How to get organized for the Holidays

With the holiday season upon us, some (or most) of us can feel a little disorganized. It always seems like the end of the year sneaks up on us, but there’s no need to worry getting organized for the holidays can be simple! With a few dedicated hours or days dedicated to getting organized your holidays will be a breeze!

We’ve compiled a list of the best tips to get organized for the holidays, keep reading to find out. 

5 Tips to Help Get Ready for the Holidays

1. Start with your Holiday Schedule 

Now before you start getting too frantic and start a full out raid on your closets. Start with your holiday schedule. Every holiday season comes with many events and if you’re not keeping track of what’s going on, you’re already behind. 

We all know the holiday season is busy. There can be a multitude of events going on and most people tend to say “Yes! Of course I’ll be there!” before actually checking if they have previous plans. 

So this brings us to our first tip: limit yourself to what you can/want to do. 

If going to your co-workers potluck, gives your Grinch-ey feels. Skip it. It’s better to spend your holiday time doing things that you love. It’s worth making a little personal list of “Must-do’s” to help you make plans around that. 

2. Make a List (if you want, you can check it twice)

There’s a reason Santa Clause uses a list, it works. In our digital times, you can use an app, a spreadsheet, or even just a good old notebook. Now just making one list won’t cut it, we recommend breaking it up into several sub-categories. 

Sub-categories can include:

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• Home preparation: Make a list of all the tasks related to your home. Think of things like areas that will need cleaning, decorating, decluttering, and prepping
• The Iconic Gift to Buy: Make a list of everyone that you will be buying gifts for and what you plan on getting them (Bonus if you can indicate what will need what type of wrapping)
• Holiday Traditions: Write down all the traditions you don’t want to miss. This can include cookie decorating, a family potluck, watching a movie, or anything else
• The Host Guide: Planning on hosting people at yours? Make a list of everything your need for grocery shopping, menu plans, who's coming and when

Once you have all your lists made, you can go back and add more details. For example, on your gifts to buy list you can include which store to purchase at. It’s best to also give yourself some timelines in your lists, this will help you keep on track and not procrastinate. 

3. Be reasonable and give yourself a break 

Although the holiday season is about spending time with people you love. Make sure you also make some time for you. Don’t overload yourself with a million and one things. To help make bigger, more complex tasks, more easier, break them down into smaller, manageable parts. 

For example, if you’re a huge fan of dressing up your home, inside and out, for the holidays. To make this task more manageable, break it up by doing one room at a time. You can also take this technique one step further by assigning each room a day and spreading that out over a certain timeline. This way it makes the work manageable and it  doesn’t seem as tempting to procrastinate.

‍Tips for keeping organized after the holiday shenanigans 

4. Keep things clear or at least labeled 

After all the holiday hubbub settles down, it can be tempting to just shove things away and forget about it until next year. One of he best ways to stay organized is by keeping things in sight, literally. Avoid putting away your holiday decorations in bins that are either not see through or unlabeled. 

Labels are time-savers. Being able to understand what’s in what at a quick glance is much better than rummaging through countless bins and storage containers hoping to find something. If labeling everything sounds a little too labour intensive, you can always opt for clear storage containers instead. This will allow you to see the contents much easier than their solid counterparts. 

5. Organize things by category, not by room

Let’s be honest, whenever the holidays roll around everything is kind of everywhere. You’d spend much more time backtracking and constantly re-organizing containers if you do it room by room than if you simply went by category. This is why it’s easier to pack things away by category rather than taking it room  by room. 

One quick tip is to simply go around your place with a laundry basket and add all the items in your category into it and then tuck them away in a storage container.