10 Ways to Beat the Post-Holiday Blues

When that last drop of New Year’s Eve champagne is gone and the Christmas ornaments are packed away, many people enter a state of post-holiday blues. The anticipation and planning that begins with Halloween ends when you open your eyes on the second day of January. It’s winter; the parties are over and it’s back to the daily grind. But you can beat the post-holiday blues.

10 Ways to Beat the Post-Holiday Blues

1. Rescue an Animal

Visit your local animal shelter. Give some time and attention to an animal without a home. If you are able, adopt a pet and add some new life to your home. If you can’t adopt one, ask if you can donate your time to the shelter. You’ll be helping animals, but they’ll enrich your life as well.

How Pets Raise Spirits and Improve Health

2. Declutter

Look around your home — I mean really look around. Are the walls closing in on you? Could you use some breathing room? A cluttered home can make you feel overwhelmed and unable to move forward in your thinking and your activities. It’s harder to clean, too, adding to the chores you have to do, or the chores that never get done. It’s a vicious cycle that can be broken. Pick out a few items each day and ask yourself — do I need this…does it serve a purpose…would I really miss it if it were gone…can it be useful to someone else? Most people feel better and perform better in an uncluttered environment.

Simple Ways to Declutter Your Life

3. Volunteer

There’s a lot of hype about volunteering during the holidays, but those needs don’t go away in January. People are still hungry, ill, homeless, and in need of assistance. If you’ve got time on your hands, and it’s making you blue, helping someone else can lift you out of the doldrums.

4. Give

If you’re busy with earning a living and caring for family, volunteering time isn’t always practical. Perhaps you can afford a monetary gift to your favorite worthy charity. Choosing a local charity makes it more personal. If you can’t afford to give money, how about donating items from your home that you no longer use or want? You get decluttered and someone else gets something they need. That’s a win/win.

5. Perform an Act of Kindness

Smile at a stranger. Open a door for someone else. Thank someone for the work they do. Let another driver into the line of traffic. Give someone a ride. Run an errand for someone who is sick. Small kindnesses take little time or effort but can make a big difference in someone else’s day. Perhaps you’ll even inspire others to pay it forward.

How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal and Inspire

Next: 5 More Fun Tips!

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Read more: Adoptable pets, Christmas, Community, Community Service, Crafts & Design, Crafts & Hobbies, Diet & Nutrition, Do Good, Eating for Health, Family, Feng Shui & Organizing, Fitness, Food, Fun, General Health, Green, Halloween, Health, Holidays & Gifts, Home, Life, Make a Difference, New Year, Pets, Spirit

Peter M.

6:34PM PST on Feb 4, 2012

thanks for sharing

send a green star

Eternal G.

6:39PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

Thank you.

Jekaterina D.

4:22AM PST on Jan 5, 2012

I volunteered and helped cats in local shelter, that made my 1 week of 2012, GREAT TIPS! Thank you!

Lika S.

12:06AM PST on Jan 5, 2012

I decluttered before the holidays. I'm always giving. So, I sent my son to Grandma's for a couple days, and had a very lazy-hot weekend with my hubby... ;)

Debbie C.

10:04AM PST on Jan 4, 2012

We don't have the post holiday blues just yet, even though today is the 4th of January. .

Some friends are coming in from Chicago this coming Sunday (Jan. 8th), and we will be having Christmas with them. So, we left our decorations up. They will be leaving on the 14th, so I can't even think about getting "blue" for a while longer.

Then, I plan to do some decluttering like the article mentioned and try some new projects.

Thanks for the article.

Amanda M.

7:19AM PST on Jan 4, 2012

The week between Yule/Christmas and New Year's, I usually start bouncing off the walls and getting the place organized and cleaned for New Year's. It's kind of a thing with me that everything has to be in order to welcome the New Year and that helps set the tone for the entire year. Call it superstition, but it's still a good way to get the house tidied up.

I actually look forward to taking down the decorations and getting back to normal, as weird as that sounds. We start counting off from Yule (winter solstice), so 12 days later (January 2, usually) everything comes down and gets put away. The rest of the winter until planting season is spent reorganizing and catching up on my craftwork such as knitting/sewing projects, jewelry making, and quilting. Like the Amish, once the growing season starts, I generally don't have much time for craftwork because the vegetable garden takes up the majority of my time. Add in housework and child-raising, and-well, you can see why I'm busy from April/May to October!

The only problem I've had with reorganizing this year is that we need some new storage bins for such things as my quilting fabric and some of the decorations we need to consolidate (such as the outside lights), and we can't afford more bins until we get our tax return around February or March. Since I hate leaving jobs half-done, this is MADDENING!