We are back taking another look at our holidays and weeding out the clutter to make room for what matters most this season. It is all about purposefully creating the holidays you want.
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It is time to declutter your Christmas!
So in our last episode, we recommended Ep 30, Taking the Hectic out of the Holidays. And then I re-listened to it to prep for this episode! Yikes! The sound quality of that episode makes it a little hard to listen to.
I am really sorry, the sound is so bad. The good news is our podcasting skills having gotten better since then AND we still have a lot of great ideas to simplify, just check out the show notes page maybe instead of listening to the podcast episode! My dream is that we re-record that one with better sound but sadly it is not on the top of our list but for now…on to this year!
1. List out your holiday activities
We mentioned this in last year’s episode but I think it is such an important aspect of planning out your holiday season. *Bonus, it doesn’t take much time!
Take 2 – 5 minutes to write down all the things you’d love to do to celebrate the holidays. It can include the fun tasks like make christmas cookies, go look at christmas lights, getting your picture taken with santa, shopping, christmas cards, parties, along with the “have to’s.”
Once you have everything listed out, decide on the *must do’s* for you and your family this season. Number your list, with #1 as the most important thing we do and as you go down your list you’ll find activities that would be nice to do but are not absolutely necessary.
Once you have clear holiday prioritizes, it is a lot easier to limit this busy time to all of your favorite things to do. This goes back to Episode 7 when we discussed decluttering your to-do list. We are decluttering the holidays!
I have a few examples from my own life where I have chosen to say no. I don’t do christmas cards. I don’t do Elf on the Shelf, even though my kids have ask me repeatedly to do it. We don’t visit multiple families homes, even though we live close enough to do so. Instead we switch off every other year.
The hard thing about prioritizing activities (at any time of the year) is that you are usually choose between 2 fun things. It is not like we are choose between a good thing and a bad thing.
It can be hard to say “no” to fun activities but we all have our limits! Once you know your top 5 activities you are intentionally saying “yes” to and can be easier to focus on those instead of the items you are not able to do.
Also, you may not be saying “no” forever. It may just be for this season of life. If you have young kids, you may have to say no to more Christmas parties for a time. Maybe you are traveling, so you have to say no to live Christmas tree this year. It is not forever, but for a time.
2. Pack light
Less stuff just makes trips a little easier especially with a gift-centric holiday like Christmas. Our tips to pack light:
- Plan Outfits –
Make tree diagram or lay them out or put the outfits in gallon ziploc bags like I do for my daughters. However you like to plan, do it!
Once you have an idea of what you are going to wear, see how your different outfits can pair together to make new outfits. Then I edit out any clothing that doesn’t work for more than one outfit. *For young kids, I usually add any extra outfit (or 2 or 3!)
2. Use Packing Cubes –
I never would have said this before my trip to China but I borrow a few expandable packing cubes (like these) sometimes called compression packing bags. They have to have 2 zippers so you can compress your clothes. They really made a huge difference with bulky items! Then I squeezed the smaller items around the packing cubes to take full advantage of any wasted space. In my opinion, they worked so much better than the plastic vacuum bags.
3. Think about what you can buy when you arrive –
This is mainly to keep in mind around the holidays. Can you grab trinkets for stockings or a bottle of wine for the hostess when you get there?
3. Simplify Gifts
A major part of this season is giving gifts. Maybe it is something you love doing or maybe it is one more task to check off the list. Here are a few tips to simplify gift giving:
- Give the gift of your time by gifting good old fashion coupons like you gave your mom when you were young. It can be anything from babysitting your friend’s kids or doing a project together. What strengths do you have to give away?
- Keep a running list of gift ideas. You can use a list or shopping app on your phone or a wishlist on Amazon.
- Create boundaries to guide the gifts for your kids. For example, one gift and smaller trinkets in a stocking or use 1 gift you want, 1 gift you need, and 1 gift to read. Otherwise it can be easy to overspend (and over give) when you are shopping.
- Create a gift exchange for extended family and/or coworkers.
- Find an awesome gift the can be used for multiple people on your list.
- Give speciality food. This is one of my favorite gifts to receive! William-Sonoma has some great options so you don’t have to overload on the sweets.
- Shop online as much as possible so purchases can be delivered straight to your doorstep. Be sure to start early (see next tip) so you aren’t forced to pay for expedited shipping.
4. Set a budget
Use our Christmas Planning form to plan ahead by listing out who you need to buy for and possible gift ideas.
The 1st page allows you to plan for all your Christmas spending including the miscellaneous items we often forget to including like wrapping paper and holiday travel. Also there are blank rows for you to plan for your own special traditions.
The 2nd page helps you divide and conquer your Christmas shopping with room to plan gifts and set a budget for each person. Click here to get our Christmas Budget Planning Form.
If you are looking for an app to plan your Christmas budget, try Santa’s Bag on iPhone and Christmas Gifts and Budget on Android.
5. Start Small
As with any and all tips, it doesn’t need to be all or nothing! You can start small and set holidays goals to work towards.
- If you goal is to give experiences as gifts, choose one thing each year. Start with yourself and choose experiences on your gift list.
- For example- membership to children’s museum, zoo passes, a magazine subscription.
- If you goal is to have a less busy season, choose 1 or 2 things to say no to this year. You don’t have to say no to everything.
- If your goal is to have less christmas clutter, whittle your christmas decor down by one box this year.
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