Minimalist Holiday Organizing

Remember how crazy the holidays felt last year? Remember how we all said we’d try not to go back to feeling so stressed and hectic? Remember the articles explaining how women do most of the emotional labor in a family?

This holiday season is your chance to change up the traditions at your house. If there is a dish you have always struggled to make, or a tradition that stresses you out, find a way to drop that responsibility, or at least drop most of it. Pass it on to someone younger who still cares what everyone thinks of him!

Think about this now so you are prepared to delegate the task, or offer a caring, honest response when you’re asked why you aren’t doing it this year. Be mindful about what traditions you don’t want to bring back and just say no.

“No is a complete sentence.” Right, Annie Lamott?

Ask your partner and older kids the same question:

“What traditions are important to you?”

If they want to have homemade cookies, they can make them, or at least help (a lot!) You may be surprised by what they don’t want to continue doing either. Maybe they have ideas for new things to try instead. Just don’t be afraid to talk about changing things up!

Choose Your Own Adventure

I’m going to share a lot of ideas here, and I’m not trying to imply that you are going to do everything in this article! Okay? Promise me you won’t do everything! I’m including them all so you can find the holiday tradition(s) you absolutely love and want to continue, and just read that section (or 2).

Holiday Decorating

My #1 organized tip for holiday decorating is to remove as much of your everyday bric a brac as possible and store it in the holiday bins for the season. This way you aren’t adding more clutter. You are trading it out! For example, don’t just cram the christmas tree into the living room with everything else. Trade out a comparably sized piece of furniture for the tree.

In this photo, our tree has replaced a wide rocking chair usually in that corner.

The Best Way to Store Ornaments

I’ve been in too many homes where people store Christmas tree ornaments in their original boxes, and then store those boxes in another box or bin. This is a colossal waste of time and energy! I prefer an under the bed storage bin because it’s nice and shallow. Fill the bin with packing peanuts and let all of your ornaments swim in there together. Throw away all of those little boxes that only hold one specific type of ornament. It may sound crazy, but it’s so much faster and I’ve been using one under-bed storage container for over 20 years. We’ve moved twice and none of our ornaments have broken!

Holiday Cooking

Menu plan with your partner and/or relatives. Talk with the cooks in your extended family about who is cooking what for which big, family meal. Do this far in advance. Like, today.

Buy whatever ingredients you can ahead of time because grocery stores are so crowded around the holidays.

Gift Giving

Start shopping for gifts and keep a list on your phone of what you’ve gotten for whom. If you can’t start shopping yet, at least start a gift list with everyone’s name on it so you have a place to write gift ideas and links to small business websites.

Wrapping Gifts

Store your gifts in one place and wrap as you buy.

When wrapping toys, remove the zip-ties and the extra plastic wrap. Include batteries where they are needed. Make the toys easy to open and play with!

hands w cookie dough holiday gingerbread cookies being made

Holiday Baking

Relieve some of your last minute cooking and grocery shopping stress. If you make homemade baked goods, you can make some of those ahead of time and freeze them. Casseroles, cookie dough, pie dough, homemade sauces, soups and stews, and pound cakes all freeze very well.

Hosting

Get your guest room ready for your most detail-oriented relative. That way, no matter who else shows up, it will be up to snuff! Declutter and stock any bathroom your guests will use. Organize and declutter your mudroom or entryway and, if you are having a party, your coat closet. If you are hosting a party or large meal, get the shipping boxes and detritus off the table and out of your dining room now. <br>

If your WFH office is currently on the dining table, find another stop-gap place to work for the days around your event. Pretending like you won’t do any work for 24-76 hours is setting yourself up for producing sloppy work and/or being very grumpy and resentful.

Pick Your Favorites

Let me repeat: Don’t do all of these things!

I’ve only written this many tips so you can hopefully find your holiday passion project. If you were reading about decorating and thought, There is just no way… and your forehead wrinkled up in disdain, that’s a great indication that you are ready to DROP DECORATING from your holiday traditions.

Ask for Help

Thank you for reading, and please ask for help with everything you can think of. Asking for help builds community and strengthens your relationships. When someone does a favor for you, it endears you to them. So ask already! (I know you already offer to help, which is also wonderful.)