Holiday Organization

Contributed by Tracie Begnaud of Form and Function

With all the hustle and bustle during the holiday season, it is easy to lose your way when it comes to getting ready for Christmas. It is easy to forget people on your gift list, lose your sanity, and is exhausting when you think about putting up all of your Christmas décor for the next year.

To begin, have a plan. This will save you a lot of stress, and by creating a method you will get things done more quickly. Plan your holiday meals and create menus, shopping lists, guest lists, gift lists, etc…Once you have a plan in place, it saves time and energy in trying to figure out what you need to do next.

Create checklists so you do not forget anyone on your gift list. You can use your address book and email contacts to start generating a list. Make sure to include all family members you must buy for, as well as friends, co-workers, teachers, office parties, etc… You can type up your list in your computer with the person’s name and a gift you would like to get them. Print out the list and highlight or check off their name as you purchase their gift. Save the list to your computer so next year you know what you purchased for them.

Secondly, with so much going on, it is easy to lose order in your home with all of your décor, gift wrap, gifts, etc… I would suggest a gift wrapping area or station where there is a hard surface for wrapping. Keep all gift wrapping supplies located in this location so you do not have to go hunt for them throughout the house. You will be able to wrap presents quickly and clean up will be a cinch.

Keep boxes for charitable donations. You can place these in the garage and label them with the due date and location they need to be dropped off. As you purchase things or find things around the house you can just toss them in, and when the time comes just grab them and go donate.

Holiday cards take up a lot of time creating, addressing, and stamping. A lot of people are emailing their holiday cards instead of mailing this year, or you can have labels typed up and saved on your computer to print which will save a lot of time.

Once you decorate your home, place all totes back into their storage area and store any décor you had to remove from your home in them until the holidays are over.

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