9 Ways To Have A More Organized Holiday Season.
Christmas can be a super chaotic, More so if you have multiple children, work inside or outside of the home, housework, children’s activities and so on. Let’s not forget having to clean and decorate your home, Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts and maybe even you host holiday dinner.
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Christmas seems to be getting harder and harder each and every year, and seems to approaches us more faster with every year that passes.
Maybe it’s the world we live in today, everything so beautifully displayed and perfectly cohesive throughout social media. If you look through Pinterest, you will see all the homes decorated to perfection, clever little hiding spaces and pranks for The Elf On The Shelf. Most of the time it makes us feel mediocre and more likely if you have multiple children such as I do.
However, there are some little tricks I‘be learned over the past 21 years of being a mom, most of them through my own trial and errors. But mistakes are how we learn to be more efficient and better ourselves. Just remember that everything we go through teaches us a lesson.
9 Ways To Have A More Organized Christmas, When You Are Completely Overwhelmed.
1- Make A List Of Everything In Your Home That Needs To Be Cleaned
What I have learned over the many years of being a mom is that your home needs a good cleaning before you start decorating. Just like people spring clean, you have to really clean your home before setting up your tree/decorating.
I suggest getting yourself a planner or notebook to write everything down that needs to be cleaned, room by room. I like to go into every room within my home and see what needs to be cleaned, I’ve found this to be the most helpful way. But if your anything like myself, write it down right then and there.
2- Get Yourself A Paper Planner, If You Don’t Have One Already
I couldn’t imagine my life without paper planning and my Erin Condren. Just the act of writing down everything with pen to paper creates habits. Also there are Holiday Planners more geared towards organizing everything that needs attention around the holiday season.
My two favorite planner inserts are punched personal sized inserts from Sew Much Crafting or even The Happy Planner Holiday Expansion Pack. Both are reasonably priced and a serious life saver.
The best part, they are pre-made with everything you will need to get done, such as Christmas Cards, Holiday Shopping, Christmas traditions and recipes to Christmas memories. This is a fantastic investment.
3-Start Your Shopping Early, If You Can
Some years, depending on our money situation, I like to get a head start sooner rather then later on shopping. Other times this isn’t a option because we can’t financially do it. But If you can, definitely start your shopping earlier. Trust me I know, the closer it gets to Christmas, the more crazy everywhere is.
More so, if you struggle in general, mine is anxiety, you have a harder time dealing with crowds.
4- Wrap Your Presents Little By Little
Every year I tell myself that I will not be up all night on Christmas Eve wrapping gifts. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, having four kids and trying to wrap everything on Christmas Eve is torture and takes all damn night. And to be completely honest, I’m way too old now to be up until 5 am wrapping presents. I can’t function at all the next day.
5- Write Everything Down After Wrapping In A Planner Or Notebook.
This is one of the reasons why I love the holiday expansion pack from The Happy Planner. This pack has everything from recipes, card lists, gift lists, memories and traditions.
My favorite part is the gift list because down the right hand side it has 2 check boxes, purchased and wrapped. This is great for taking note to presents that are wrapped and away.
This ensures you don’t forget any presents to put under the tree on Christmas Eve.
6- If You Have Multiple Children, Wrap Each Childs Gifts In Different Wrapping Paper
I have been doing this for a long time now. I get two patterns for each kid, each kid has a different wrapping paper pattern. It’s also helpful for the child on Christmas Morning. Santa usually leaves a chalkboard In front of each of my kids piles, so they know which is which. In my planner I will jot down who has what wrapping paper so I don’t forget who it belongs to. This trick is wonderful if you have multiple kids in your home.
7- Start Decorating Early
Seriously, start decorating now if your anything like me. I swear it takes a good 3-4 weeks to get everything fully decorated. By the time I am fully finished, I feel like it’s almost time to take everything down.
8- Get Anything Out of The Way, Sooner Rather Then Later
If you can financially that is, get all your shopping and wrapping done the week prior. Also, little things that you can do to avoid the last minute mass crowds.
For Example:
Pictures with Santa, Light Shows, Decorating The Tree, Christmas Cards, Baking, Teachers Gifts and so on.
You want the week leading up until Christmas to be least chaotic as possible, this is essential especially if you struggle with any type of mental health or physical problems.
9- Have A System In Place
You need to have a plan in place for Christmas Eve, most importantly if you have kids. Trust me you do not want to be up until the early morning hours. Again, like I mentioned above use your regular planner, like the Erin Condren and/or a holiday planner to plan out everything you need to accomplish in the days leading up till Christmas Eve.
Depending on your family traditions, make sure cookies are ready, most if not all presents wrapped & ready to go under the tree, the kids are ready for bed at a decent time and you have all the sticking stuffers ready. Ps… Do Not Forget Batteries. This happened to me one year and I found myself at 7-11 paying a fortune.
This year I decided to try out the new Holiday Expansion Pack from The Happy Planner. The difference with this system is that it’s a disc bound instead of rings.
Make sure to watch my YouTube Video on The Happy Planner Holiday Planning Extension Pack.
PS… Do Not Forget To Pin This Post To Pinterest So You Can Reference Back To When Needed.
Also don’t forget to find me on other social platforms as well.
Wrapping Up This Post…
I understand how hard the holidays can be for so many people out there, whether it’s mental, financial, physical and oftentimes a combination of all. After having my last child whose now 5 and struggling for many years with postpartum depression, I still have trouble coping with the holiday season.
I do try my best to try and keep everything as normal as I possibly can for my kids. All though it is a daily mind struggle just trying to get into the holiday spirit, but I have to keep going for my children.
My hopes are that these tips will be useful for anyone out there feeling overwhelmed by the holiday season that is quickly approaching. If I was able to get some kind of order into my life, I know you can do it as well.
