Now that Thanksgiving is over and tomorrow we begin December, it is time I start getting geared up and ready for my most favorite time of the year! I strive to be organized for the Holidays ever year, however, I find myself amognst the last minute shoppers at the mall and printing address labels at midnight in order to get my cards our before Christmas… Well, not this year! I plan to be more organized in hopes of having more time to actually enjoy the season with my family. Here are a few ideas of how I plan to structure my holiday “to-do’s” and hopefully it will help you as well.
1. Holiday Cards
I followed the lead of my best friend this year and ordered my cards a few weeks ago! But don’t fret if you still need to order them. Tiny Oranges(one of my favorite blogs) has a super helpful list of Holiday Photo Cards to order online.
2. Organizing gift wrap.
My neighbor and good friend, Katie, suggested using a wrapping paper bin to store all of my wrapping needs such as ribbon, scissors, tape, celaphane, etc. It is nice to have it all in one place so that when it comes time to wrapping a gift you simply pull out the bin and viola! I am keeping mine next to my laundry machines. You can either store it away after Christmas or keep it there and change out the paper to more year around birthday and speciaty paper. Pretty handy, huh? Here are some great bins I suggest:
3. Creating a gift giving shopping list and budget.
This is a very important one for me because we have such a large family it is hard to remember sizes, interests and it definetly adds up! So, precalculating a budget and guide is key for me. Here is a cute premade list I found on Etsy.
I hope my suggestions help you this year. If you have any other tips or advice for staying organized during one of the busiest seasons then please leave a comment and share with your peers.
Happy Holidays!
About Kristal
I found the best app this year! It's called "The Christmas List" by Erik Eggleston. It's rated very highly in the app store. It lets you create groups and add people to groups. Then you can add presents for each person under their name. You can put what store you need to purchase the gift at, how much it is, etc. It lets you indicate how committed you are to the gift (need to get, purchased, wrapped, list priorities of gifts, and notes for sizes, etc.) Then it will show you how much you've spend on the person and/or group and how much you still need to spend based on what you've put in that you need to purchase. You can view all the people and items you need to buy at particular stores. You can view the stores that you need to go to finish your list. It also tells you how many shopping days are left
It's really helping me stay organized with gift giving and keep track of how much I've spent on everyone.
I love the wrapping paper bins. I'm thinking about splitting up my wrapping paper this year and having one for holiday paper/tissue/ribbon/bows, etc. and another for everyday/birthday paper, etc.
I decided to be on top of cards this year and had our pictures taken in October… only problem is that the photographer still hasn't given us the CD yet to order them!!
Hi! Thanks so much for your tips! The Christmas app sounds phenomenal! I think you'll love having two bins for wrapping paper! Thanks for your input! Happy holidays!