Holiday Organizing Tips

Want to reduce holiday stress and chaos? Do you feel like you need a vacation after the holidays? Learning some new ways of organizing your holidays will make a big difference. Holidays can be less chaotic and stressful with the right organizing tools.

Holidays are supposed to be a time to enjoy family and friends by celebrating together. Holidays hold some of our fondest childhood memories and we try to recreate those happy memories for future generations. Are you enjoying the holidays or dreading them?

Holidays usually involve large meals, presents, decorations, and a variety of traditional rituals. These holiday traditions vary from holiday to holiday, family to family, country to country, and generation to generation. With all the variables for each holiday season, each family, every country and each generation, it is a no wonder there is stress and even chaos surrounding the holidays.

These holiday organizing tips and techniques might help you if you answer yes to any of the following questions:

• Do you dread the holidays?
• Are you too exhausted to enjoy the holiday?
• Do you feel like you have to do a lot of the things you do because you have always done them that way?
• Do you spend your holidays trying to please everyone else?
• Are you the only one in the family stressed out with the holiday planning?
• Do you wake up in the middle of the night in a panic because you forgot something?

Holidays frequently include traveling, family conflicts over expectations, lots of different events, shopping, errands, and coordinating several people. All of this usually comes on top of our normally packed personal and business schedules.

Keep the joy and lose the stress of the holiday seasons. Try something new this year! Try using some of our expert holiday organizing tips and techniques put the joy back in your holidays.

Basic Holiday Organizing Tips:

The following tips are suggestions for discovering new ways of having a holiday season that will be less stressful and won’t leave you feeling exhausted. Put some of the fun back in your holidays, and maybe even start some new traditions.

• List what you enjoy doing for each holiday and what stresses you out, and then try to eliminate or minimize the things that stress you out.
• Have family members list what they would like to do in the order of importance to them.
• Communicate with the others involved to find out what they really want.
• Make a Holiday Planning Notebook.
• Make your Holiday Planner Notebook portable, or use you existing day planner or electronic organizer for your holiday organizing
• Delegate whenever you can, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• Make fewer shopping trips by using a list and pre-planning the route.
• Go shopping during non-peak times or shop on-line.
• Schedule the time to do the house de-cluttering and cleaning before the holiday.
• Leave some space in your schedule for relax time to prevent burn-out.

Organizing Gifts:

Take the guess work out of your gift giving with these gift organizing tips.

• Do you have a holiday gift list that you use every year?
• Create a list of people you normally need to buy gifts for each year. Use a computer program to create a gift list that you can update easily. Contact programs like Outlook or spread sheets work great. Be sure you can make notes of favorite colors or hobbies. (Pen and paper work too if you don’t use a computer.)
• Start shopping early for holiday gifts, no more last minute shopping in crowded stores.
• Keep a list of what you bought for each person so you don’t forget and buy them something else.
• Have everyone use a free service like the Amazon.com wish list where people can pick out items they would like to receive, other family members or friends can purchase the items and have them delivered either to the purchaser, or directly to the gift receiver. This service is especially nice if they live out of state. No more standing in line at the post office.
• Store purchased gifts in a designated storage bin so that you can find them when the time comes to wrap them. No more misplaced gifts because you hid them and then you couldn’t find them. (Use a storage container that needs a key if you have snoopy people in the house.)
• Wrapping paper tips:
• Use small binder clips to secure wrapping paper rolls at each end of the tube
• Slit an empty wrapping paper tube from top to bottom and place over the top of a same size full roll. This keeps dust off the paper, and makes it easy to dispense the paper neatly through the slit, similar to saran wrap dispensers.
• Use non-holiday specific paper or gift-bags in solid colors then add decorations that are event specific.
• Tape cotton balls over sharp corners to prevent wrapping paper from tearing.
• Use gift bags to save time, or if you aren’t very good at wrapping.
• Use a gift wrapping services at the store.

Organizing Holiday Meals:

• Make meal plans that are simple with little clean up. (Unless you love cooking)
• Cook and freeze items ahead of time.
• Buy some of the meal items pre-made.
• Have the meal catered.
• Have the holiday meal at a restaurant. Note: Be sure check that the restaurant will be open and make reservations.
• Invite others to contribute by bringing a portion of the meal, maybe a favorite dish they make.
• Rotate who has the holiday dinners and gatherings.
• Make the clean up more fun by inviting others to pitch in.

Organizing Holiday Decorations:

• Simplify by decreasing the amount of decorations you use for each holiday. Use a few well chosen decorations placed in strategic places. Think quality rather than quantity.
• Smaller decorations can be harder to clean around, pack and unpack.
• For small ornaments use empty egg cartons or crafters boxes with dividers to store.
• Inventory what holiday items you have on hand before buying more.
• Cover hanging decorations with clear plastic trash bags, tape shut with packing tape, then hang them from the rafters in the attic, basement, garage, or storage shed.