s what they offered:
Simplify hostess gifts by picking one item to give to each hostess that season. Avoid more ‘stuff’ and go with consumables like wine, an evergreen potted plant, or special gourmet treats.
Which leads to… embrace regifting! If it’s a distinctive and memorable gift, perhaps just avoid regifting it inside the same circle of friends or colleagues to avoid awkward moments.
Centerpieces can be created well ahead of time and even done as an event, together with friends and family, for an instant tradition!
Minimize how much new you take on during the holiday season: one new decoration, one new recipe, one new tradition.
Plan in downtime so you can enjoy the season without being drained by it.
And with that, happy holidays AND happy Artifcting!
At Artifcts, we've seen this question come up again and again—and we understand why.
Today, there are more than 150 publicly Artifcted cards and letters on Artifcts.com, each preserving a story, a relationship, or a moment in time. Our Co-Founder, Heather, has also privately Artifcted more than three dozen cards and letters from her own life (and still has a couple dozen more to go!).
We hear you, and you are not alone. Cards and letters are sneaky. They don't take up much space individually, but together they can fill boxes, bins, closets, and entire storage shelves. Unlike many other possessions, they're full of sentiment, emotion, and something increasingly rare, handwriting. We want to keep them because they connect us to people and moments that mattered.
But then life happens. The bins overflow. The storage area fills up. Years pass, sometimes decades. And despite keeping every birthday card, holiday greeting, love note, sympathy card, or handwritten letter, we rarely pull them out to read them again.
So...what should you do with them?
Start with a Different Question
Instead of asking, "Should I keep this card?" ask yourself:
"What am I really trying to preserve?"
Most of the time, it's not the paper itself. It's your grandmother's unmistakable cursive. It's the note your child scribbled before they learned to spell. It's the anniversary card that reminds you exactly how you felt in that moment in time. It's the laugh-out-loud birthday card from a friend who always knew how to make you smile.
Laugh-out-loud and always makes me smile. Mother's Day 2024. Sorry, this Artifct is private!
Often, the physical card is simply the vessel that carries the memory forward, lest we forget.
You Don't Have to Keep Every Piece of Paper
Many people feel guilty even considering letting go of cards and letters. It can feel like discarding the relationship itself. But preserving memories doesn't have to mean storing every card, letter, note, or envelope forever.
As you sort through your collection, consider categories like:
Cards that mark major life milestones.
Letters from people who have shaped your life.
Notes that tell a meaningful story.
Cards with especially memorable handwriting or artwork.
Messages that still make you smile, laugh, or cry.
These are often the pieces worth preserving—not because they're old, but because they continue to have meaning and someday someone else in your family may be curious enough to want to see them or even keep them as part of their family history too.
Preserve the Memory, Reduce the Clutter
Whether you're downsizing, helping parents organize decades of keepsakes, or simply reclaiming space at home, preserving the stories first makes it much easier to decide what to do with the physical items afterward. By photographing or scanning meaningful cards and letters and pairing them with your own memories, you create an archive that's easier to revisit than a stack of bins tucked away in the attic.
Here's an easy way to get started:
Choose the cards and letters that matter most. Start with a small group—perhaps birthday cards from your parents, letters from a grandparent, love notes, or cards that commemorate major milestones.
Photograph or scan each piece. Capture the front, inside message, back, and envelope if it adds context. Don't worry about perfection; your goal is to preserve the memory.
Add the images to an Artifct and tell the story behind them. Who wrote it? What was happening in your life? Why has this particular note stayed with you all these years? Those details transform a simple card into part of your personal history.
Once you've preserved both the images and the story, you'll find it much easier to decide whether the physical card belongs in a keepsake box, should be passed on to family, or can finally be recycled.
Less Clutter. More Memories.
Cards and letters were never meant to spend decades hidden in storage bins. They were written to be read, remembered, and cherished. That's exactly what Artifcts helps you do.
Artifct your cards and letters to create a fully accessible, shareable archive of the notes, sweet sentiments, heartfelt messages, and laugh-out-loud moments that matter most. Add the stories behind them, preserve the handwriting, and revisit them anytime, from anywhere.
Because the goal isn't to keep every piece of paper. It's to keep the memories. Happy Artifcting!
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Looking for additional tips on how to Artifct cards, letters, and other ephemera? Check out our How to Artifcts Cards & Letters article to help you get started.
When people ask me why I believe so deeply in what we're building at Artifcts, I could talk about technology. I could talk about digital preservation, AI, or the challenge of organizing a lifetime of memories. But the real answer is much simpler.
It's my mom.
Like so many families, as she got older, my brothers and I wanted to preserve her stories. We wanted our kids and grandkids to know not just who she was, but how she lived, what she loved, and why certain objects mattered.
Through Artifcts, my mom documented more than 200 items, photos, and memories. She photographed treasured keepsakes, family heirlooms, travel souvenirs, and pieces of history that had found their way into our family over the decades. She told stories that otherwise would have disappeared. When she passed away, those Artifcts became one of the greatest gifts she left behind.
As my brothers and I worked through her belongings, we didn't have to wonder what mattered most to her. We knew. We knew which objects carried special meaning, which family stories deserved to be passed along, and why she had a rather well-preserved eight-foot snakeskin on her bookcase.
Without Artifcts, so much of that would have been guesswork. And yet...even with more than 200 Artifcts, we discovered something that surprised us. There were still chapters of her life we knew very little about.
The Stories We Never Thought to Ask About
Looking back through everything she created, patterns emerged. She documented many wonderful historic family items. She preserved memories from decades of travel and living overseas in such far-flung places as Kathmandu, Rio de Janeiro, and Liberia. She captured objects connected to raising a family overseas and building a life with our dad.
However, there was remarkably little from her teenage years. Who was she before she became our mother? What were her dreams? What music did she love? What friendships shaped her? What challenges did she overcome before she ever met our father?
Then we noticed another gap. The last twenty years of her life were barely represented.
Without a doubt, those years mattered too. They included new friendships, changing priorities, becoming a grandmother to an ever-growing brood of grandchildren, adapting to life's inevitable changes, and countless everyday moments (hello Rummikub champion!) that become precious only after someone is gone.
Those stories are largely lost to us now. Not because she didn't live them, but because none of us realized they still needed to be captured. We had patted ourselves on the back saying “yep, Gradnmom’s got 200 Artifcts, we’re good,” and, “we’ve heard that story a thousand times, there’s no way we’ll forget it.” Except, somehow, we have. We’ve forgotten the little details and I’m sure mixed-up others.
Even Hundreds of Stories Leave Room for More
One of the biggest misconceptions about preserving family history is that it's about finishing an enormous project. It's not. No one ever reaches the point where they've told every meaningful story.
Life keeps happening. Your story changes every year. The person you are today is different from the person you were ten years ago. The memories that feel ordinary now may become the stories your grandchildren treasure most someday.
I see this differently now than I did before losing my mom. When someone is still with us, it's easy to assume there will always be another holiday, another phone call, another chance to ask, "Tell me about when..."
Sometimes there isn't.
The Objects Matter—Because the Stories Matter
People often ask whether Artifcts is really about the objects. The objects are important; they're the prompts. A cookbook becomes the story of Sunday dinners. A passport becomes decades of adventure. A baseball glove becomes a childhood friendship. A wedding ring becomes sixty years of marriage.
Although the objects may anchor our memories, the real treasure isn't always the object itself. It's knowing why it mattered. If I could go back, I'd ask more questions.
I'd ask about the years before I existed.
I'd ask about the years I thought I already understood.
I'd ask about the ordinary days that didn't seem remarkable at the time.
I can't do that now, but I can encourage others to start today. Take time to document your own story. Take time to capture the stories of the people you love.
Photograph the objects that matter. Record why they matter. Ask the questions you've been meaning to ask. Preserve the memories that seem obvious today, because one day they won't be. My one closing thought? Leave your loved ones a legacy, not a mystery.
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Looking for more inspiration to help you capture your stories? Check out our newest partner, MemoirGhostwriting.com, who has generously discounted their most popular memoir packages for our Artifcts members.
You may also enjoy reading these additional ARTIcles from our Artifcts vault:
You've probably heard the expression, "time waits for no one," and here at Artifcts we know that is true. Whether it's capturing a funny story Grandmom is sharing about her beloved candy jar, or the ten thousandth friendship bracelet woven at summer camp by your pre-teen. The stories and the objects that spark them jump in and out of our lives faster than a summer rain shower.
Sometimes we can capture them on the fly, but other times, why spoil the moment? Here at Artifcts we're excited to announce our new Drafts feature. Drafts allows you to quickly capture what matters—an audio snippet of Grandmom, or a photo of your camper and her collection of bracelets—and fill in the details whenever you're ready.
Drafts allows you to quickly capture what matters...and fill in the details whenever you're ready.
You can share a photo or video straight from your phone's gallery to your Artifcts account to start a new Artifct, or open the Artifcts App and take a photo, record a video, or capture an audio clip on the spot. We've made it easier than ever to Artifct where you're at while not losing sight of what matters most—the small moments, stories, and memories that make us smile.
How It Works
Share a photo or video straight from your phone's gallery to Artifcts to start a new Artifct, or open the Artifcts App and take a photo, record a video, or capture an audio clip on the spot.
Add your media, tap Save, then choose Save as Draft. No title, no description, no details required.
Your draft appears at the top of your Artifcts list as a Local Draft, stored right on your mobile device.
When you're ready, open it back up, fill in the “Name Your Artifct” field and add the “Description or Story” behind it, and do a full Save to push it to the cloud and keep it safe in Artifcts. Once fully saved, you can see and edit it on the Artifcts website.
Our new Drafts feature allows you to capture the moment in seconds and tell the stories on your own time. At Artifcts, your stories matter, and we know your time is precious. Sometimes simply getting THAT photo, video, or audio snippet captured is enough motivation to go back and fill in the details later.
Feel free to reach out to us at Hello@Artifcts.com if you have any questions or any suggestions for future features. We'd love to hear from you and we value your feedback.
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The time I packed two Matchbox cars and 60 pounds of rocks for a 10+ hours flight. Artifcted. 
