Create a Holiday Organizing Binder - Create one this year and use it for years to come!

Save Your Christmas Card List in a Word Document so you can open it every year when you send cards. Throughout the year you can update and add new addresses. After the holidays, it will be easier to edit and add addresses from the cards you received. Mail cards early before all the busyness of the holiday starts. Buy the cards at the end of the season and save for the next year so you can start addressing cards before season begins next year.

Gift List as an Excel Spreadsheet – print it and put it in your purse or wallet. that has a list of names of people to buy for and I start collecting links to gifts to buy for them. Keep a list all year long on computer for people you buy gifts for. When you see an idea or they mention something they would like I add it to the list. When it’s time to shop I have great ideas for everyone.

Take a Weekday Off in Early December to Shop – Take a Tuesday or Wed off in early December and avoid frantic last minute and weekend warriors.

Create a Hostess Gift Bin Make sure to buy extra small hostess gifts for spur of the moment parties this season and throughout the year.

Create a Gift Theme this year and buy all of your gifts around this theme. Keep it simple: candles and candle platters, linens to include napkins, tablecloths wine accessories such as wine glass tags, cork screws, wine glasses…

Organize a Holiday Sweet Swap. Every person makes a huge batch of one recipe then swaps with each other. This way you don’t have to buy a ton of different ingredients you just have to buy for your one recipe. I LOVE doing this.

Stock Up on Food and Gift Wrapping Staples This Week that you know you are going to need for those holiday meals, and tape and ribbons and bows and anything else that you can get a head start on.

Get Cooking and Prepare a Food Backup: of casseroles, snack foods and cold desserts in early December.

Bake and Freeze – Start making Christmas cookies and baked goods a few weeks earlier than last year. Freezing the cookies/desserts will make the holidays so much less stressful because you won’t have to bake at the last minute.

Buy Gift Cards for Local Services – These are clutter free and thoughtful gifts and keep your shopping simple and stress free. You also support local small businesses. Consider gift certificates for professional services such as organizing, massage, spa treatments or image consulting.

Situation:

This kitchen bar counter had turned into a dumping ground for all things that didn’t have a pre-defined place to live elsewhere. The owner had spent the past year investing all of her energies traveling to see her husband in an assisted care living facility. She simply did not have any energy at the end of the day to maintain her own home.

An additional challenge was that this home had been her main residence for 40 years and, as is normal for everyone, she had accumulated many duplicate and unnecessary possessions.

Challenge:

Determining what types or categories of items had actually found their way to this area. Most of the items did not belong in the kitchen/living room but ended up there by default because there wasn’t any space in the other parts of the house to store them.

Like most classic organizing projects, we had to begin organizing and de-cluttering other parts of the house before we could tackle this particular area. For this client, our work began in the garage. Once we had the garage organized and purged of all unnecessary items, we had created enough space to move what she wanted to keep and store from the kitchen area.

Solution:

Begin by tackling, purging and organizing the two car garage which had initially room for only one car. Once that area was organized, we had space to bring in the other items from the kitchen that needed to be stored there long term. These items mainly consisted of memories, clothes and holiday decorations.

Many of the duplicate items were given to her daughter who was in the process of purchasing a new home so it was a win-win for everyone!