Holiday Organization Challenge : Day 4

Okay, everyone, so please definitely stop me. And I'm really hoping this is interactive today. The last session was kind of quiet, so I'm hoping this will be interactive. But again, today is all about trying to stay organized during the holidays. And again, it's another topic I can completely geek out on, so. Oh, my. I love that. That is so awesome. Your husband is in charge of the decor. I love that. My husband, he wouldn't even care if I decorated or not. But my daughter, my kids, actually just like, a real side note. So my. My son is really big on the tree, which surprises me. And my daughter's just really big on everything. Everything during the holidays. But she loves to decorate, too. So it's usually my youngest son and my daughter, Youngest daughter. We. And we get the tree and decorate it, and they love to do that. That's. That's their thing. So. Yeah, that's fun. It's so neat that your husband does that. I love it. My husband, he. When I tell him it's time to put the. The lights on the tree, he dreads it because the kids always have the biggest possible tree. Of course. So, anyhow, let's get going. So we'll talk about staying organized. And again, I encourage you guys to come off mute. Ping me in the chat. I'll definitely try to stay up on that. Make sure I check that from time to time. And then we'll go from there. So let's talk about staying organized. Right? So day four. Tomorrow's all about gifting with ease. We're going to talk about, you know, maybe some gifting ideas. Like, you know, there's so many people that do different ways of organizing their gifts. Gifts, they draw names or they have certain traditions. You know, buy a book and a piece of clothing and something they want. And then there was one more thing. Think something. Something to wear, something to read, something they want. I'm forgetting the fourth one, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. So different ways of approaching gifting as well as talk about how to maybe opt out of gift exchanges. Right. Maybe you don't want to do them this year. I know. Like, my son, he's. My son is 26, and he's just like, I don't really want to give gifts this year. Broke. And I'm like, that's great. Don't worry about it. But he really. He really stresses about, you know, if somebody gives him a gift and he doesn't have one to give in return. So we'll talk about that as well tomorrow. So. And then Also I have a gift guide to give you if you're struggling with ideas. We have different categories of people like young, young child or young boy, young girl, teenage girl, teenage boy, woman, man, and some other things. Oh, gifts for an organizer. That's a fun one. I had to include that and then maybe and then gifts for other people like teachers and things like that. So anyhow, that'll be all about tomorrow and talking about budgeting today. We're talking about staying organized and I won't stay too long on this point here, but you know, if we can be organized, it just reduces overwhelm and that's really the topic of this entire week. Right. And you just want to have a good stress free celebration. Whatever holidays you, you, you celebrate. You know, we're talking a lot about Thanksgiving and Christmas here, but you can insert whatever holiday and you know, just hopefully it's a stress free holiday because I know that it's a very stress free time, a stressful time. So I spoke a little bit about this and I did a poll and it says, you know, what's your biggest challenge when staying organized for the holiday? And a lot of people said it's not my decor. People are not really having any concerns about that. It's planning a holiday calendar and staying on track with all of the things that need to be done and then just managing the stress and time management. So I think that my handout, it's going to work out really well for everybody. So I have this handout and let me just get, let me just do this real quick. No, let me just. Hey, let me copy this. I'm going to give it, put it in the link, put a copy in the chat so you guys can pull it up if you want. Okay, let me know. Try opening that up and let, let me know if you can get to that. But that's my calendar of activities. I'd love feedback on it, but it's really all about presenting the different things that need to be done during this time of year. And again, it's a list and just consider it a list and that's it. Don't think like it's a to do list. You have to do everything on there. The intent is just to remind you and I encourage to circle the ones that really resonate with you and they're things you don't want to forget. And I encourage you to cross off the ones that don't apply because I do not want you doing everything during this time of year. I do encourage you though. I do have Some self care things in there and days where you should just relax, order takeout. I put that in there and fit that into your schedule somewhere. So I really encourage you to do that because if you're rested and relaxed, it's just going to make for a better holiday. So let me know, were you guys able to open that link? It should be calendar of activities. The first page should look like the picture on the screen. So let me know. I'll go to my. While I wait for you guys to do that. This is basically what you're going to find when you look at it. The on the first page is the one I had on the last screen. And then basically what it is here is from November 11th onward all the way to the 1st of January, it's just different activities that you can do it. Thank you so much for confirming. You can open it. That's awesome. And I will include that in the video description when I post the replay. But I just, you know, went through and I really tried to look at all the things that we need to be doing. Even when it means, you know what. Talk about what your goals are for this holiday season. You know, is it spend more time with family and friends. Friends. Is it to follow a certain theme with gift giving? Is it to do some charity? Right. Write down what your goals are and make sure that you're revisiting those during this busy time and you're giving priority to them. And again, everybody's list is unique to them and you got to do what makes sense for you. But I really encourage you to do that. I'm not going to be doing everything on this list. It's too much. But it's a, it's a good reminder for you to think about some of the things to do and also for you to slow down and have fun. So definitely take a peek at that. So let me look at. I know that there was a question here. I have a bunch of boxes in our basement that I need to go through and organize and move to our storage section of the basement. We have guests coming at many years. Oh, yay. So you have time to prepare for the guests. So I'm not sure if you checked out the handout that I had for preparing for guests or if you were on the, the, if you were on the call or the replay. But definitely go back and revisit. That was day two and it's all about, you know, how to make guests comfortable. We talked about a welcome basket. We talked about having, you know, some amenity or some like Incidentals on hand that maybe you put in a closet or drawers that they forget their toothpaste and things like that. And we also talked about the four areas to focus on before guests come. And then I think you might also like the next, next slide. I don't know if it's the next slide, but I have a YouTube video as well as a printout of. Let me just go to this next slide. I'm gonna go. I'll come back to it. I'll come back. But one thing that I really love to do and I've done with my. My holiday decor is I put custom QR codes on there. And what's really fun is that I have a YouTube video on it. And basically I used Google, I. I use Gmail, where I created a Gmail account just for my QR codes that my husb in both access. And basically what happens is, is you go through the process of opening the box, taking pictures of what's inside of all of your decor. So maybe you might have. You might have. Maybe it's your gift wrap. Like, I have a large bin that has boxes, it has bows, it has ribbon, it had the tags, right? I have a very large, just like this one of these black and yellow bins. And inside it's all my gift drop stuff. So what I do is I take a picture. I could take like three or four pictures and then I upload them to a folder. It's a folder that I create in Gmail. I called it like bin. This one is bin 002 so. Or bin 001. You can see on my hand on the picture. So I called the folder bin001. I uploaded those pictures and then I went through the process of creating a QR code which I document in a handout, a guide, as well as I show on the video how to do it. Created a label with a labeler. And you can do that. There's a lot of different ways of creating QR codes, but basically I did that. So then I put that QR code on the side of the bin like you can see in the picture. And when I scan it. So my husband and I could both scan it, but only we can. So it's secure. Not anybody can scan it. It's only who have people have access to that Gmail account. I scan it. And then when you scan it, it opens up and it's a folder and has all the pictures of what's inside. And the nice thing that's about that, that I really like is I labeled on My computer, I wrote, like, gift tags. One of the pictures said gift tags. One of the pictures said gift boxes. And I labeled each of the pictures with those names. So I can go into this account. I can search where are my gift tags, you know, and so instead of my husband having to grab me, you know, grab all the bins down, he just knows to grab bin 001 because it has a gift tag that I need, and he grabs that. And it is so amazing and feels like it's, like, complicated, but once you go through the process, it's really easy and it's a lifesaver because if I need something down, I can just say, hey, I need this particular bin. Or if I'm looking for something, instead of looking through six bins of Christmas stuff, I just search, and I know exactly which one way it is instead of having to pull them all down and lick the lid and look through things. So I don't know if that helps, but I have a link on how to do that. I can stick it. I also have that here. So let me throw that in the chat for you if you guys want to check that out. But that's just an aside. Something that I've done that I absolutely love. If it sounds too complicated for you, no worries. But it's a game changer when it comes to if you have a lot of bins, it's a game changer and it looks nice and I really like it. So, anyhow, here's this calendar. Do you guys have anything, any specific questions about the calendar or maybe you can just take a peek at it and let me know. Oh, I love that, Elizabeth. Yes. And if you have any questions, just email me. But in that link that I put there, again, there's a guide as well as a video. And just watch the video the first time, kind of get the gist of what I'm doing, and then go through it again for, for your stuff. And once you do it one or two times, it's so easy. And you'll just fly through it. It's, it's. And it's. You'll be so thankful. Okay, you guys, anything else on this calendar before I move on to talking about storing, like, your holiday decor? Okay, I'm just, just so you know, when I'm looking off the screen, I'm looking at your chat. It's on my laptop. Okay, so let's talk about keeping your decor organized. And I think it's just really important that you. You label your storage containers on, however makes sense for you. So I told you how I've done it in the past. I've done, I've tried doing with a Sharpie and I don't know how many cross outs we have and, but it works, right? So label with, you know, just right on. Label right on. Like just plain labels right on the bins themselves. Whatever you need to do, just make sure you label them. It is really handy if you do your holidays by color. When it comes to containers, I do have some red and green for Christmas. My fall stuff, I, I don't have anything specific but like Halloween is origin black, but we're kind of converting over to the black and yellow, the black and yellow bins just because they just stack nicer together. But that's really handy. That way you know where all of your stuff is. I definitely encourage you. So you'll see in the list of activities like before you. By now you probably have put away your Halloween stuff. But if you haven't, like put it back on the shelves or back in your attic or your storage unit, wherever you are, I would definitely try to declutter it. But when it comes to, let's say you found you have some false stuff out, go through the stuff. Like maybe you put all your false stuff out, but you have stuff still left in some of the bins. I challenge you to look at the stuff that's left in the bins and ask yourself why you didn't put it out. If there's a specific reason, that's a good reason and it makes sense, great. But if it's just not something that really resonates with you or you don't really like it, I encourage you to donate it and donate it soon so somebody can still enjoy it this time of year. But there's so many people that love to get holiday stuff that can't really afford it. And that way you're not storing stuff you don't really need. So the best time to declutter your like your Thanksgiving stuff is after you've decorated and you have whatever's left in your bins. Same thing for Christmas. Go ahead and you know, decorate however you want to decorate your house and decorate your tree and put up your lights. But I assume you probably have leftover stuff you didn't put out. And again, ask yourself why and consider donating it or giving it away or selling it, whatever you, whatever it is. That way you're not storing all this stuff and it's not overwhelming so that next year, you know, you just take out the stuff that you need. You and you want, you love. So I definitely encourage you to declutter before and after decorating. Dedicate one space for your, your decorations. So wherever that is, again, if it's in your attic or whatever, but don't try to not to put like Christmas stuff in, you know, in your garage and in a linen closet and all over the place because it just makes it hard to find things when you're looking for. You can use clear, stackable containers. I think hands down that's what most people like because they can see through them. But if you don't, just make sure you label really well. Wrap fragile items. So there's so many things you can wrap your ornaments with. My ornaments I kind of gone with kind of a woodland tree the last couple years. So we, we bought them. So this is just some birds. They're birds and they have like a little clip and we, they actually get put on the tree and they came in this container. And what I did was I kept all the containers and I wrote on the containers because they're all different shapes and sizes. All the different things I have for my, for my tree. Like I have these red balls that go on there. Oh, sorry about the glare. But what I do is we wrote on there, my daughter did it, four red ornament balls. And we know where to put it because otherwise you'll never know how to put it all back together. And like this one says four birds with clips. And then I just put all of these in a big bin and they don't get squished, they don't get broken. So that's a really good way to do that. You know, these things aren't super fragile. They'll still break and get ruined, but they're not super fragile. If you have things like, if you have like, you know, really fragile crystal, you know, ornaments that have been handed down from loved ones and you know, just, just ones that you're afraid of breaking. You know, make sure and keep. You can keep your, the wrapping that you get for all of your packages, Amazon packages or whatever you get, keep that throughout the year. We get so much of that stuff you could repurpose for storing your decorations. So right now, as you get any packages, keep them, keep any of the plastic wrap and use that for your decorations when you put them away. This year. You can also get dedicated ornament containers if you want to do that. The only challenge with that is that, you know, usually we have like maybe a teardrop sized one. You'll have a round one and it's just kind of hard to store. So if you wrap them and put them very safely in a bin, that's usually the best way when it comes to ornaments. And like I said, if they come in a container, try to keep the container that they came in. When it comes to lights, I don't know about you guys, but we definitely have had our spaghetti disasters with lights. Spent hours trying to unwrangle them. But years ago, what I did was my husband for the outdoor lights, he. He likes these. So we buy these kind of spools and put the lights on the spools. Nowadays you can buy. A lot of times when you buy them, they'll come like this. But generally only the outdoor lights will come like this. You can even buy it for indoor lights. But my husband really likes that, that. So that's fine. He can put them on these. All of our tree lights. However, getting them back in the boxes is near impossible once you've taken them out. So what I like to do is I take each strand of lights. So hang with me. I take each strand of lights. I make sure it's working once we take it off, and everything should be fine. I kind of gently just kind of roll it and put it inside a grocery bag, and I put each strand of light in a grocery bag. So we'll generally have extra bags. And it can be a paper bag or a plastic bag, but what it does is it creates some pac, some padding for it, and then that way it makes sure that they all don't get jumbled together. And if you put them. If you, you know, lay them in nicely in the bag, when you take them out, they're generally not very tangled. And that, by hands down, has been the best way and the easiest way. I know it doesn't look super elegant, but I have a bin of grocery bags, and each one has a strand of lights. I also will do that. If I have any beads that I don't want to get tangled or any sort of decorative garland, I'll put them in in grocery bags, and it works perfect. So you could also re. Reuse the, you know, the containers that we get in a man like. Not the containers, the envelopes, the large envelopes you get in the mail, they have padding. That's another thing. You can save up and use those for your lights to store them. And if you store them one string per container, it is a game changer. And every year, you just keep reusing them when decorate, you take them out, stick them back in your bin, and then when you take everything down after the holidays, you put all back in and you will thank yourself next year. So that works out really well. Oh, yes, yes. I'm glad you like the calendar and I hope it helps you. Definitely. Maybe just mark in some other things that you might want to trade in some items maybe that resonate more with what you guys, you have going on in your holiday tradition sense. Okay. So we talked about storing lights without tingling. We talked about organizing by holiday. We talked about investing in ornament boxes and trays. I have this one bin and I didn't pull it out, but it's an ornament bin and it has like stackable trays, which is kind of nice because it protects the ornaments. And that way they're not getting all put on top of each other. So that is something. And the best time to buy those things is after the holidays. If you go and buy them now, they're expensive, but if you get them after the holidays or right before the holidays, they're generally cheaper. You just take a risk of maybe having a harder time finding them, but they'll be half off or 70% off. And that's the best time to buy any of this stuff. And then when it comes to wrapping, I know I think somebody had mentioned that they stored their, their ribbon or no, their bow in a bag stamp. I store all of my, my bows in one of these. It's a kind of a flimsy little container, but it works perfect. I just put this in a large container and then if we buy a bag of bows, I just keep refilling it and it keeps it. And I also make sure I don't store any more than this. This is a ton of bows. We should never go through this. Right. So this should last us actually a couple years, especially if you're reusing them. So this works out pretty well. Putting them in a bag is not good. They're just going to get squished. So I do this and put it inside a larger container with my wrapping supplies. I. And that works out really well. When it comes to gift wrap, storage bins I think hands down are the best. So either putting the gift wrap if you have an under bed storage container with wheels, or if you're on carpet, you can just use one without wheels. But just putting the wrapping paper flat and in there will make sure that it doesn't get all messed up. So that's a really good way to do that. You can get one with wheels if you have, have carpet or if you have a Hard time getting things in and out under your bed you can put in a back of a closet. I actually have one of those large gift wrap bins and it works out fine. Sometimes I'll get a gift wrap that's too large for it and I kind of fold it. It's kind of silly, but that's the only thing. But generally you cannot get away with keeping gift wrap and storing it without putting it in some sort of hard container. So get a large under the bed bin or a dedicated gift rep in as you get closer to the holidays. And then just keep an inventory list. Try out my my QR codes. But otherwise just create a list so you know what you have. And also it's good to know what you need for next year. Right. So you need to keep an eye out right now during the, you know, if you need, if you need bows, you at least you know, right. But don't just go buying stuff because it's on sale. Because if you just have to store it and it's excess, guess it's not really helping you out. So let's see what other challenges do you guys have when it comes to storing things? Yes, definitely getting started now. I feel like a lot of these things you can't get started too early on you. It always is nice. So okay, if you guys come up with anything, put something in the Facebook group or just email me Nicole at you uncluttered and I'd be happy to help you because I love, I love working on this stuff, you guys. I just geek out on it. So. Okay, I told you all about this. I sent, I put the link in there and I'll also include that in my replay notes. Okay, the secret phrase for today, day four is jingle all the way and then that's it. Do you guys have any questions? Anything you guys want to bring up today? It could be on any topic we've talked about related to the holidays or decluttering. I just so you guys know, I am a coach for decluttering. That is my thing. So if you have need any help with decluttering topics, I'd be happy to walk through that with you. Okay, well if you guys don't have anything else, I will definitely let you go. I never want to hold you longer than needed. And like I said, I'll be here in the Facebook group and available all week and next week as well. And then tomorrow we're going to talk all about gifting and budgeting. Staying on budget. That's a big topic for all of us. It should be for all of us. We need to dedicate a budget, not just wing it. And then at the end in January, freak out because we overspent. We don't know what we spent everything on. And the other thing we'll talk about tomorrow is all the things that we don't think about. Like, I don't know about you, but if you, if you host a large, like I've done Thanksgiving of 35 people, that's expensive, right? You need to really budget for that. Or if you're hosting a lot of people for, for Christmas or New Year's, if you are going to be traveling. Right. We need to look at all of those things and consider all of those things in the budget. And I'll have a handout to help you help you think of those things now so you can make sure that you're considering that when you're looking at how much you want to spend and what you want to buy. So I will talk to you guys tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining in the chat. And I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye. You're welcome. Bye.