The end of the year is a stress-causing time for many. While the holiday season is fun and gives us the chance to spend time with family and friends, there are a lot of extra demands on our time.
Those demands can overwhelm you if you’re not careful. With some smart planning, however, you can avoid the added stress that comes with poor organization.
Being more organized during the holidays will allow you to enjoy this special time of year even more. And after all, that’s the whole point of the holiday season, isn’t it?
Use these holiday home organization tips to help. Some of them can even be applied throughout the rest of the year as well.
1. Plan your holidays carefully
Any effective organization strategy involves good planning. Of all the holiday home organization tips listed here, this one should be considered the most important.
It may well be your family’s busiest time of year with all the holiday events and functions going on. There’s recitals, school plays, family dinners, work parties, and other commitments that all need to be kept track of. Set up a planner or schedule documenting all the events your family members are attending. Ensure you’re not overcommitting yourself to too many functions.
Leave enough time for other holiday-related tasks like decorating your home, gift shopping, baking, and sending holiday cards. If you’re hosting a holiday dinner, invite a manageable number of guests and plan your menu and grocery list well in advance. Prepare the kitchen by tidying up so there’s lots of counter space and an empty dishwasher that’s ready to be loaded after your meal.
To lighten the cooking load on the day of your dinner, cook anything in advance that can be refrigerated and reheated without losing much of its flavour or fresh-out-of-the-oven appearance. That’ll also save you from having extra dirty pots and pans taking up counter or sink space.
2. Plan for overnight guests
You might have space in your home for overnight guests during the holidays, but how comfortable is the surface they’re sleeping on? Air mattresses, pullout sofa beds, or futons don’t tend to provide the most comfort, especially when they’re used for a few nights.
A Murphy bed (also known as a wall bed) makes for a much more hospitable sleeping solution for your holiday guests. The mattress on a Murphy bed is every as comfortable as mattresses on traditional beds, which helps your guests get a good night’s sleep.
And Murphy beds barely take up any space because they easily fold out from the wall when needed. When the bed isn’t being used, it folds right up and can be integrated into beautiful surrounding cabinetry. When it comes to holiday home organization tips that save space in your guest room, consider adding a Murphy bed.
Murphy beds are perfect for overnight guests during the holiday season.
3. Declutter as you decorate
Are your holiday decorations already up and bringing some festive ambiance to your home? If so, this is one of the holiday home organization tips you can use for next year before decorating. This tip can also be helpful when you’re packing your decorations away after the holidays.
The tip is to declutter your holiday decorations. Whether it’s getting rid of burnt out holiday lights, broken ornaments, or never-used decorations, your holiday storage containers can surely benefit from a little cleaning up.
Getting your holiday decorations organized as they’re being put up or stored away simplifies the task of decorating next holiday season. Use labels for each container to locate items easier.
4. Tidy up
Entertaining guests during the holidays requires you to do a thorough tidying up of your home. Don’t settle for the “stash it behind a closet door” method of dealing with your clutter, however.
Ask yourself how your home could be more organized so that you won’t need to work at a frantic pace to get it looking presentable for guests. Could you benefit from an upgrade to your front entryway or mudroom that makes a positive first impression to your arriving holiday guests?
Perhaps you’re having trouble locating that specific holiday-themed sweater that’s perfect for this time of year. Or maybe that certain dress you’d like to wear to your office holiday party is hiding somewhere in your messy closet. A good closet organizer can work wonders for a closet’s functionality by utilizing its storage space smarter.
Even just having the rest of your bedroom organized may be a concern if you planned to follow the common practice of letting guests leave their coats on your bed. Taking advantage of the effective bedroom storage solutions available (like a bed surround or wardrobe) can help.
5. Don’t overbuy (for yourself or others)
Christmas and other traditions celebrated during the holiday season place a lot of emphasis on gift-giving. But if your kids are older, there’s no reason not to scale back a little on the number of gifts you buy.
Too many gifts, while thoughtful, just never get used much (or at all) by the recipient. Buying for others also gets harder as we get older. Use wish lists so that the gifts you’re giving are actually useful to the recipient.
If you have a big family, buying for everyone can get time-consuming and expensive. Consider getting the family together before the holidays where arrangements are made to select one family member you’ll buy for. Invest all your gift money in that one gift, which results in the recipient getting something extra special.
The holiday season provides lots of shopping opportunities with great sales that are hard to pass up. And that shopping season has only gotten longer in recent years with the popularity of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Just don’t get caught up in the tempting lure of great deals for things you don’t really need. That’s one of many ways clutter accumulates in homes.
6. Make space for entertaining
Time may be running out to improve your home in 2017 with some significant upgrades that make space for entertaining during the holidays. Even still, it’s worth looking at some ways to make your home stand out to guests you’re entertaining in the future.
Any home entertaining usually involves the drinking of wine, so why not appreciate your vino in stylish, ultra-comfortable surroundings? Organized Interiors’ custom wine cabinetry solutions include designing wine cellar rooms with tables and seating for guests.
Custom bar cabinetry that provides a storage and preparation area for your libations couldn’t be more ideal for entertaining guests and taking care of all their drink needs.
A fireplace always adds ambiance to a room, but who wants to add “log maintenance” to their already-long list of duties when hosting a holiday party? An electric fireplace provides the ambiance without the maintenance a wood-burning fireplace requires. Just push a button to start it and that’s it.
A fireplace feature wall also adds a stunning room showpiece to your home, which will impress your guests.
Take care of your holiday guest’s drink needs with a custom bar.
7. Set up a holiday gift wrapping area
The last of our holiday home organization tips involves establishing one area in your home that can handle all gift wrapping tasks. Doing so will minimize the likelihood of wrapping-related clutter being left all throughout your home.
Use plastic storage bins to store all of your wrapping paper and clear off a flat surface for baskets that can hold tape, ribbons, scissors, gift bags, and tags. Or go one step better. Pick up a gift wrap storage bag or hanging organizer for around $20-30, which will take up even less space.
Minimize your stress with these holiday home organization tips
Being organized is important at any time of the year, but especially during the holiday season. Hopefully, these holiday home organization tips can help you minimize the stress that commonly accompanies this time of the year.
It’s never too early to plan ahead so your home is more holiday-ready with some of our organization and storage solutions.
Book a free in-home consultation with an Organized Interiors design expert today.