The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are crazy enough. Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare for them. Here are 4 areas to focus on in advance, with time limits.
NOTE: The time limits below add a sense of urgency and prioritization to the activities. It encourages you to streamline the processes, multitask effectively, and make quick decisions.
KITCHEN (3 hrs max)
The holidays involve food. LOTS of food. You’ll want extra prep and storage space for ingredients, prep, prepared dishes, gifts of food, and leftovers. It’s a great time to:
Clean out your fridge and pantry (60 min)
Toss out spices you never use. Replace outdated ones with fresh.
Toss anything in packaging or cans that is passed expiration or that is old.
Consolidate: snacks with snacks, pasta/rice/tomatoes with pasta/rice/tomatoes, condiments with condiments, canned fish with canned fish, etc.; in other words, create “departments” for each category of food so that you can find what you want easily
Containerize small loose items that don’t have a “department”
Declutter kitchen countertops (30 min)
The small (or large) appliance that you rarely use.
Food that should go in the pantry
Knick knacks that should find a new home.
Paper/mail that should be dealt with or recycled.
Create a dedicated storage area for entertaining (90 min)
If you don't have a dedicated area, you should have one. It will make it s-o-o-o easy to find what you need quickly without rooting around.
You will only want to access your entertaining items several times a year. As such, the entertaining storage area should be high up and out of the way. It can even be in another closet in your home.
The entertaining items should include “the good” dishes, platters, serving bowls, gravy boats, silverware, glassware, barware, freshly laundered cloth napkins (or paper), tablecloths, candles, vases.
GUEST ROOM (60 min)
Guest rooms also tend to be offices and places to park things that you don’t know what to do with. If overnight guests are coming over the holidays, here’s what you can do quickly:
Tidy up the room (45 min)
Clear off the bed, desk, nightstand and floor. Put these items in their places or at the very least, put them in a box and stash in the closet.
Provide several hangers, clear some rod space for hanging clothes, and create a space for a piece of luggage or travel bag.
Lay out freshly laundered (not musty!) linens (15 min)
Towels, sheets/pillowcases, duvet/blanket
GIFT WRAP (60 min)
Here are some quick tips on how to ready your gift wrap department:
Toss outdated wrapping paper, ribbons, dog-eared gift bags and tissue paper
Consolidate rolls of wrap paper. Remove leftover paper from their tubes, roll and insert inside the tubes of other paper rolls.
Organize small items in Ziploc baggies – tape, glue, tags, cards, stickers, ribbons/bows, colored markers.
Refresh your gift wrap department with new purchases if necessary.
HOLIDAY DECORATIONS (45 min)
Perhaps your decorations are already separated out by the main holidays of Easter/Passover, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. Pull out the Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah boxes/bags and review.
Do any strings of lights need replacement bulbs?
Are the wreaths and garland in good shape? If not, toss.
Do you need more stockings?
Do you have super glue for any repairs?
Do you have backup bulbs for the menorah?
Happy Organized Holidays from The Clutter Whisperer of NYC!!