37: 3 Essential Steps to Get Organized for the Holidays
===
Welcome to episode 37 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today, and for the next two weeks, I'm going to be talking about holiday organization. I figured. October has hit. It's not too early. I usually start talking about it in September, but that's okay. There's still plenty of time to get organized. This week, I'm going to be talking about the three essential steps that you can take to start getting organized for the holidays.
So the first thing you can do is inventory and purge. You want to pull out all of the holiday items that you use. This would be decorations, anything that you use specifically for baking, cooking, serving entertaining. and then maybe wrapping items for gifts. This gives you time to inventory so that you know what you have, it'll cut down on those unwanted or unneeded purchases. I don't know about you, but often I'll see a really cute wrapping paper. And I'll say, I can't remember if I have wrapping paper, so I might as well just buy it. Usually I have wrapping paper. Although, lately I've been really good about making sure that we only have just enough so that, I don't necessarily have to pull it out, but it is good to know what you have. Especially with decorations. If you already have a bunch of decorations, you may want to think about letting some go and refreshing. Keep what you love, keep what you use. You know, the ones that end up going right back in the box and never being displayed from year to year. Sometimes we just hold on to things. If you're rotating them, that's okay and, maybe one year you use them then next year you don't. But if it's something that you think you're never going to display, this is a really good time to try and get rid of it. We typically can't bring things to, consignment stores after the holidays. They don't want them. So it's a good idea to find out what the schedule is for them if you do want to consign items, you want to make sure that you know those dates cause you can set them aside or you can try to let go of them before the holidays. You could even do a. depending on your weather, you could do a yard or garage sales specific to holiday items. If you have a lot. People looking for stuff at this time of year.
The second thing that you can do is you can make lists. Keeping everything in one spot, whether it's a notebook or in an app. But having your lists started and ready. Will really help you cut down on unwanted purchases, especially for gifts. but keeping everything in one place, all of your gifts that you need to buy all of the foods that you want to, Make or get, and then any events that are coming up, just keeping track of everything in one spot can be really helpful.
And try to keep that with you. if you can do it digitally. Most likely be on your phone, which will be really helpful. and then, be aware of any coupons that you have during this time. it's nice to keep those with you. If you can keep in your car, if they're digital, make note of them so that you don't miss them. What I like to do is do a big brain dump of everything just specific to holidays. All of the things that I do, I find, a lot of people get really stressed out because they're like, oh, I signed up to make these cookies for this and, I always bring this to this holiday and, they're keeping it all in their brain. And, sometimes when you let it all out with one brain dump you may realize that you may want to let go of some of these things so that you can be more relaxed during the holidays and you're not doing so much stuff. Of course, if you love it, you love it. But if you're looking at the list and dreading it, you can really think about where you can let go.
And then number three is getting into a cleaning and decluttering routine. I know. I'm not a professional cleaner, but I really feel like cleaning and decluttering go hand in hand. That's why one of my programs, which is now built into my full program, which I'll talk about in a moment. It's all about doing those maintenance. Which is cleaning and progress, which is decluttering tasks each day. because the more you stay in a routine the less, it will feel like that mad dash to get everything clean. When you know, you've got people coming over the, for the holidays, or you just want to enjoy your own home. Even if you don't have people in, you want your home to be clean before you start decorating and you want it to be decluttered.
So it was a really good time to do it because sometimes what we do is we put away our everyday stuff to make room for holiday stuff. And that's when you can really think about what you're holding onto. And what you can let go of.
Now, before I tell you about my program. I just want to let you know that the next two episodes so that you can be, thinking about this. next week, I'm going to be talking about the six top holiday organizing obstacles. Say that 10 times fast. So it really, some of the, challenges that we have during the holidays. And then. the next following week after that, I'm going to talk about holiday storage tips. Now we're not going to necessarily be, storing our stuff right away, but this is what I want you to be thinking of as we go into the holidays and you may be able to purchase some items before. to get you ready to have everything stored away or right after the holidays, a lot of this stuff goes on sale.
So Inventory and let go of what you don't need so that you know what you have make those lists once you've, once you know what you have, make those lists of what you need. what you're going to be doing, just anything holiday related, think back to last year, where were your struggles? Were you really stressed about certain things? So do that brain dump, and then organize your lists and have yourself prepared. And then the third thing, of course, getting into that cleaning and decluttering routine. It could be with things. it could be, getting rid of things on your to-do list. It could be with your paper and your digital,
Which brings me to sensibly organized. Sensibly organized is my program. It is a labor of love So I've been a professional organizer for 18 years and the past eight. I have been working with people virtually and I had built, a suite of programs that I have now combined all into one program. And created a success path for you so that you can go through that program on your own time. In your own home in your own office. And you can work through step-by-step. and actually have me on hand to ask questions. So you can ask questions in the program. I do have a membership piece that is coming. by the time you're listening to this, it may be ready. but the membership is where you'll get access to a community, and you'll also get access to me for co-organizing sessions during the week. You can come to as many as I hold. And we get stuff done. It's like having an appointment with me. over video, but, just like having me there, you can ask questions. Get your work done.
So it's really your one-stop shop for getting organized in your home, your business and your life. And, you've got a step-by-step process to follow. You can modify it for your needs. And then you have a seasoned organizer in myself at your fingertips essentially. So I hope you'll check that out. The link will be in the show notes. There was also a link to contact me in the show notes As always, I'd like to get ideas on topics. The next two weeks are covered. I'm going to eventually start interviewing people. I think I may wait until the first of the year though, because everybody seems to be busy and booked, but we'll see.
And as always, I'm wishing you much progress. Peace. Purpose. And the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
