Tag: christmas decorating

The Christmas Countdown Begins

Posted on by Jordank

At the time of this posting, there are just 27 days — less than a month — until #Christmas. If you celebrate #Kwanzaa, you get an extra day to prepare, but those celebrating #Hanukkah will need to be ready just nine days.

You may view the #holidays as the most wonderful time of the year, but with that wonder comes a lot of additional expectations and stress. You need to get gifts for the family, go to the office party, plan a big family feast, send cards, bake cookies — and time is running out!

Take a moment to collect yourself. “You can only do so much,” says The Mayo Clinic. “Be realistic with how much you can handle this season. Forget about perfection, and relax and enjoy the company surrounding you.”

Start with a plan. Get the calendar out and write down the most important events and deadlines. Assign days to complete specific tasks such as shopping, baking, cleaning and decorating, but be flexible — things can and will get delayed.

One set of important dates to remember is the shipping deadline for holiday gifts. For merchandise shipped via standard ground services with FedEx, the deadline is Dec. 15, and at UPS and USPS, it’s Dec. 16. Two-day shipping should get the goods to you in time if ordered by Dec. 20.

Keep up on healthy habits, too, so you don’t sacrifice yourself in service to the season. “If you already have a training or exercise routine, don’t let the holiday season throw you off,” says Calendar.com. “Exercise and physical activity can help clear your mind.”

Set expectations that are manageable, and be clear about them with family members and guests. Don’t set yourself up to make a big sit-down feast if you don’t have the bandwidth, for example — you can have a potluck or something even more casual.

Say no when you need to do so, and take time for your own relax-and-recharge sessions, whatever form they may take. Whatever you can manage during the season should be good enough. The clock may be ticking, but it’s your holiday, too.

Have a safe, happy and stress-free season!

Make Boxing Day Into Boxing Week

Posted on by Jordank

In the major countries of the former British Empire, the day after #Christmas is celebrated as Boxing Day. A legal holiday, the event grew out of a custom for wealthy landowners to offer their servants and workers a box of edible goodies, gifts or a monetary tip during the Christmas season.

Stateside, many make the erroneous assumption that “Boxing Day” is on the calendar as a day people might set aside to box and store their Christmas #decorations for another year. In #quarantine times, however, the Organizing Blog would like to propose a modest compromise:

Let’s celebrate Boxing Day as a way to #declutter and #donate to a good cause. And since we have plenty of time at home due to pandemic travel restrictions, let’s take the whole week to do it.

The first step is to declutter. Start with the stacks and stacks of shipping boxes you’ve likely accumulated buying gifts from Amazon and other outlets. With online shopping up 40% from 2019, households are drowning in cardboard. Break down and #recycle any box that can’t be repurposed.

Next, conduct an organized destaging of all of your household holiday trappings, including wrapping paper, decorations, tree, lights, ornaments, and tchotchkes. Take your time and store everything in dedicated, labeled bins and boxes for easy access next year, or use these clever suggestions from HGTV.

As you pack up, toss anything that’s damaged or dingy. Dead light strands, cracked ornaments and worn fabrics aren’t worth saving or storing. Then, set aside any items that don’t provide a Kondoesque “joy.” These items may still be of good use to someone — just not you.

Finally, gather those unwanted and orphaned items together in extra boxes and bags and contact ClothingDonations.org for a donation pickup. Consider it a tax-deductible gift to the nation’s veterans, made in the true spirit of Boxing Day. You may not be landed gentry, but every little bit you give helps veterans access health care, housing and other resources.

Take advantage of a pandemic-era “Boxing Week” to get rid of the things you don’t want and show your appreciation for those who served. Happy New Year from the Organizing Blog!

Toward a Clutter-Free Christmas

Posted on by Jordank

Now that this year’s (shortened) #holiday season is in full swing, faithful readers of the Organizing Blog have likely dragged multiple boxes of decorations out of their attics and garages in an effort to create a bit of holiday cheer in and around their homes. After all, what are the holidays without lights, tinsel, ornaments and tchotchkes?

You may have also made multiple trips to the store in search of odds and ends that you’ll “need” to create that warm-and-fuzzy holiday feeling. Maybe the lights you stored last year didn’t work this year, or you just “had to have” the newest Star Shower laser lights or inflatable snowman.

The Organizing Blog is not here to tell you not to decorate or bah-humbug the holidays. But we will always remind you that it’s often best to keep things simple. During the holidays and throughout the year, it’s never a good idea to buy or keep anything that won’t truly add to your own happiness now and in the years to come.

As you shop, don’t give in to that voice that says you “need” to buy new decorations to keep up with the neighbors or feel a sense of shopping accomplishment. Instead, consider what your ideal holiday decorating scheme will be, whether whatever it is fits into that theme, and most of all, when you’ll know if you’ve decorated enough.

Similarly, as you examine your inventory of stored holiday supplies, you may find cracked ornaments, burnt-out lights and dog-eared decorations. If you think they can’t be used now, throw them away immediately — don’t just set them aside only to repack them later.

If there are any items that are nice enough to be on display somewhere but no longer fit your needs, bag them up and donate them to ClothingDonations.org. Even though you’re finished with them, an old nutcracker, elf or #Santa figurine might bring joy to someone else’s household.

When it’s time take down the tree and unplug the lights, again question whether or not everything going back into those boxes for storage adds to your holiday cheer. If you store only what you want and use, you’ll have a head start on next year’s holiday season!

Controlling Santa’s Christmas Clutter

Posted on by Jordank

After all of the shopping, cooking and party planning, Christmas is finally here. It’s time to tear into those gifts and feast on your favorite foods. But along with all of this bounty, Santa (and probably Amazon, too) has delivered a lot of packaging, wrap and other detritus that you’ll want to keep in check as you celebrate the season.

First, you’ll want to have a garbage bag or bin near the tree to collect all of the gift wrap that’s torn-into at this year’s gift unveiling. Americans consume about 4 million pounds of gift wrap every year, or about 333 million square feet — enough to cover more than 5,000 football fields! Collect and recycle it quickly as it gets shred and tossed aside to keep your home clean.

Shopping for all of those gifts undoubtedly produced a lot of empty, utilitarian boxes and bags. If you’re hosting, keep a few of these handy for people to put their new things in to take home after the Christmas party, and recycle the rest. Integrating new stuff is difficult enough; getting it to where it ultimately needs to go shouldn’t be a hassle, too.

The larger the group, the more work prepping and cleaning up from a meal will be. Don’t be shy about assigning tasks before you serve the big feast so that it’s clear who will be setting the table, wrangling the kids, clearing the table, and washing and drying the dishes, flatware and pots and pans. Cut the chaos before it starts!

When you’re done with the holiday, be sure to pack anything you want to keep for next year sensibly, I Love My Disorganized Life says. Purge ornaments you don’t like as you pack them, box your artificial tree with all of its accessories, and — if you’re feeling really ambitious — post printed packing lists on the exterior of all storage boxes.

“When you head into the post-Christmas cleanup with a plan, it is much easier to tackle the mess head-on,” the blog says. “Making sure you are systematic and organized doesn’t have to take a lot of extra time now, and the payoff when you can easily find everything next year is worth it!”

If you find lightly-used holiday decorations that you don’t use or want as you purge, set them aside in a separate donation box and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup so that they might bring others joy in the years to come. Your donation will also bring innumerable gifts to the nation’s veterans all year long. Happy Holidays from The Organizing Blog and ClothingDonations.org!

Decorate on the Cheap With Homemade Ornaments

Posted on by Jordank

Decorating a large tree for the first time? You may not have enough ornaments to really fill it out. To bring it a distinctive, homey look without spending a lot of money, make your own ornaments. Try making some of the creative ornament suggestions from Woman’s Day such as mini snowglobes, glittery jingle bells or yarn-covered Christmas stars. You can also use “found” twigs to form ornaments or print whimsical family photos to hang on the tree. And you live near the ocean, all you need is a drill and some string to hang oyster or beachcombed shells on your tree.