Organizing for the Holidays
Get your Home Guest Ready while Maintaining your Sanity
Wouldn't it be nice to spend the holiday season in an organized home? With just three months until Christmas and two before Thanksgiving, there's still time!
Plan
There's still time to have an organized home for the coming holiday season and by starting now you'll have a jump start into the New Year. Once you've made the plan and committed yourself to it you'll be surprised at how easy it is to stay motivated. Organize one area at a time and soon you'll have a home you can be proud to invite guests into while giving yourself the gift of peace-of-mind.
Prioritize
The first step in getting organized is to prioritize your home by listing each space that needs organizing.
Front and back-entry closets will get lots of traffic during the season so put closets at the top of the list. Not only will you end up with neat closets for your own peace of mind, but you won't be embarrassed to have guests hang their coats themselves.
The pantry, kitchen cupboards and countertops should be high on the list. They'll be opened and closed and utilized frequently while you're stocking up and doing your holiday baking.
Your main living areas such as living room, family room and dining room will be where your family and guests spend the most time so these rooms should logically be the next priority.
The bathrooms will see a lot of traffic over the holidays so getting them organized well in advance will help you when it's time to shine them just before company arrives. A well organized bathroom is high priority, along with the kitchen, as a room that will contribute to a sense of calm.
Bedroom closets, chests of drawers and armoires are major areas but less open to holiday traffic. They can be tidied to give you a sense of well-being for the season and they'll be an excellent place to start after the New Year when the dust has settled.
Schedule
Set aside 30 minutes every day or every second day. Half an hour will be long enough to notice a difference and give you a feeling of accomplishment but not so long that the project becomes a miserable chore. Organizing for 30 minutes each day will help you get into the habit fast but you know yourself and if every second day is more realistic, then set your schedule for 30 minutes, every second day.
Plan a time that works with your daily life. If you work during the day you might choose a half hour after supper and before the bedtime routine begins. If you are a stay-at-home mom or dad you might choose half an hour after lunch when everyone including yourself has had nutrition for energy and is in a positive frame of mind.
Commit
Talk about your plan with a friend, tack your list to a bulletin board or post about it on a message board. Doing any or all of these things will be committing to your plan and you'll reduce your chance of procrastinating. Posting on a message board will give you the added benefit of support from like minded people.
Reward
Whether you decide upon lunch with a friend or a new purse as your reward for completing the job, a treat to yourself will go a long way in keeping you motivated. It takes from 2 weeks to 30 days to form a habit depending on how much we love or hate the habit we're trying to form. But stick with your plan of organizing on a daily basis; soon it will become part of life and your own feeling of accomplishment will be the reward.
