Organization

Planning Your Christmas Memories

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Christmas Planner

Disclosure: Posts may contain affiliate links. It’s only 9 days until Thanksgiving and 36 days until Christmas! If you’re like me, the years seem to fly by faster each year. It seems like we just finished packing up the tree decorations last week. Although time moves on too fast for us, the joy of the holidays is once again in sight. If you want to be ready, you’ll need to be successful at planning your Christmas memories. We all have a picture in our minds of what we remember the holidays to be from our past. This can put pressure and stress on us that we don’t deserve or need. Picture-perfect Christmas memories aren’t exactly real, but the warmth and feelings of those times can be real today. We can take enjoyment in creating experiences for our families and friends that are warm and joyful. With the ever-present commercialization of Christmas, we can be made to feel guilty if we don’t buy all the bling. It may take a conscious effort, but it’s worth it to say no to that guilt. The thing I remind myself to focus on is that Christmas is the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ. After getting my priorities straight in my head, I like to also write them down. Just as we take the time to write down our goals and plans, we should do the same during the holiday season. If we don’t, there will be something that is important that gets left out of our schedule. My Christmas Shopping Planner is a set of organizational sheets that can help you get organized for the season. You can print out shopping pages, but there are also calendars, card lists, and to-do lists. I hope you can find these pages helpful in your quest to plan the holidays and enjoy them. When you plan the important events on your calendar make sure to leave times of Margin If you’re worn down, stressed, and miserable there will be no way that you can focus on your family and the birthday celebration. You don’t have to do everything during the holidays. Get help from others and just say no. Pick out the holiday events that are your top-priority and do them. And, really enjoy them. Eat the special foods, decorate the tree, and hug your loved ones. Plan to make those blessed memories. @2019, copyright Lisa Ehrman

Preparing To Give Thanks

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Give Thanks

Are you counting down the days to Thanksgiving, knowing that you will have a house filled with guests? If you are already a very organized person, this thought won’t make you nervous. But, if you’re like the rest of us, your heart may start racing with anxiety. The good news is that there is still plenty of time to get your home ready for a perfectly wonderful day of giving thanks. Remember, when there is something to celebrate, it’s all about the people that you are with. It’s not necessary to impress everyone. Getting organized is what is needed in order to be ready, less-stressed, and really enjoy the holiday. It won’t feel like Thanksgiving if you’re just barely surviving. You want to make memories that are peaceful and fun. Here are some great tips to help you get organized and ready to give thanks: Plan Make a Master List of all the things you want to accomplish before the big day. Then, break it down into what needs to be done each week before Thanksgiving. The weekly list can now easily be broken down into daily tasks. Meals should also be planned. Your everyday meals still need to be cooked, so use a Meal Planner to stay organized and have everything you need to cook. Declutter Do you wonder how you’ll be able to let guests use your bathrooms? Are they a mess? It’s great to throw out any empty containers or slivers of soap. Kid’s toy shelves and closets need a good weeding. This is a perfect time to let children give away a few toys that they don’t use. De-clutter the kitchen pantry and refrigerator. Child-proof your home, if there are little ones coming to visit. Organize Now that you’ve de-cluttered, you may still have a mess. Do you need places to store things that you’re keeping? This is a good time to buy some baskets or containers to artfully store things. The kitchen pantry could use a good tidying up. Put like things together. This prevents you from buying too much food that you already have. After you get the pantry organized you’ll have more room for holiday recipe ingredients. Organize bathroom and linen closets. Make sure that there are plenty of towels handy and lots of extra toilet paper. That’s not something you want to run out of with extra people in the house. Organize the coat closet so that you have room for your guests coats. Around the holidays, there are lots of extra activities for your children. Do you have a type of “command center” in your home? Have a place to file all the papers that come into your home. Set up a calendar and place to coordinate everyone’s schedule. Don’t let events slip up on you because you weren’t organized. Keep a list-maker handy and write down things as you think of them. Make sure you keep plenty of batteries. The tv remote always dies when you least expect it. Cleaning Clean out the refrigerator to make room for all the holiday dishes. Clean each room from top to bottom, dusting first. Vacuum, mop, and scrub anything that needs it. When your home is really clean it makes more of a difference than spending money on new things. And, of course, this isn’t a good time to start any major home improvements or renovations. Delegate! Have your children work with a chore chart to help you with some of the cleaning. A good way to clean is to set the buzzer for 15 minutes and clean like crazy. Then, just do this daily until everything’s ready. Shop Plan the Big Meal and create your grocery list. The week of Thanksgiving is a great time to buy some foods on your list. Most stores offer big discounts. Purchase any decorating items or a centerpiece at the last minute. Cook Cook some dishes ahead of time, especially casseroles Make a cooking schedule, so you’ll put things in the oven in the right order. I write down the time we plan to eat and then work backwards, cooking dishes in a certain order based on the cooking temperature. In this way, we always eat on time. Get helpers. Your guests will usually volunteer to help chop, mash, and stir. Say yes to the offer and smile. Enjoy and Give Thanks! It’s such a blessing to have family or friends to celebrate a day like Thanksgiving. Give praise to God for all the good things in your life. @2019, copyright Lisa Ehrman

12 Black Friday Tips

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lady shopping

Do you want to save lots of money on your Christmas shopping? Well, then you’re probably planning to shop on Black Friday. We all have a love/hate relationship with Black Friday. It’s a day when too many people all crowd in stores to get the hot deals on gifts. Sometimes the deals aren’t really that great or the size you need is sold out. There are pros and cons for braving the early hours and hoards of people. But, I’ve searched around to find the best Black Friday tips for you to make your shopping experience the best it can be. Plan ahead (weeks ahead) – Sign up for newsletters from the stores you are interested in. Do this a few weeks before Black Friday, because the stores will send you emails with their Black Friday specials. This will help you to plan your purchases. Research online – Using the newsletters and google searches you’ll be able to find out the real price and who has the best base price. This will help you to find the best deals and avoid paying too much. Decide which store is the most important and go there first – If your top priority is to shop the DoorBusters at a certain store, then make a written plan to go there first. Then continue to write down your plan. You’ll save time. Don’t shop with your children – Leave them at home with Dad or a sitter. It will be worth it, because children will slow down your shopping and they’ll be bored, tired, and hungry. Use the Amazon App on your phone to do real-time price checks on your phone. Take breaks when you need to. Stop for a quick lunch, snack, or coffee break when you need it. If you push yourself too hard, you’ll be exhausted. Smile at other shoppers and greet the person at the cash register. Everyone’s having a busy, stressful day and could use a little encouragement. Get your local newspaper on Thanksgiving Day. It will contain tons of ads with all the special deals. You can use this to make your list and schedule. If you just drive to the mall and hope to find something good, you may not reach your goal of saving the most money. Make sure to read the return policy for each store and ask for a Gift Receipt. This is especially true for clothing items, because they may not fit the recipient. Take an empty envelope with you in your purse to keep all the receipts and gift receipts together. Paper clips are helpful, too. Using cash is the best way to stay on budget for each item. But, many credit cards are giving rewards and you’ll be happy to see that on your next bill! If you have different price amounts you’re willing to spend on each gift, take a list with this written down. When you make the purchase, write down the actual purchase price. Take the time to do this so that you’ll stay on budget. Black Friday ads are available already from many stores. Check the stores circulars right now, to start planning. If you’re like me, you would rather shop online. Most of the stores will offer the same sales online as are in the stores. DoorBusters may not be available, though. Check each store for details. Grab my FREE Christmas Shopping Planner. It has pages for you to print and make as many copies as you need. It will help you to stay organized and on budget this year. Have a wonderful Black Friday! Do you have any tips to share? @2019, copyright Lisa Ehrman

7 Reasons To Love Downsizing

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Moving to a much smaller home has been a rewarding experience that has resulted in a more peaceful life. It really is a journey or a process to begin downsizing. For me, it took time, even with careful planning. We now live in a home that is almost half of the size as our previous homes. Now that two of our children are adults, we only have one college-aged child living with us. We feel like empty-nesters, because this child is pretty much independent. Living in a smaller home means that a great percentage of our furniture wasn’t needed. Much of the extra furniture was offered to our children. Whatever furniture they didn’t need was donated to someone else who could use it. This made our moving to a new state so much easier. Downsizing is a sure way to lower your utility bills, too. With less rooms to heat and cool the electric and gas bills are lower. We downsized our wardrobes, and that makes less clothes to store. I like the way the closet isn’t so crammed, and I don’t keep clothes that I will not wear. Donating the extra clothes gives someone else the chance to use. Having less clutter in the cabinets and drawers makes me feel more peaceful. Cabinets crammed with items that I might use once or twice is wasteful and frustrating. It makes me unhappy to need to unstack and move everything to get an item from the back corner. Again, we donated unwanted items. I’m less likely to buy more stuff, when there is no place to put it. That not only keeps clutter away, but saves the bank account. Being retired, there isn’t an ever-growing bank account. It has been much easier to get and stay organized when I have less stuff. Downsizing has helped me to be more creative. As I decided what furnishings to keep, I re-examined my personal style. Selecting furnishings that made me truly comfortable and cozy has created a look that I love. Downsizing and simplifying our home has made me feel like my mind is more clear. When I look around, there is less of a mess. I’ve only kept things that are beautiful to me. Quickly putting excess paper into the recycling box means that it’s out of sight. Time is so valuable, and downsizing means less time spent on things I don’t love. I don’t like to do housework (who does?) and now there is less house to clean. There is less flooring to vacuum or mop. There is less furniture to dust. You get the picture. There’s also less grass to mow. (we’re renting temporarily, so there’s no grass to mow). Have you downsized or are you thinking about downsizing? In 2019, many baby boomers are choosing not to downsize. There are pros and cons to everything, but I am very happy with the choice we’ve made. The benefits have been perfect for me and my family. @2019, copyright Lisa Ehrman

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