There are still several sections to fill in your holiday organizer/notebook and many miles to go before you sleep. Let’s get this show on the road so that you will finally be prepared for the onslaught of the holiday season. It’s not that that the end result will be much different than last year, but at least this year you will be able to find some of your favorite things and hopefully your mind will be among them.
Cleaning Schedules
If you are planning company, it really is time to dust that bookshelf and remove whatever it is that lives in the medicine cabinet and cries for help every time you pass by. Keep two cleanup lists: one for 15-minute jobs and one for in-depth cleaning needs. If you don’t feel like doing either, put them off as long as you can, but don’t wait until you see feet climbing up your driveway. Also keep a list of small repairs and fix-ups your home may need.
Traditions
Whatever traditions your family participates in should be in this section of your notebook. This mapping out of activities will help with scheduling and planning what is most special to you and yours. So whether you go caroling, light Hanukkah candles or just go visit Uncle Harold whenever they let him out of his padded cell, it’s your unique holiday and it will be what you make it.
Shopping Lists
Keep all of your shopping lists here for the next season so that you will be ahead of yourself (if you can find yourself next year, that is.) Keep separate lists for: home improvement gifts, entertaining, decorations, perishables by holiday and non-perishable by holiday. This will help you organize your gift selections, but you may still need some lists for those who will receive your gifts. Then again, if you don’t know who they are, why bother to give them a gift in the first place?
Budgets
The least favorite section of your notebook by far, it is, alas, the one that matters the most. Sketch out a reasonable budget based on your gift ideas at the beginning of the holiday season. Keeping track of how much you plan to spend can help you adjust each section, which should have its own allotment. If this doesn’t work, settle your affairs and move where no one knows you and therefore, won’t require a gift.
Best of all, have fun this season and shop with your organized head and not over it. Otherwise, well…otherwise who knows what disorganization lurks in the hearts of men and women everywhere?
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