Do you ever feel like Christmas brings you more holiday stress than holiday joy? No one wants to feel like that about the holidays. Check out these tips to learn how with a little pre-planning you can have a more organized Christmas this year! And experience more of the joy of the season without all the stress!
How to Get Organized for Christmas
Ready to tackle the holiday season? Here are our favorite tips on how to get organized for Christmas!
1. Use a Holiday Planner
One of the best ways you can have a more organized Christmas is to use a holiday planner. There are many holiday planners you can download online or you can create your own.
A holiday planner will help you keep the details of the holidays straight. You can avoid the stress of trying to keep it all in your head. And avoid any issues with forgotten gifts or other holiday mishaps.
A few of the most important things to track in your holiday planner include:
- Your Christmas shopping list
- Your Christmas shopping budget
- A list of gifts you plan to purchase
- A list of gifts already purchased and where you hid them
- Favorite holiday recipes to make
- A list of events you need to bring a dish or dessert to
And these are just a few of the things a holiday planner can help you track! Get yours started right away so you stop worrying and start getting organized for the Christmas season.
2. Set Up an Area for Gift Storage and Wrapping
There are a few different ways setting up designated areas for storage and gift wrapping can help you have a more organized Christmas.
First, setting up a wrapping area gives you room to spread out your supplies. And know where the wrapping paper, tape, scissors, and bows are when you need them. No more searching your desk drawer or storage closet for the things you need.
And for me even more useful is setting up an area for storing gifts. Whether they are wrapped or unwrapped. It is so easy to forget where you hid a Christmas present. And then find yourself turning the house upside down looking for it when you’re ready to gift it. No one needs that stress during the holidays!
If you have limited storage space, consider a large storage tub with a lid you can place in a corner of your bedroom. Or keep larger cardboard shipping boxes you receive and store them under the bed.
Get as creative as you need to. But the important thing is to choose one (two at most!) areas where you are storing all your gifts so you know exactly where to find them.
If you don’t have room for a permanent gift wrapping area in your home, then store all your gift wrap supplies in one place and pull them out as needed. But just like with gifts, avoid the need for a house-wide search by choosing a location and sticking to it.
3. Prioritize Your Time
It is so easy to overcommit to things in December. Every weekend there are parties, holiday events, concerts, family gatherings and more to choose from. While you’re setting up your holiday planner take a good look at your calendar.
Before you decide what events you want to commit yourself and your family to this year, consider your priorities carefully. What do you feel will be most meaningful to your family this season?
Is it spending time with family and friends? A visit to Santa? A local tree lighting ceremony or concert? Consider all the events carefully and only say yes to the things that fit your priorities for the holiday season.
Don’t allow yourself to overfill your calendar to bursting if you’re a person who needs downtime. In fact, it’s a good idea to actually schedule downtime for yourself and your family in your holiday planner. Give yourself time to focus on family and what Christmas means to all of you.
4. Make a Plan for Clean Up on Christmas Day
As Christmas day winds down and you start to look around your house, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the holiday clutter that has accumulated.
You often have new things that you don’t know where to put away, wrapping paper, boxes, dishes, and Christmas decorations that will need to be taken down soon. It’s hard to know where to start.
Because you want to enjoy the holidays it’s perfectly fine to plan to start the cleanup on December 26th. But to avoid that becoming a day you dread, make a plan beforehand for how you will handle cleanup.
Plan to tackle trash first. Wrapping paper, boxes, and anything else that needs to be thrown away should be the first to go.
Next, plan to find homes for new gifts. Whether it’s new things you received or new toys your kids were given. Grab a box for donation items you may need to remove to make room for the new things.
You can also add any holiday decor to the donation box that you don’t plan to keep for next year.
Get your kitchen cleaned as soon as possible. And be ruthless. Clean out the refrigerator. Don’t hold onto leftovers no one is ever going to eat. Or desserts no one needs that will just be sitting around cutting into your plans for healthy eating.
Last, when you’re ready, start taking down the holiday decorations for storage. Have a plan beforehand for where these items will be stored. Boxing them up and leaving them to sit in your living room isn’t going to help you get your house back in order.
5. Plan Ahead for an Even More Organized Christmas Next Year
Putting your Christmas decorations away in an organized way is one of the best ways you can plan ahead for a more organized Christmas next year, but there are others!
Your holiday planner can come in very handy for next year. Include a section for taking notes. You can write down what worked and what didn’t during this year’s holiday season.
Were you overscheduled and want to plan more downtime next year? Or you feel like your kids were overwhelmed by the number of gifts and you want to cut down next year? Any events you want to skip or make sure you do again next year?
You can also make notes about gift ideas, gift exchanges and who to shop for next year. Starting to plan for next year will allow you to start shopping earlier next year and be even more ready to plan ahead.
If your holiday planner was one purchased, try to grab one at the end of this year when you can get it at a discount!
With a little more organization you can have a less stressful more enjoyable holiday season!
