Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Get Your Home Ready for the Holidays | Podcast # 194

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

The holidays are just around the corner! And this year I thought I would give you the early gift of organization!  In today's podcast, I share the secrets to having a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday season.     Get your FREE Holiday Planning Guide Here: https://clutterbug.me/products/holiday-planner-pack       You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're talking about the holidays. We're talking about planning for the holidays. And I know it's early. I also feel the rage when I'm at the store and everywhere I look at Christmas trees because it's, it's not even Halloween yet. But listen, there is a reason we're going to start a little bit early this year. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. We are talking about Christmas. We are talking about holiday planning. We are early. Some people are like, this isn't early. for a lot of people, but for me, it's ridiculously early to even be thinking about the holidays because I don't think we should start thinking about it until December. I don't want to see a Christmas tree at Costco or Walmart or Home Depot. I want to think about Halloween and then it's

like Remembrance Day. If you live in the U.S., you have Thanksgiving. There's like so many other things before Christmas. But here's the truth. If we wait until December 1st to start thinking and planning, it is not enough time because the holiday season is banana pants chaos. It's crazy. And every year I turn into Scrooge McDuck because I wait too long. And then I'm feeling overwhelmed. Not only with the amount of stuff that I have to do, which is ridiculous, but just it's a chaotic time of year. And I'm already busy. That's a whole other podcast. I'm already probably doing and taking on too much. So the thought of doing and taking on more, not only are we buying gifts, we have to decorate the house, we have to think about meal planning, we want to clean the house because it's crazy chaotic.

We're not going to have the time to do the daily little things or the weekly things. So the house can get out of control very quickly and we're bringing more stuff in. We're bringing gifts in. Where do we put them? It's also banana pants decorating and then there's traditions and then there's parties and people we want to visit and ah my heart's starting to i'm getting a little stressed out so let's make it easier by doing some things now and i have a holiday planner for you it's free totally free it's on my website i'm going to put a link but you can also just go to clutterbug dot com scroll down to holiday planner under my printables page is there a search option no The irony is how disorganized the printables page is on my website.

Listen, it's fine. Way down, halfway down under the H's. You'll find holiday planner. And this will help you. It helps me just break down kind of the six different categories of things that we have to do this holiday season and allow us to get started a little bit earlier on some of those categories. I'm also, that's what we're going to talk about right now.

all those things we got to do and how we can make them easier. Because like, I don't want to be Scrooge. I don't want you to be Scrooge. I want us, I love Christmas. I love the idea of Christmas. I love the music. I love the feel. I love the decorations.

I love getting together with family members. I do not love the work. So what if we can have all the good stuff without all the work? That's the point of this podcast. I'm rambling, so let's just jump in. Let's start with gift buying. Holy doodles. I every year have over 40 people to buy for. And it gets to the point where I'm just like, I don't care, put it in the cart. I don't care. Whatever we find. Buy it on Amazon. They get a gift card this year because I'm so frustrated because I've waited so long that I don't have the time to really dedicate to a thoughtful. gift for everyone on my list. 40 people, not including my husband and my children. So how can we make gift giving easier? Here's something that I started doing that it takes some of the work off and it's a little bit of planning and it's something you can do right now. You don't have to put up your tree

to start getting a jump start on the holiday season. And that is a gift giving guide. It's in the planner, but you don't need to have the planner. You could just grab a piece of paper. Write down the names of one you want to buy for, and then just brainstorm some ideas beside them. Each name, like my dad, maybe a tie. God, don't get your dad a tie, but I don't know, ideas for each of the person. And then maybe the stores where those ideas are from. And here's why this is important, because you might find a gift for your grandmother is located at the same store that a gift for your neighbor sue.

So then when you do go chopping, which doesn't have to be now, it can be in the future, you've streamlined it. You know like a path from stores to go to. You're armed with ideas. It doesn't have to be exactly what you want to get them, but ideas. And then the other thing you do is write out a budget for each person. This way, you can add it all up and know how much you're going to spend. So you're like, wow, that's way too much.

I totally 100% can't afford that in. in December, maybe there's a few gifts I can start buying now to take some of the load off. So the planning, it isn't going to take very long. It's like 15 minutes of your time to sit down and write this out. And if you don't have ideas for everybody, that's fine. Come back to it in a couple of days or a week from now or even a month from now and keep adding to your gift giving guide. It's a guide.

That's the whole point. It helps streamline the process. save you few precious minutes, hopefully save you money, and just take off a lot of the overwhelm. Because if we're not putting it down on paper, it's all rattling around in this tin can up here. It's in our brain. It's causing us stress and anxiety because what if we forget about somebody? What if, oh my gosh. And we're living in this kind of constant state of stress.

As soon as we put it down on paper, that eases some of the anxiety. and we instantly feel better. So gift giving guide, do it. And also, who can you not buy for? A few years ago, my sister was like, I don't buy for you, you don't buy for me. And I was like, cool, cool, tight, tight. That sounds awesome. And then the year after that, she's like, how about you don't buy for my kids? I don't buy for your kids. And instead we all go to the movies together. And I was like, yes. Yes, sir, Bob. So she approached me, which I'm so grateful for, but you can be the person who approaches the loved ones on your list. I guarantee they will jump at the opportunity to not have to buy you a gift either.

Like be brave enough to be that person to say, hey, can we just spend time together and our gift to each other be going out for dinner and a movie instead of buying each other something at the store? It's going to be a, that sounds amaze balls, probably. And if not, well, then that's fine too. But how can we take some of the work off your plate and start a beautiful tradition of spending time with your loved ones, not giving each other stuff? Okay, gift giving, we're done. We're moving on. Meal planning. I really suck at this.

I don't know how much advice I have, but if you're a person who cooks a big Christmas dinner, thank the Lord. That is not me. it's a good time to plan early. Also, food is ridiculously expensive right now. So if you have an idea of what you want to serve, the food you need to buy, are you going to parties, are you going to want appetizers, are you going to want to bake cookies, or you want to bake other things? What supplies will you need? And are any of those supplies on sale between now and then? So literally, again, just like gift giving guide, we're writing a list. Or writing a list of the meals we have to prepare, kind of what's in them, have a general idea, getting it out of our head, getting it out on paper,

having a plan, and then seeing if we can start slowly buying some of these supplies to take some of the pressure off of us come that time of year. Turkeys, expensive, stuffing, all the stuff, desserts, it's pricey, it's time consuming, make a plan. I don't really have to worry about that. What I do have to worry about is the fact that we're rushing like crazy this time of year we're out and about We're doing like a bunch of things. So I always make a list of really easy meals. My kids are like groaning. Not another frozen lasagna, mom.

But yeah, there'll be some frozen lasagnas. So I stock up on things that are really quick and last minute that can go in the freezer, that I can just like whip out and cook without having to do a lot of prep work because I'm busy. So that's how I meal plan for the holidays because my mom still makes the turkey. I hope she always makes the turkey. Okay. Schedules. This for me is very chaotic. For you, you may not have as many holiday parties as I have, but I promise you there's more on your calendar than normal, whether it's more times that you go to church, more people that you want to visit. Maybe there's loved ones, family members that you want to make time to go drop off gifts or stop

by and just say happy holidays too. If you don't put those on the calendar, it's continually going to again be in your brain and stress you out. And it's another thing you have to think about all holiday season. When am I going to get over to see my aunt Sally? When am I going to get over to do this? When am I going to drop off the gifts to the Salvation Army? When am I going to X, Y, Z, put it on your calendar. Reach out to people that you normally get together with over the holidays and make a concrete plan of what day that is. We have so many holiday parties. All of our grandparents are still with us,

so we go to all the extended family, then we have my parents and my parents are divorced, so we have my dad's side and my mom's side and Joe's family, and then we have friends who have Christmas parties, and it just all kind of overlap. So there's many times that we'll have two or three Christmas parties on the same day. Yeah, we have to pick who we love most. sounds horrible to say, but also it gives us time to kind of ask if we can say,

hey, can we move this party to Sunday so that we can actually go? You have to be proactive in your planning over the holiday season. It's just a calendar, write things down, do it in pencil, in case things are shift and moved, but have a rough idea of your plan. You're just going to feel better. You're going to feel so much better. Plus, you're going to say, okay, I've got this weekend free. definitely shop on this weekend or you're going to realize crap a dax i have no weekends free i better make

a plan to do some holiday shopping during the week or before december even starts the next area that we will have to focus on and plan for over the holidays or at least like get started on is cleaning can we get a collective boo cleaning decluttering organization we got to start early We have to start early because because this is such a hectic, chaotic time of year, things get neglected. And the last thing you want is to have to worry about cleaning your house when you're wanting to spend time with your family over the holidays. The last thing you want to worry about is your neighbors stopping by with a gift or friends coming over for dinner and your house being a wreck. And yeah, there's nothing we could do about the dishes in the laundry ahead of time, but we can have to have. have some organization in place and we can do some of the like deeper cleaning to get ahead

so that we can just do the easy maintenance stuff all December long and keep up on our house. Now is the time. If you're living in a lot of clutter and chaos and mess, now is the time to tackle it. Right. Freaking now. You are not going to have time in December. Stop procrastinating it. I'm telling you this out of love because we all think tomorrow is the best day.

Next week we're going to get started. We promise ourselves the weekend coming up. We're going to do it then. And it never happens. And then we've just created a storm for a chaos clutter storm for ourselves. So right now, we're going to start cleaning, decluttering. If you have guests coming, you better start getting that guest room ready. Now.

Now, we're starting to clean now. you are not going to have more time tomorrow or next week or next month. And the great thing about starting now is that we can, it doesn't, it's like we don't have to roll up our sleeves and like break a sweat here. We're picking away at it. We're coming up with a plan. We're writing down all the things we want done before Christmas and we're working it backwards into little steps.

We're dropping off things at the donation center. We're getting the guest room ready. I don't know if you have a guest room, but whatever. That's what we're doing. We're decluttering the coats and the boots so that our entranceway is easier because it's going to be cold and wet and snowy possibly where you live. It's like think about last Christmas and the struggles you had with your home and let's not repeat it. Let's fix it now. And again, in my holiday planning pack that I have that's free for you, there's lots of like checklists for cleaning and things that can help you kind of focus and

get started right now. Okay, I got to take a quick second before we talk about the final two things that I want you to start planning for this holiday season to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. I love having a bedroom that feels like a relaxing oasis, and years ago I treated myself to some really good sheets from Cozy Earth. They're made of bamboo. They're ultra-soft, They're temperature regulating, and every time I wash them, they stay bright white, and they get even softer. It's been, I like went so many years not treating myself to beautiful bedding. They also have pillows and waffle blankets that I love, and I'm so glad that I did. And right now, Cozy Earth provided an exclusive offer for my listeners today, up to 35% off sitewide when you use the code, clutterbug.

go to cozyearth.com and use the code clutterbug to save up to 35% off sitewide. Okay, we're going to talk about the second last thing. That is also what I think is the funnest part of the holiday season, and that is decorating. Decorating for Christmas. Man, I love this part. But also, I always wait until December 1st to put up the tree because my husband says I'm not allowed to do it in November. I'd do it now, honestly, except it's not even Halloween yet.

So here's the honest truth. Does it even feel like Christmas if we haven't put up the decorations? For me, the answer is no. But I don't want to put up the decorations too early so then I don't even get started on the holiday planning and stuff until December, which is not enough time. That only gives us three weeks to do all the shopping, to do all the meal planning, to do all the scheduling and that's horrible and chaotic and rushed and expensive and way too much work for a three week time period where we're supposed to be enjoying the holidays. So let's get real

for a second about the decorating. We have two options here. We can either decorate a bit early or we can really downsize the amount of decorating that we do. I guess there's a third option. We can get things planned and ready for the decorating and then just throw it up. I think I'm going to do like kind of a combination of all three of these things this year. I'm going to put up my tree right after a remembrance day. So it's in November. I know it's a bit early. My husband's going to give me a hard time about it.

But I need to start earlier. I need to start the whole holiday process earlier because I needed to be less hectic. And so two weeks earlier, I'm going to put up the tree, and that's going to give me two weeks more. Does this make sense? And I recommend possibly you doing the same thing. And the other thing that I'm going to do is really now take inventory of my holiday decor. Go ahead and get those bins out. Open them up.

What do you have? What can be decluttered? What do you know you're never going to put up? what can you kind of change with your traditional decor that you have up now, like the things that you have in your home? How could you kind of adapt those to feel more holiday-esque? So we don't have to change everything, take things down, pack things up. How can we just add a little bit of Christmas cheer to the home exactly the way it is right now, which is going to save time? So this is like the stuff that I'm going to be doing earlier this year, really looking at my holiday decor.

differently. Starting a little bit early, taking inventory of what I have now, and making a plan going forward. Like, what is the day I'm going to put up the tree? What's the day I'm going to start decorating and have all of my supplies ready to go? Let me know in the comments when you put up your tree, when you start decorating, and if you have like ideas to take some of the pressure off, to still have that beautiful hallmark looking home, because we want that. Don't we? we want that without all the work. You know what I'm saying? We don't want all the work, but we want all the good stuff. We want a house that feels cozy and warm and beautiful. We want the lights. We want the greenery. We want the colors like the red and the gold or whatever

colors you use. We want all of that, but we don't want to spend an entire week decorating our house. Or if we do, we got to start earlier. And there's no shame in that. And people, will say, why the heck is your tree up in November? And we say, because I want longer to enjoy it. Because I don't want to be rushed in December, because I'm picking away at the holidays this year so that it feels joyful and peaceful and restful and not a chaotic, crazy pants disaster. Okay, last but definitely not least, our holiday traditions. Think about the things that even if you've never done the before, you want to do this year. Here's some examples. Every year we decorate cookies with my kids. Every year we go tobogging or sledding. Every year we have

like the same holiday parties. We make hot cocoa and we watch a movie, like a bunch of Christmas movies. We watch elf on repeat. It's horrible. But anyways, I digress. What are the things, the traditions that you really want to make sure you're doing this? year. Are they on the calendar? Make time to actually schedule them because it's all well and good for us to think about doing these things, wish about doing these things. But if we don't make time for them, they get forgotten. And I'm going to argue that these traditions are the most important out of all the things we've mentioned today. The traditions are it. These are the things that make the holidays special. These are the memory making moments. Make sure you're doing them. Whether it's

going and cutting down your Christmas tree, invite your family with you, go to like those tree farms, cut it down. We don't do real trees, but I think that that's like a beautiful tradition that so many families do. What day are you doing that? Is it in your calendar? What day are you baking cookies? What day are you volunteering for that soup kitchen that you've always wanted to do, but you've never found time to do? What is a holiday tradition that you always do or you want to start and how can you make it happen? How can you plan for it now? Write a list of all the traditions. Do you have room for them in your calendar? What can you move around? Like this is organization 101. This is planning 101. It's actually like these are the things I want to do. These are the things I want to get done.

These are the things that are the most important. Let's put them to paper. Let's put them to freaking paper. does this work? Is there enough hours in the day? Is there enough days in the week? Are there enough weeks in the month for all this cool stuff that I want to do? If the answer is no, now is the time. We make that plan and we move things around and we make sure that it doesn't feel impossible, that it doesn't feel like, that we are giving ourselves breathing room. There'll be days off. We don't want it so jam-packed our calendar and our schedule into session. that it feels like we're drowning. How can we make, how can we do less, but do more of the good stuff, do less of the work, but more of the things that really matter. So that's what this

holiday planning podcast is all about. I know it's early, but I want you to start thinking about it. And I want you to grab a pen and paper, go ahead and download that holiday planning free printable that I have and let's get started. We don't got to put the tree up today. That's not what I'm saying, but little things that we can do to take pressure off tomorrow us is going to make the holidays better. Okay, thank you guys so much for spending time with me today. I know it's early, but you will thank me if you get started now. I'm going to thank myself because I'm getting started now. There'll be no more Scrooge cast this year. This year. This year, I'm going to be prepared. Thank you guys so much and I'll see you next time.