Blog Post: Organizing for the Holidays

This is the time of year when many families, like my own, get together and celebrate the holidays.  There are a few things that you could do to organize your home for the holidays, so you can be prepared for the mad rush of the family members.

Organizing Tip 1: Preparation

Organizing a home can be quite overwhelming when you begin to look at all that stuff.  The first step to do is make a plan.  Set out time and work on 1 room per day, if you can get other family members involved to make the process go by quicker and easier.  Many times people will come to me wanting me to organize their garage or office and want me to have it done in like three hours.  Well depending on the work it’s possible, at least for the office, but a garage, definitely not.  Clients will say to me, "but on television they organized a house in practically one hour.”  The difference between me and television is that I usually work alone and television has a team of people behind the scenes you don’t even see.  So, what I am saying here is, don’t expect to have your whole house organized in one day.  It’s too much, you will become overwhelmed and you will never complete your project.

Organizing Tip 2: Organizing Paperwork

Files, Files everywhere!!! I think organizing files and paperwork is the most hated task by everyone, except me. What I do to help cut down on paper clutter is to scan important paperwork such as receipts, tax information, invoices into the computer and burn them to a CD.  If you are unable to scan your information, there are several different types of companies that will scan your files for you.  It is also one of the many services I offer. 

Also, when organizing paperwork create groups for the papers.  For instance, one of the things I do is “ Keep it, Trash it, Frame it, or Scrap it.”  These are my four major piles, “Should I keep the paper, trash the paper, Frame the paper or Scrap book the paper?”  Framing and Scrap booking are just some creative ways of holding onto that paper you just can’t let go.  If you think you are going to scrap book the paper create a scrap booking kit and keep the kit nice and organized.

Organizing Tip 3:  Organizing the Kitchen

I love to eat, sometimes way too much, but I can’t operate in an unorganized kitchen.  The best way to organize the kitchen is making sure your canned foods are in categories and spices are organized, preferably alphabetically, and labeling canisters such as  flour, sugar or any other item.  Having clear canisters is also a good way to clearly identify the foods you have.  But if your canisters will be sitting on the counter, out in the view of family and friends, it’s suggested that you have a ceramic canister, it doesn’t look as messy.

Also if you don’t have much shelf space, get creative, add racks, or shelves.  If you can’t go out, build up.  Make use of all your areas but at the same time don’t go overboard because it will begin to look cluttered.

Organizing Tip 4: Organizing the Closet

Organizing closets can be a simple process for some people and a daunting task for others.  Start by taking everything out of the closet and placing them into groups.  “Keep it, trash it, donate it, or Sell it.”  Once you have placed your items into those four piles, place the items that are for donating and selling into two separate boxes, so they are ready to be donated or sold.  All the items that are for trash, take it to the trash immediately because you will definitely begin to second guess yourself and keep the items. Then the cycle begins again, you having way too much clutter and no organizing is taking place.

All the items that are for keep should be either hung up, or placed in a clear container with a label on it.  Organize clothes by season, but being that we are in California , and it is sunny like 99.9% of the time, this is not that difficult of a task.  The difficult task is getting rid of clothes that just can’t fit and that are out of style.

Clothes that do not fit are a big part of why closets are so cluttered.  By getting rid of those clothes, it’s accepting that you have either gained weight or lost weight.  If you want to keep your clothes in hopes of loosing weight so that you can wear that outfit again, that is not acceptable.  Because when you loose the weight those clothes will be out of style, so keep one pair of your favorite jeans, pack them away in a clear container in the garage or attic, if you don’t loose weight in one year, throw them out.

So, finally these are some of my tips to help you get organized for the Holidays.  Please visit my site at http://www.OYLinc.com and email me I will be glad to respond to your questions.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Miss Lera Ashe