The Organizing Blog always advises using creativity to save money on things you ordinarily might buy. This year, try making your own holiday cards! Not only will you save money, you’ll create distinctive-looking greetings the recipients will love. Use felt, glitter, string and construction paper to craft your own cards. HGTV has 14 do-it-yourself ideas that will wow your friends and family, including a whimsical Santa-with-cotton-ball-beard idea that will help get the kids involved in making one-of-a-kind cards for everyone on your mailing list.
Tag: christmas
Declutter and Donate Ahead of the Holidays
The holiday season is upon us, and every day, retailers provide us with new incentives to spend: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. But those thoughtful gifts and doorbuster deals can take up lots of space in an already-cluttered home. That’s why you should do a pre-Christmas decluttering, knowing that new stuff is on the way.
If you have children, there will definitely be new toys coming into the home, and you probably have huge bins of old toys that have fallen out of favor or are no longer age-appropriate. Sort through them and get rid of anything broken or incomplete, The (Mostly) Simple Life suggests, and involve kids in the process. Set aside anything that’s useful, but unused.
As you decorate the home, edit out any decorations that no longer make the cut. Whether it’s burned-out string lights, cracked tree ornaments or dog-eared accents, trash anything that’s too worn to fulfill its function. If something is still functional, but you don’t like it or want to display it, set it aside in a “donate” pile.
This is also an excellent time to take stock of cold-weather clothing. If there are items you won’t be wearing due to changes in sizes or styles, set them aside. At the same time, you can sort, streamline and store your summer wardrobe. Was there anything that spent the entire summer in your drawers and closets? Get rid of it!
Put all of the still-usable castoff decorations, games, toys, sweaters, swimwear and other goods into boxes and bags, and visit ClothingDonations.org to schedule a pickup. If you do so quickly, many of your unique but unwanted items will be available to other shoppers for purchase ahead of Christmas — making their holidays happier.
When you give away the stuff you’re not using, it can find a new purpose with someone else who can really use it. They might actually want and enjoy that stuffed Santa or those old baby clothes. And when they purchase those disused items through a thrift store supplied by ClothingDonations.org, they will help fund veterans’ programs throughout the year.
An added bonus? After you’ve done a thorough, pre-holiday decluttering, you’ll know better what you and your family need to buy new — making holiday shopping and gifting easier. Better still, you’ll have reclaimed the space in your home you need to store it. Start decluttering today — Giving Tuesday — for a happy holiday season!
Make the Most of Black Friday
There are plenty of ways to maximize the savings Black Friday offers, says money-saving site Clark.com. Sign up for e-mail promotions at your favorite retailers before you head out to the stores, for example, and price-check items against the web while in stores. Make a list of the retailers you most want to visit and bring a friend who’s similarly motivated to find deals. But leave the kids at home if you want to do some serious shopping — you don’t need the distractions. Shop early or late to avoid the worst crowds, and above all, remember that not every low price is truly a deal.
Easy Ways to Add a Touch of Holiday Decor
Holiday decorating doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, Apartment Therapy says. Simply fill a decorative bowl with painted pinecones or holiday ornaments for a festive centerpiece. String greeting cards up for display with ribbons and clothespins, and they’ll make a nice conversation-starter without adding to surface clutter. Grab a bough of evergreen and put twinkly Christmas lights and/or jingle bells on it. Or for a holiday touch that will last through the winter, plant a poinsettia in a pot wrapped with shiny paper.
Organize Your Holiday Gift-Giving
With less than two weeks left until Christmas, many people are starting to feel the stress of the holidays — especially if they still have gifts to buy. It was relatively easy to shop until this point in the season, but the pressure is now on to find, buy, wrap and give those special gifts for everyone on your list.
If you like to shop online (and who doesn’t?), you must allow time for whatever it is to travel from the warehouse to your door in time for you to get it under the tree. This year, Free Shipping Day — the day many retailers offer to ship purchases free of charge with the guarantee they will arrive in time for the holiday — is Friday, Dec. 15. After that date, shoppers will need to pay expedited shipping fees or brave the crowds in stores to get their gifts in time.
The organized giver, however, has a list of people for whom they will be buying. If you make such a list ahead of time and stick to it, says Step-by-Step Declutter, you can avoid overspending and slash the stress of shopping. Use a spreadsheet to track recipients, gift ideas, spending and progress, but don’t feel you have to buy for everyone. Sometimes, a thoughtful card will show you care without adding to the clutter.
Several apps can help you manage your holiday shopping. Santa’s Bag can track your shopping list and spending on the iPhone, while Christmas Gift List can do the same on the Android OS. Stuck for ideas? Invite the giftees on your list — especially the kids — to make their wants known with an Amazon Wish List, which functions like a bridal gift registry for any occasion throughout the year.
If you go shopping during the last two weeks of the season, get creative by going beyond the strip mall. Thrift stores — many supplied by generous donations to ClothingDonations.org — are a great place to find unique, vintage items at low prices. Or you can give a home-cooked meal, baked goods, fruit or flowers instead of something that just adds to the clutter, Cambria Mortgage’s gift guide suggests.
You can share your knack for decluttering and still score a gifting “win” by giving the people on your list an experience instead of a thing, says the Our Streamlined Life blog. Give an Airbnb gift card to inspire adventures for those who like to travel frequently, or sponsor an evening class to encourage someone on your list to build a skill that will last a lifetime.
Some people will want things, of course, and once you buy them, you can keep the household clutter in check by establishing a gift-wrapping station. Better still, keep those rolls of paper, tape and ribbons in a single storage bin that you can pull out and put away quickly for every wrapping session.
An organized gift-giver is a confident, successful and stress-free gift-giver. And who knows? Maybe your penchant for organization will spread, and the gifts you get will be great, too. Happy Holidays!