How to Maintain An Organized Home so You Can Enjoy Christmas Whatever the Stress #079

Imagine walking into an organized home after a long day of holiday festivities. Sounds dreamy, doesn't it? Embrace the cheer of the season without the clutter. In this episode we highlight the significance of a stress-free mindset and family involvement in maintaining a comfortable living space. This isn't about crafting an Instagram-perfect home but designing a harmonious living environment that radiates holiday spirit.

This episode is filled to the brim with strategies to help you navigate the holiday chaos, especially if you have children to consider. We explore the importance of setting expectations, involving kids in the clean-up process, and even rotating decorations to keep things fresh. It's not all about tidiness though, there's a sentimental angle too. We'll talk about looking back at cherished decorations and old photos, instilling a sense of holiday nostalgia and reminding us that the season is about more than just the gifts under the tree. Tune in for an episode packed with organizational habits to make your holiday season a breeze.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

Hi there, I'm Caroline Thor, professional organizer, konmari consultant, teacher and mum of three. I started off my life as a mum feeling overwhelmed, disorganized and desperately trying to carve out some time for me amongst the nappies, chaos and clutter. One day, one small book called the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying changed everything and I began to learn strategies for making everyday life easier. Today I have the systems in place that means life can throw almost anything at me, and I want to share them with you. If you're an overwhelmed mum struggling to keep it together, then this is the podcast for you. Grab a coffee and settle in for a quick chat with someone who gets your reality. Hello and welcome to the second of my special holiday season podcast episodes. Last time, I talked to you about how to get ready for the holiday season, how to get home ready, how to get it decluttered and organized, so you were feeling in control and less stressed for the holiday season. But let's face it, it's important to know how to maintain it, otherwise everything's just going to unravel over the holiday period. So that's what I'm going to be talking about today, but before I do, I thought you might be interested to know that my new membership, which has launched this week for the incredible founding members offer of a month free in the membership and after that, the lowest price it will ever be at. We have got the theme for December of organizing your home ready for the holidays. So if you know that this is a time of the year where you start to feel overwhelmed and stressed and you want some accountability, you want some motivation, you want some fun and just don't want to feel like you're doing it all on your own, then come and join us in the clutter free collective where we are going to be supporting each other and motivating each other and getting our homes ready together for the holiday season. To secure your free place for the whole of December, all you need to do is go to caroline-thorcom forward slash clutter and there you will find all the information you need to grab your free spot in the clutter free collective. I really hope to see you there. I would love to support you in getting your home ready for the holiday season and then we will get to meet each other live, because there's going to be live zoom calls where we're going to be discussing things and you can ask me questions and get personal help from me. So I really hope you will take me up on the opportunity of your free place in that membership for the month of December. The membership is staying open until the 18th of December, and after that the free month and the low price are going, so grab it while you can.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Okay, back to the focus of this episode maintaining an organised home during the holiday season. Now. In the last episode I talked about how I used to feel completely stressed about having people come and stay. It used to be something that I really used to get worked up about. I used to feel very judged if I felt my home wasn't tidy and clean enough. One of the things that, luckily, has changed for me over the years, as well as my ability to keep my home decluttered and organised, has also been a change in my mindset, and that's very much something I want to talk about.

Speaker 1: 4:25

In the clutter free collective as well, for those people that join me there. We put so much pressure on ourselves that it all has to be perfect, and it doesn't. It just needs to be good enough that we feel okay about it, and that does not mean that it's Instagram ready, perfect. It does not mean that Hello magazine could come round and photograph you for a three page spread in your home. You don't have to have decorations that are the envy of the whole street. It just needs to be a home that you feel relaxed in. That is what we're aiming for. So the importance of ongoing organization during the holiday season means that this relaxed feeling can stay with you and it will reduce the holiday stress.

Speaker 1: 5:15

So I want to talk today about some maintenance routines. You can do daily tasks and routines to help keep the clutter at bay and, more importantly, get the whole family involved, because everyone tends to be at home during this time. Perhaps we've got time off work, the kids are off school, it's a great time, while everyone's in a great mood, to turn it into a teachable moment and show them that it doesn't just need to be you doing the tidy up and organizing and cooking and cleaning and getting everything ready. So I'd love to give you today some top tips that will mean you can get the whole family involved. So top tip number one I'm always talking about having a 10 to 15 minute tidy up every day. Why not turn this into a holiday game the festive 15,? Set a timer for 15 minutes and challenge the family to see how much clutter they can clear up before the time of buzzes. You could put some music on in the background so that it's got a bit more of a party atmosphere to it.

Speaker 1: 6:24

So if, at the end of a day, perhaps you've had visitors over and there's just stuff lying everywhere, or maybe they've unwrapped presents and they've got all this new stuff that's lying around and it needs to perhaps go to their bedrooms, then you could set a timer for 15 minutes and have everyone tidy up their stuff. It could be that they could help during that time clear the dining room table, help clear the kitchen or put stuff into the dishwasher, unload the dishwasher if it needs emptying. Whatever jobs need doing, you could ask them to look around and find something that needs doing. Hopefully there won't be too much clutter lying around, because you'd have got yourself organised in advance, but there are always jobs that need doing because if they're not done, they start to get out of hand and they also make the home look untidy, which is not what you want. So festive 15, a timer for 15 minutes and get everyone involved, even the littlest person. If you've got a one year old who can walk, you could put a basket in the middle of the living room floor and just encourage them to pick up anything and drop it in there. You will have to do it with them, but at least you're connecting with them and having a game and they start to see that tidying up is part of having all this stuff around.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Okay, my second top tip ornament organizing. It may be towards the end of the holiday season that you are starting to want to take down the decorations and you might want to get the kids involved in this and the rest of the family, so you could have them help take down decorations. You could have them look and see if they can think of a way to organize them neatly for next year. You could suggest that they put all things that light up in one box. You could suggest a box for tree decorations. You could suggest that they put anything that they find that sort of like an ornament that stands on a surface, that they go in a box together. Maybe things need wrapping up in newspaper before they get put away.

Speaker 1: 8:30

I always get my kids to help with taking down the holiday decorations. So what I do is I say, okay, this afternoon we're all gonna help take the decorations down and everyone's sent off and anything they find they bring back to the living room. We collect all the decorations from the whole house together in the living room. I don't get involved in that at all. That's up to the kids to go and find everything. My husband takes down the lights from outside of the house and then we look at putting them in categories and the kids know, because we've been doing this for years, what goes in what boxes and they can put them away for me. So ornament organizing is a great way to teach the kids about putting things away according to category.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Okay, top tip number three gift wrap station. Now, I'm not someone that has a permanent gift wrap station in my house. I know some people do. I personally don't. I have one cupboard where all the gift wrap stuff is kept and everyone knows where it is. But what you could do is create a designated gift wrapping area and encourage family members to help with wrapping presents for perhaps grandparents or aunts and uncles. Show them that you have their tape, you've got scissors, you've got ribbons, you might have gift bags and then show them that when they finish, the things all go back in one place so the next person who wants to wrap a present can find them. It's a great teachable moment to show them that when we've used something, it needs to go back. So it's there, ready for the next person. Okay, top tip number four recipe roundup.

Speaker 1: 10:14

If the kitchen tends to get chaotic during holiday cooking and, let's face it, when doesn't it get everyone involved you could ask family members okay, I'm baking this afternoon, would you like to come and help me? You can have them there to wash up things or put things in the dishwasher. Do the cookie cutting, make sure that they help you tidy up afterwards. It's a real danger, especially with kids, that they think they come along for the fun bit and then, as soon as what they perceive as the boring bit the tidying up comes, they suddenly all vanish and disappear. I can't be the only one that this happens to, so encourage them that if they want to help with the baking which most kids do during the holiday season, that part of that is going to be helping with the tidying up as well.

Speaker 1: 11:09

We had a really disappointing moment recently where my husband and I had gone out for dinner for the evening and the kids had been baking while we were out and we came back and the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it. They had not tidied anything away, they had not wiped the surface, it was just an absolute mess, and they were all in bed by this point. So it meant we had to tidy it up because we couldn't leave it like that overnight with the cats and the dog in the house. So we had to have a word with them the next morning that this isn't okay, and on that occasion they had got a bit distracted because they wanted to get back to watching a film they were doing, having baked something to eat, and they'd sort of forgotten with the tidying up which normally they are very good at. So it's worth then having a word with them and explaining that that was a little disappointing and could we make sure next time that that doesn't happen. So recipe roundup is a really good one.

Speaker 1: 12:05

Top tip number five is actually quite fun. This goes back to when you're putting the decorations up. Instead of pulling out all the decorations at once, what you could do is sort of rotate it so that each day different family member can choose a new decoration to get out and display. So it keeps things sort of fresh and avoids a holiday decoration explosion. I personally quite like it when things are dripped over a period of time and we get to full decoration by the time Christmas Eve arrives.

Speaker 1: 12:39

Because I live in Germany, the tradition tends to be that the Christmas tree comes into the living room on Christmas Eve, not before then. Last year we put it up in our garden with outdoor lights on and enjoyed it for a couple of weeks before Christmas and then brought it in on Christmas Eve and decorated it. So that was sort of like our last push of putting up decorations. But having some sort of decoration rotation where different family members can choose is a really nice thing to do. We have the tradition that each year a different child can choose how the tree is decorated. I remember my best friend who absolutely loves her Christmas and loves her Christmas trees. She likes to be in control of how it looks and she thought this sounded like her idea of hell having the kids decorating the Christmas tree because it wouldn't look perfect. But we have always done this and our Christmas tree very often looks interesting, to put it mildly. But the children have enjoyed over the years being responsible for decorating it.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Top tip number six this is great if you have younger kids Santa's Helper Challenge. What you can do is make a game out of putting toys away. Each child can become Santa's Helper for the day and is responsible for gathering and organizing their toys before bedtime. Just be careful you don't get into the negative talk of all. Santa's elves are going to be watching you and if you don't do it properly, very, very dangerous. They should have some fun doing it and you could even get a little Christmas hat for them to put on like a Santa hat and make a game out of putting toys away so they have some sort of responsibility.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Top tip number seven Charitable Sorting. This is a great time of year to teach about the importance of giving. We should be doing it all year, but I think when we're getting so much that's new and different, it is really important to teach about the importance of giving. So possibly have a family dedicated day during the holiday season where you either sort through clothes or toys or household items to donate to those in need. What you can also have is save that for after Christmas and you can then have a talk with the kids about look, you've got all this new stuff. Are there any toys now in your room that you notice that you're not actually playing with anymore, and it may be that now they've got something new to play with, they will recognize that something else in their room that they've been reluctant to let go, that they may now be able to part with it. Have a box that says thank you on it and they can put it in there and donate with gratitude. That's a really good way of doing it.

Speaker 1: 15:36

And my top tip number eight is memory lane cleanup. I love doing this While going through the holiday decorations. Take a stroll down memory lane. We all know that there are decorations that have memories attached to them or stories, and you could encourage everyone to share stories about ornaments or decorations and make the cleanup a sort of sentimental and enjoyable experience. You could even at the end of it, say, okay, once we've tidied up, we could perhaps sit down on the sofa and we could all look through small photos while we have a hot chocolate or in Germany, we drink glue vine and Kinderpunch, because I don't know about you. But once you take down the Christmas decorations, everything just looks so bare and empty. I quite like it because it suddenly looks really clean and tidy, but it's a bit deflating. So having a like a memory lane cleanup makes it into a slightly more enjoyable experience. Now in the last episode and if you've not listened to that, I highly recommend that you do I talked about organizational things that you could do to prepare your home ready for the holiday season, to make your life easier.

Speaker 1: 16:52

It's important that we develop some organizational habits to take us through the season so you could, for example, think of a cleaning schedule so that you're not madly cleaning before everyone arrives, so that you're on top of it and it's all done. We talked last time about meal planning. You could have a laundry plan. Try to schedule things so that you don't feel like you've got to suddenly do it all at the last minute. Now, this is really difficult when you're working full time and I understand that. But if you plan in 10 to 15 minutes every day of just doing a little job, like a little bit of meal planning or putting the laundry on or doing a little bit of cleaning, you will get more done in the space of a week than if you try to cram it all into one day and drive yourself crazy. It's important to find the balance between work and relaxation and if you do a little bit every time, you get sort of 10, 15 minutes. Then it's going to free you up to sit with your feet up and watch some Netflix before everyone arrives and not have to worry quite so much.

Speaker 1: 18:07

So this has been a short episode, but I hope it gives you some top tips that will help reduce your holiday stress through organization. It's a case of thinking ahead, thinking in advance what's coming up and trying to plan a way of organizing it so that you don't end up having to do it all at the same time and, most importantly, if you have a family at home with you, getting them involved so they don't think that Christmas is a time to sit there on the sofa and be served by mum. We need to help them understand that it's a holiday for you as well and that they should be on board with supporting you in creating an enjoyable experience for everybody. So I hope that helps If you know that you're someone that needs some support, that you need some accountability and you need some motivation. Don't forget you can join me for free in the Clutterfree Collective for the whole of December and we will get your Christmas nailed.

Speaker 1: 19:18

So go to caroline-thorcom forward, slash clutter, and I can't wait to see you there Until next time. If you've enjoyed this episode, please send the link to a friend you know would appreciate it, subscribe and leave a review. I look forward to bringing you more organizing tips next time, but if you can't wait until then, you can go to my website or find me on Instagram, at carothor, or on Facebook at Caroline Organiser. Thanks for listening and I look forward to guiding you on your journey to find your Clutterfree ever after.