Holiday Organization Challenge : Day 2

Okay. Awesome. Okay. And now I'm gonna share my screen. Okay, everyone, I'm really glad you're here sharing my screen. And I am going to present full screen. There we go. All right. I'm assuming you guys can all see that. Put this down. Out of my way. All right, so you guys definitely feel free to speak up, ask any questions. Oh, Ella, you didn't see, so I did. I posted the replay in the Facebook group. I also did email out about a half hour ago, and it all. I also included the replay link from day one, so maybe quickly check that and let me know if you still don't see it. But you should see it. It was just a reminder that I was going live for day two, but I also included the link to the replay. So check Facebook and check your email from today, and if you still don't see it, just give me a holler and I'll make sure you got it. So, okay. Okay. Well, that's the one. That's the one. So. Okay, move this over. So welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm excited that you're ready to get organized for the holidays. It makes a big difference in, you know, just how you feel once they get here, because, you know, they'll be here in no time. If you didn't see yesterday, I was talking about how long till the holidays are. So Thanksgiving from today is 16 days away, Christmas is 48 days away, and New Year's Day is 55 days away. So they're going to be here really quickly. So getting a jump on that will really help. So help take the edge off and help, you know, help take the stress out. And you can easily navigate things. So let's get going with today's topic. So this is the agenda for this week. Oh, is somebody not on mute? I'm not, but they might be growing for different purposes, and I think a lot of times, new home. Okay, let me just see. Okay, I see one person. Not on. Let me see if I can do it from here. I should be able to mute. There we go. Okay, I think everyone should be muted now. So is that. Is that better? Foreign? Do you guys still hear any feedback? Great. Okay, guys. And if you do hear. I didn't hear it, so that was weird. But if that does pop up, just let me know. So here's our. Here's our agenda this week. And today is all about hosting guests and being organized for that. So let's jump right in. Okay, so it was funny. I'll tell you a quick story. I Have a really good friend. She's actually also in my organizing membership, but she saw my agenda for this holiday thing and she said, oh, stress. Hosting guests completely stresses me out. That just stresses me out. I don't even want to think about it. And I thought it was so funny because I don't think I get that stressed. But if I'm not organized and I haven't really stayed on top of things and prepared, it could be really stressful. Especially if I'm preparing like the environment where they're going to sleep the day before or cleaning the bathroom the day before. It is very stressful. But she's like, oh, that topic distresses me out. I don't even like talking about it, but I think it is something we should talk about. And I think that if you prepare there, you'll be so much more confident when you know, it comes time for your guests to arrive. And it's also going to make their stay that much more enjoyable if you're not stressed and you're prepared. So it's all for the good. So let's go through this. So when you have guests coming, the things to consider obviously are their travel plans and making sure you understand you've got them sorted out for pickups and drop offs. And I won't talk about that much because I'm sure you have that under control. It's kind of fun now because when our daughter, daughter comes home from college, she's always happy when one of her siblings picks her up or you know, sometimes even my, my in laws when they come to town. If one of the kids picks them up, they get really excited. So we, you know, they're excited to see us, but they're really excited if one of the grandkids picks them up. So they love that. So just always think about, you know, how people are going to get to and from the airport or however they're traveling. We're going to talk about guest amenities, which is, you know, really being organized and making sure you have things on hand and organized and talk about sleeping arrangements, you know, access to shower facilities, bathroom facilities. One of the things that definitely has tripped me up in the past is not considering people's allergies or intolerances when it comes to eating and then things to do like what do you want to do when they're here. And if you're organized ahead of time, you can make reservations and have plans that may be better suited for your guests instead of looking into this right when they arrive. So that's what we're going to go over today. Oh, and then we're also going to go over a couple baskets that you can create to make their stay even better. So that'll be at the end. So here's the poll that I put into the Facebook group and I was really surprised, to be honest. I asked if people in general have dedicated guest rooms or if, you know, people are sleeping maybe on a, like a sleeper sofa or on a blow up bed or something like that. And I was surprised that most people have dedicated guest rooms. So that's great. But we'll still talk about other options and then the other thing, like what we used to do is we have a big family and like with my in laws would come into town, we always gave them our bedroom. Our bedroom. So it looks like that's the other option that most people do. So I think that's great. Nobody looks like they're having their family stay at a hotel, but this is kind of the mixture of how people are hosting their guests. So sounds like most of you have dedicated guest rooms, so that's great. So when it comes to room amenities, I think I have a pretty good list here. You don't want to go crazy. You don't want to drive yourself nuts trying to prepare for them so that when they get here you're exhausted. But here's some things to really make sure you, you take into consideration. And I know all of you are offering your guests clean bedding, but I do urge you to take a double check and see. When was it last time that the sheets were cleaned? If it was cleaned the last time that your guests were here and it was a year prior, maybe re them or fluff them in the dryer with a dryer sheet or something just to make them, you know, like smell fresh and be fresh for them when they, they come to stay with you. So I definitely think that's always nice when you come stay with somebody if there's fresh clean bedding. Another thing that's funny and I've come across this a few times where people don't know their WI FI password. They'll say, oh my kids set this up for me. Or the Comcast guy set this up. I don't even know our WI fi password. So make sure you know your WI FI password. There's a lot of little things that you can hang in a guest room or you can write the password down if you wanted to. It should be secure because it's in your own house. But like this, like on the picture, on the screen or Another thing that I've done in the past is I'll have a small frame that I repurpose and I just put it inside there and I say, your guest, guest, guest. WI FI access. And I'll put the password. So that's kind of a fun thing. So have that handy for people. People are going to be coming with, you know, phones for sure, maybe a laptop, depending how long they're staying. One thing to definitely consider and sure you're ready for is space for their luggage. Now, if you have a dedicated guest room, I'm assuming you have space for their luggage. But if you have people who are staying maybe and they're having to to sleep in a kid's room or they're sleeping in an area where you have a sofa sleeper, make sure you have somewhere for their luggage. I don't know about you, but like my kids, when they open up their suitcase, it explodes. And if you have other guests coming over, you know, to visit, you don't want that mess in the middle of everywhere. So make sure definitely have space for their luggage. And I love having a luggage rack. They're really inexpensive. You know, when you go to a hotel, you know, you have the little like it's usually made out of metal. You open it up and it has a couple straps. You can set your luggage on it. Those are so nice. And they tuck away nicely in a back of a closet or under a bed. So that's definitely a nice thing. If you want to splurge and get something, I don't think it costs more than 10 or $15 on Amazon. So that's a really nice thing to have and grab ahead of time. If you have drawer and closet space, that's really helpful if are staying for a long period of time. If you don't have it, it's okay as long as they have somewhere to keep their luggage and they can kind of stay organized in some corner, that's great. Definitely make sure, you know, you have extra blankets and pillows and think about that ahead of time. Because you may be comfortable in your house, but someone else coming in may be cold. So give them the option of adding an extra blanket or two. Make sure that you have clean and fresh hand towels and shower towels that you have set aside. Or just let your guests know where they're located so they have easy access to them. No matter when they have to take a shower, they want to take a shower. And again this day where everybody's electronics savvy and have all sorts of things with them. So make sure. That there's access to power outlets as well as maybe even some extra chargers. And you know, if you have somebody who has a Android phone but you're a iPhone house, that may not work, just have extra chargers available or power strips that will help make your things easy for your guests. And then easy access to water. Let them know where the drinking cups are, where they can get bottle of water, they want to make some coffee, how to do that and have some snacks on hand. And we're going to talk about food in a little bit. That's really important. The other thing is that maybe you might need to make a set of spare keys for your house. I don't know if they're driving your car or not. That's a whole other topic. But if you they're going to leave the house without you, you need to make sure that they have a of locking it. So make sure you have a set of keys on hand and you're not scrambling last minute trying to find keys. And then if you have any house rules, make sure those are clear when your guests arrive. You know, if you don't like people wearing shoes in the house, where do you want them to put their shoes? Any other rules? Like we don't really have any fast and we don't have any rules in our house, but you might, right. So make sure that you make those clear to your guests and that's a good thing for them to have. So when it comes to the shower in the bathroom, that's actually pretty straightforward. Just make sure there's space for them to put their toiletries. Or if you want them to keep them in their guest room, that's fine too. Just let them know. But one thing that a lot of people don't think about is where their guests should be putting their towels after they shower. So whether it stays in the bathroom they're in or if you want them hung up somewhere else, just make sure and think ahead of time on where you want those. You can let them know and then make sure there's access to a hairdryer and an iron maybe. Most likely just a hairdryer is all you need. But sometimes when you're traveling, you need an iron as well. And then any extra, any extra things and we'll talk about maybe some extra things to have on hand just in case your guests forget about them. And again, you guys just stop me if you want to ask any questions. Now this is something I actually failed at doing up until like the last few years. I would never really check what people's allergies were or if they have any food intolerances. I don't know why, but it just feels right now I'm really sensitive to it. One, because I actually have a gluten allergy, but there's so many different allergies in my family. We've got egg allergies, we have peanut allergies. Gluten is a huge issue for our family. So that's all just come in the last five years. So I'm actually now being a little bit more in tune. But I do try to find out if any family members have any allergies because you may be baking or cook cooking, and you think you're doing a really nice thing for them, but they can't really eat it. So it's good to know and it's good to maybe, you know, research local restaurants, maybe some of your favorite places that you might be going to, and just make sure they have menu items that may suit their needs. Here's a quick story that's really sweet. So my husband and I, we went to Washington and we were, we were traveling all up the Pacific Northwest and we were stayed at a BNB in Washington. And it was the neatest thing because we get there and there's this little welcome tray and there's a thing of gluten free banana nut bread. And it was so sweet that the lady that runs the BNB went to the trouble to make us a gluten free banana nut bread. And it just, it really made us feel welcome and it made us, you know, really happy and it was great. It was so good to eat. But it was neat that she went that extra step to accommodate our food allergies. So maybe ask ahead. You may know what allergies your guests have, but just double check on that and you know, maybe you can catch something before it becomes an issue. And you know, like, for me, I don't want to be a problem and I definitely don't want people who are hosting us to have to worry about our allergies. We generally navigate them ourselves. But I just think it's a good thing to know and work around if you can. So the other thing that I have here, I mean, I've got to move something out of my way when it comes to things to do. It's really good, especially around the holidays, to think a little bit ahead of time. Don't overdo it. You don't want to pack your guest schedule, but depending who's coming to town, you know, is there anything special that they want to do and is your area famous for anything? Again, we went to the up to Washington and we are staying where all the tulip farms are. And it happened to be the season and I wanted to go see the tulip farms and that was just something that, that local area, it's, it's what they're big for. So I was really excited to go and do that. But like I live in northern Californ, so when people come here, you know, generally they ask they want to go to Santa Cruz or San Francisco and maybe they want to, you know, go tour some special park or something like that or like right now because it's the holidays, you know, if you want to go through one of the drive thru light shows, you can't, you can't arrange that last minute here. You know, I need to book that now if I want to take somebody in December to go through one of the drive thru light shows. So it's good to think about that. So ask them what they want to do, if they have anything specific. And then if you have something going on in your area, maybe you can get tickets if it's a certain play or show or maybe it's during the summer and there's an art and wine festival that you might want to go check out. That would be a fun thing to do. So just think about it, don't overdo it. I definitely the last bullet that I put down there is your guests may not want to do anything. They may just be leaving a hectic life and they want to just travel, arrive and just, you know, just chill and that's okay too. So just be aware of it. But, but it's also good to think ahead of time and be organized and kind of maybe try to put a couple things together if you can and get reservations if they're needed. So that's just a few suggestions on things to do when your guests, when you have guests coming. Okay. Oh, and here's today's secret phrase. So I hope you guys are grabbing these. So yesterday's I put that out there. Today is you've got this, right? So it's all about hosting guests and getting confidence that you, you're going to have all your stuff together when they arrive. So you've got this, that's the secret phase phrase for today. So take yesterday's and today's, jot it down. At the end of the week, Send me all 5 secret phases and I'll put you in a drawing to win one of three Amazon gift cards. So, okay. So what I want to go tell you about now is creating a welcome basket. I'm going to go over two different baskets to create that will really make your guests special and it won't take a lot of work. So the first one is what I call a welcome basket. And here's an example of one. Let me see. Oh, how am I gonna do this? How are you guys gonna see this? Let me stop my share. Oh, you can see me. There we go. See it there? And I'll tell you what's in here. But this is just like a, a little basket. It's a wooden crate that I repurposed. I have some water in here. I have some snacks. These are all gluten free snacks except for this one. I have a game. So I have a sudoku and a pen. Right. So it's just a fun thing. I have an eye mask in case somebody's traveling from far away and they've got some jet lag and they need to sleep. I have some tissue and I have some chocolates. So it's just easy. Things that I'll leave in the room usually sit on the bed. You can put like a cute, you know, decorations in there depending on the season. Then I've got some gum and some mints for them. But basically it's just some things for them to have when they arrive and have in their room. And then I put something that's probably specific to me. So this is a mini lint roller. And I put this in here because while I do try to keep control on my dogs, the dog here in our house I have two Siberian huskies. So we definitely, I, we always joke about that. But I get them a brand new little trial size little lint roller and put that in there, there. And I'd love to put something like this in a guest room. It just makes them happy. And they can have some things if they can't sleep or something. They got some easy snacks. They don't even need to leave their room. So that's a fun basket. You could put crossword puzzle. You can leave them books. Maybe you have a favorite book. You can leave that and anything else. I'm trying to think, what's another? How about in the chat? What else do you think would be nice to put in a welcome basket? Something that would make them feel good. Good. Oh, I put a eye mask if you wanted to do that. Anybody have any good suggestions in the chat? Let's see, you could put some tea if you wanted to, depending if they like that. Yeah. So okay, I'll keep watching the chat for that. Now the second thing that I definitely recommend doing and I've used utilized before is an extras basket. And I'm not suggesting you put this in their, on their bed. This is just more. Oh, I did say tissues. Thank you. I think that's that Sherry. I think that's Sherry. Yes, I definitely put tissues. These little guys, you know, you could also put wipes, but I put those in there. So this is the second thing that I like to have in my house and just, it's just extra things. So I've got like flossers, hand wipes, extra toothbrushes in case you forgot them, toothpaste, makeup, makeup remover, scrunchies, a little brush. I have some mouthwash, a little woman shaver, deodorant. I have some shampoo, conditioner, but you probably have that anyhow in your shower. I have some chapstick, but these are just little things. I think another thing that would be nice to have is a sewing, sewing kit, maybe sunscreen. But these are just nice things to have. And you can just tell them, hey, if you forgot anything, there's a basket in the closet, in the linen closet or there's a basket in your room in the drawer that they can go to to get stuff. And this is another thing that's really nice to have so that you're organized and you're not making last minute run people the store during the holidays when you're trying to get everything together or they're not trying to have to run off. And again, I wouldn't leave this on the bed. That would be overwhelming. And just let them know that you have it and that it's available if they need it. So I'm trying to think what else you could put in there. Can't really. There's a stain remover, somebody wanted one. There's also. I know somebody said to put suggested there's like a spray wrinkle remover, like if your clothes get wrinkled. But yeah, I can't think of anything else so that those are just handy things. But don't go overboard buying a bunch of stuff if you don't think you need it. And it's always great just to shop in the little travel section. Getting small things. So. Okay, any questions? Anybody have any questions? Anybody? Is anybody hosting any guests for things? Thanksgiving that's just 16 days away. Anybody have guests coming? I'm not cooking this year. In fact, we're having our Thanksgiving on Saturday. So we do have people coming into town, but we don't have anybody staying at our house this time. But yeah, I hope, I mean, 17 days, if you have someone coming for Thanksgiving gives you enough time to kind of at least. I think the things. The really the priority would be if I was to go back, let me go back. And I would say the priorities would be probably making sure you understand their eating preferences. I really put that one on a high thing just to know so that you're not uncomfortable and they're not uncomfortable. Maybe there isn't anything for them to eat. Things to do is good, but it's kind of already short on time because there's like 16 days and I think just making sure shower, bathroom access are worked out. And anyhow, I think that, you know, a lot of this is good. And then, and then I think you have more time for Christmas and New Year's. And then if you do make these baskets, the, the welcome basket, I kind of assume your guests will probably use up. So that's not something you would keep. But then when it comes to the extras basket, you can keep that in your linen closet. You could even after they're gone, put them, put all those things into a plastic bag and keep it for the next time when someone comes. Because I'm assuming your guests will. If used anything, it would be one or two things, right? You could just replenish those. And you'll always have that on hand for when you have any guests, especially if you have last minute guests. So that usually works, works out pretty nice. So you could put it away, keep it in your linen closet or your bathroom or wherever you want and you have it on hand. So. Okay, anybody have any questions or does anybody have any questions about. Did a decluttering topic yesterday? The four key areas. This. Have you guys thought about that or any challenges you have specific to your area? Oh, I like that. Band aids is a great idea to have. Yes. That's a good one to put on the list. Thank you. Okay, so a couple questions that I have. Is that what to do if you don't have a guest room? And I definitely, I mean, I don't think you should be worried about if you don't have a dedicated guest room. There's many times I haven't had. I've got a big family, we have four kids. So we didn't always have a dedicated guest room. So I think swapping out, you know, like, like we would give our. Our not. It's not a master bedroom anymore. What is it called? An owner's bedroom or whatever they call it now. We would have, we would let our guests stay there and then we would use generally I'll take the couches or the kids will take the couches. Somet I would give them our kids rooms just depending on who's coming, how many people we have. And then we've also had, you know, like if my nephew is coming to stay, he'll just crash on the couch and he's okay with it. We just make sure he has somewhere to put his luggage, which is really important because I don't want his luggage exploded down in living room. If I'm entertaining for Thanksgiving, you know, while he's staying, make sure that, you know, maybe he could keep his, his luggage or his clothes in my son's room or my room or somewhere just to give him, have him somewhere for him to keep his luggage. I think that's the biggest thing. And then I think, I think that's okay. Blow up beds, we've used those over many a times and those are nice because they're easy to put up and down. Just like even if you have a sofa couch as well and then just have somewhere during the day to store all your linen. And again we already talked about the luggage so I think that works great. And I think most guests, I mean I don't have a problem sleeping on a couch or a blow up mattress. I think most people don't. So don't feel bad if you don't a dedicated room that you can give them. So hopefully those suggestions help but you don't have to go to a great expense. I know there's some, some kind of fold up, fold away beds that you can get but it's kind of expensive and in my opinion it's not really necessary because you can get really good blow up beds nowadays that even have built in pillows or sides and they're fairly inexpensive. Black Friday is coming up, so if you don't need it for Thanksgiving, you can always get one for on Black Friday, probably for a good price. So that would be my suggest. But couches, bullet bed or repurposing another family member's room for a few days and let the guests stay there. The other question is what do I do if I don't like to cook? So a lot of people don't, you know, like to make homemade meals and they eat out or they have meal service or take out a lot and that's okay. I think, you know, a couple options would be maybe you might have fun teaming up with your guests and you guys can all like, one person can make the main meal, and one person can make some sides, and you can kind of work together to do it. You could bring takeout home, or you can get like a main dish and just make sides. But I understand definitely some people don't like to cook. Your guests might want to cook. I know whenever we go to my in laws, my brother in law, he always wants to cook, so he cooks for everybody. And my in laws are totally great with it. And we are, too, because he does a great job. So I think that, you know, don't feel bad, don't force yourself to do something you don't want to do, and just, you know, be creative. And then maybe your guest, like I said, maybe ask your guest if they want to contribute. They may or may not. That's okay. But takeout, there's so many great takeout options nowadays, and I would just lean in on that and not feel any shame or guilt for not preparing meals all the whole time that they're there. It's okay. You can eat out and leverage the takeout. The other question was, what if, you know, guests come to town and you don't want to do the things that they want to do? It's okay to opt out, right? Sometimes maybe your guests want to go off and explore on their own. Generally, when my husband and I challenge travel, we. We do. We're avid hikers, so not very many people want to hike. Like, we like to hike, and that's okay. We'll. We'll venture off and do. We don't spend, you know, most of our vacation bar sales, but we'll go off for a day and do a hike. Hike. And, you know, especially, like, if we go up to Washington to see his parents, they don't mind. They're totally fine with it. They rest and nap while we're gone, while we're out, you know, hiking and adventuring around, and then we do something together later. So I think that, you know, making sure that your guests know that, you know, maybe you may not want to be out busy doing everything, and maybe they'll want to do things on their own and maybe you can make suggestions for them. You know, if there's like a show or, like I said, we talked about the. If there's something going on for the holidays, maybe you can let them know. Like, there's. In our area, there's beautiful neighborhoods that you can walk through and see the holiday lights. That's something that they can do and you can just, you know, kind of help them. Adventure Out. And you can also do things at your home, right? You can play games. We love playing board games, cards, anything like that. There's a lot of kids games. You can go to local parks. But don't feel guilty. I don't. You should never feel guilty. If you don't want to cook, don't cook. If you don't want to go and do the same things that your guests are, it's okay. Just make sure that they. They know and they venture out. And if it's something you feel like they need to have somebody local go with them, maybe you have another family member that could go with them and take them, show them around, or go and do the things that they want to do. So I don't think you should ever do things you don't want to do and just work. Just talk to your guests and just work through it, and I'm sure that you'll find a solution that'll work. Work. So if there are any last questions, it looks like I've gotten all of them. Let's see. Okay, well, everybody, you got the secret code for today? I will go back to it just in case. I'll also include all this. So you have the list. I'll include this in the replay link. So. So you guys, the. The bonuses that I gave out yesterday with the replay, they're actually in the description of the video. And hopefully you guys saw that. Here's today's secret phrase. So you've got this. So make sure you gather them all up. So you got the second one, hopefully, and then we got three more. So, everyone, thank you so much for joining, and I've enjoyed kind of going over this topic with you, answering the questions that I got, and we'll see you tomorrow. And I look forward to that. If you have any questions, you can always just catch me in the Facebook group. So have a good evening. Bye, everybody.