Want to cut stress during the Christmas holiday season? Get organized! Make a Christmas planner, set aside a Christmas organizing center and try these holiday tips from Cynthia Ewer.
Christmas has come and gone ... or has it?
Lights are stored, the tree is down, and holiday decor rests in boxes in the storage area, waiting for next year.
Then you turn the corner and spot an overlooked Santa, shining on top of the piano.
In the refrigerator, the holiday butter dish hides the last remnants of a stick of butter. Holiday linens, napkins and kitchen towels pop up in the laundry area this week, next week and the week after.
It's over for another year!
Wild and woolly or sane and sedate, we've passed through the holiday season and into a new year. Breath caught, it's time to debrief.
You know debriefing, right? The astronauts do it, spies do it, pilots do it: a measured after-the fact evaluation of the mission or flight.
Smart holiday planners should do it, too--because taking time now to note what worked, what didn't will be a road map to a more organized Christmas next year.
Christmas is here ... but you're not ready? The e-mails in my inbox tell the story: "I wish I'd found this site earlier!"
During this time of year, I hear from scores of readers who came looking for holiday help at the height of the celebration-and faced with the reality of Christmas chaos.
Stumbling over our site, they see that it's possible to be organized--and joyous--during the holidays. They just wish they'd found us in time!
So say you're starting now, to think about next year. What's the secret to a stress-free season? Plan ahead!
Christmas is a time of cheer ... and clutter! You'll find Christmas clutter lining each box and storage bin as you pull out holiday decorations.
An ornament box spills over with hanging hooks and zip ties. The tiny red-tipped light bulbs you need to make light strands blink. Special tools and assembly sheets for your "nevergreen" artificial tree. The dandy gun-shaped light tester, complete with instructions and replacement bulbs. Left to their own devices, they scatter around the house, never to be found when you need them--but popping up to haunt you right into the new year.
How to bring order to Christmas clutter? An under-tree storage box.
As an online old-timer, I can attest to this fact: few subjects stir as much controversy as computers and Christmas cards. The questions come year after year.
Should we use the computer to address the cards? Write a Christmas letter on inkjet letterhead?
What about pre-printed signatures? Is it okay to use e-mail to send holiday greetings ... or text holiday emoji?
The 2019 Christmas Countdown kicks off on Sunday, October 27. Are we ready to get organized for Christmas?
For many of us, the coming of the holiday season brings a feeling of panic in its wake--and I am not one whit different. I've seen it happen year after year: we careen into the first day of the Countdown saying to ourselves, "It can't possibly be time to prepare for the holidays!"
Christmas magazines and catalogs are fabulous resources for seasonal decorating, gift ideas, and Christmas recipes—but en masse, they can become too much of a good thing.
When the piles avalanche from every side table, finding an article or a recipe that caught your eye a few weeks ago can be an impossible job.
How do you keep all that good information without being crushed by stacks or drowning in paper? Answer: a set of tear files.
