The holidays can bring so much extra into the home: extra
people, extra food, extra mail, extra décor… all sorts of extra stuff. Deciding
beforehand how to handle all the excess is a way to set yourself up for
easy-flowing and stress-free entertaining.
Begin with cleaning. This is a great opportunity to really
get down to the nitty-gritty!
Start with your main entertaining rooms – living room, kitchen, family
room, dining room and common bathroom.
Dust & polish from top to bottom (fan blades, windows & sills,
pictures, woodwork, and furniture), then vacuum thoroughly. Bring out your boxes of holiday decorations
and begin to unpack.
As you add decorations around each room, remove regular
daily decorations. The idea of
“replacing” is the key to making a quick and seamless transition. As you move from room to room, remove
items that are non-essential and add your holiday décor.
In your living and family rooms, replace statues, pillows,
and candleholders - even pictures on the wall - with festive holiday
decorations. Put out an empty
holiday basket or box to hold incoming greeting cards. Bring out holiday music, books and
videos. Houseplants and poinsettias that are in plastic containers can be
dropped into seasonal planters or baskets. Cover the top with foil or fake holly or moss to hide the
plastic insert.
For the kitchen, you may have holiday oven mitts,
dishtowels, mugs and dishes, a cookie jar, appliances and bake ware that is all
only used at this time of year. Do
the same as in the previous rooms: remove the ordinary or non-essentials and
add the holiday items. In the
dining room, a holiday vase can replace a flowery one that sits atop your
dining room credenza; plain serving dishes and utensils are exchanged for
holiday service ware.
Don’t forget to adorn your bathroom with holiday soap and
hand towels, and a holiday candle to replace a plain bathroom candle. Remember, other family members &
guests don’t need to use (or see) your toiletries so keep them off the
countertops.
Now that you’ve removed your everyday items, all of your
seasonal decorations should be fitting in beautifully without any
overflow. You may even find that
there is a little extra room!
So now, what do you do about all the stuff you’ve
removed? Simple. Pack it into the holiday boxes! You already have them out and ready to
pack and they presumably have a storage place to go back to, from which they
were removed.
Begin each holiday or season by using this system of
switching things out. Then, at the
end of each of these time periods, you can start by gathering everything
related to that season: mugs (including new ones you received this year),
books, plates, towels, pillows, videos and decor and then storing them for next
year. This will prevent your home
from feeling over-stuffed and cluttered and keep your everyday
“working-storage” spaces fully functional in any season. Yes, I know you love
that holiday throw, but sipping hot cider from your favorite Christmas mug
while watching It’s a Wonderful Life! is a treat that’s worth the wait!
I wish you the Peace, Joy and Love you deserve this holiday
season.
* To contact Annette
Reyman for organizing work or speaking engagements in the Greater Philadelphia
area call (908) 361-7105 or email her at annettereyman@gmail.com. Reyman is a member of the National
Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO®) and Board Member of it’s
Philadelphia Chapter. Visit her
blog, http://www.areyofhope.blogspot.com
or her website at www.allrightorganizing.com
or follow All Right Organizing on Facebook.
About Annette Reyman
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