Top Tips for Staying Organized During the Holidays
With the holidays in full swing, it’s tempting to become overwhelmed with gift-giving, parties and additional activities. The last thing you want to worry about is organizing your home, though making a few intentional steps toward planning can help brighten your spirit and allow you to relax with friends and family. Here are some top tips to help you stay organized in the coming weeks:
Clean Your House Before You Decorate
It’s hard to envision a lovely decorated space – living room, dining room, kitchen, even festive accents in bedrooms too – if your home is a mess! Begin by serious cleaning! Pick up and quickly sort through stacks of papers, clean off countertops, dust, vacuum and mop floors too so you can start with a fairly neutral, tidy space. It’s hard to feel happy hosting family and friends when your home is messy and cluttered. Adding decorations on top of the mess can make the clutter more obvious and will add to the post-holiday cleanup stress.
Organize Your Living Space
As you dive into cleaning, begin to take advantage of organization. The Closet Works has endless inspiration for imagining how to get organized — for closets, pantries, living rooms, garages, and more! This structured approach will pay off after the holidays too, when you need to re-store decorations and make room for the additional belongings you were gifted. Think new bikes, new clothing, or that kitchen appliance you’d always wanted! It’s great to get the things on your wish list, but you’ll also need to find a new home for everything.
Take advantage and consider moving items into storage bins and create spaces for holiday-themed decorations that you’ll not only pull out each year, but have to stow away again within a matter of weeks.
Move furniture to allow for placement of larger decorations, and consider an end-of-year donation to a charity if you need that extra space. Think about spaces that you can use for holiday storage, especially if your home is new and you’ve never decorated for the holidays yet. We often purchase lovely holiday decor without considering where we’ll need to put it when the season ends. Now’s a great time to give it some thought.
While you’re going through your home and noting your storage capabilities and belongings, take note of where you could utilize additional storage. Maybe you could use a Media Center that fits all of your books, games, and movies, a Murphy Bed in the guest room so the space can be doubled as a home office, or even Custom Furniture like a storage bench for a nook in the kitchen!
Make a List to Check Twice
Creating a few to-do lists helps your mind think in an organized way. Everything can find its way onto lists – groceries, gifts, party supplies, and more. There are simple notes apps on your smartphone to keep all the lists organized and in your hand. Paper creates more clutter and often gets lost in the shuffle of the season.
Creating lists adds a feeling of organization and accomplishment when you are able to cross off items and finished tasks.
Create a Wrapping Station for Gifts
It’s easy to fashion an area dedicated to wrapping gifts. Even a corner can be transformed into an organized wrapping station during the holidays. Use bins, baskets, or shelves to hold gift tags, wrapping paper, ribbons and bows, and even tape and scissors. This will help you stay neat and organized, but most importantly, it helps keep you sane during a frantic time of year.
Take the time to designate a space for these wrapping supplies after the holidays — having an organized area with these supplies will come in handy for birthdays and anniversaries, too!
Create a Holiday Itinerary/Agenda
Similar to creating a list, choose what you need to include. Which parties are you hosting or attending? Take a look at the calendar and fill in dates you don’t want to miss. You’ll find that though the holidays are literally stuffed with so much to do, you can choose what matters most to you and work from a personal itinerary to keep you feeling calm and happy during the most stressful time of the year.
After the Holidays End
The end of the year is the perfect time to take down the decorations and store them for use next year. It’s also the ideal time to create clear storage space in a garage, attic or closet so when the holidays roll around again, you’ll know exactly where you put decorations and gift-giving supplies. Even rarely-used kitchen, dinnerware and party supplies can find a home with a carefully thought-out storage system.
At The Closet Works, our team of professionals can assess and assist you to find the right solutions for your organizational needs. To learn more about organization and how an effective custom storage solution can transform your home, reach out to us for a free in-home design consultation. Qualified personnel with years of industry experience are waiting to help answer any questions you may have.
