Simple Holiday Traditions

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10 holiday traditions

 

Family traditions are part of what makes every family special. Your kids will reflect back to you what are existing traditions you may not realize your family has already.  It’s in creating tradition that we connect with our family.  It’s the simple holiday traditions that are memorable. Here are my top 10 holiday traditions.

1.Purchase a personalized ornament with the year on it for each child

Each year I add a new ornament to our kids’ collections. It’s a special reminder of the year gone by.  I love that our kids will take these on to use on their family trees in the future.

2. An evening holiday walk to see Christmas decorations and sip hot cocoa

There’s nothing more fun that a walk to see the holiday lights in  your neighborhood.  Bring hot cocoa to keep warm.

3. Celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with 12 donations to local charities

Your holiday will be especially meaningful with donations to those who have little.  Choose little ways you can contribute with either goods or funds.

4. Add Christmas songs to your Pandora channels

The music of the season brings a smile to our faces. Your music is always with you too!

5. Organize your Christmas cards by binding them together in a book

I love this small way to cherish the holiday cards we receive.

6. Purchase ready-made gingerbread houses to decorate and host a hot chocolate buffet

Assemble your gingerbread houses the day before so they are sturdy.  Decorate and display for a week.  Be sure to decorate your own too.

7. Host a holiday movie night and invite a family to join you

Whether it’s Charlie Brown Christmas or Christmas Vacation, all families have their favorite movie to watch every year.

8. Host a hot chocolate buffet and crazy Christmas sweater get together

Get crazy with hot chocolate mix ins like marshmellows, candy canes, cinnamon red hots and whipped cream for a hot chocolate buffet.  Add in the crazy Christmas sweater phenomenon.  It’s an evening full of laughter.

9. Gather up gently used family coats and bring the donations as a family

We all have coats, scarves and gloves we have not used in a while. Bring these as a family to donate to share the joy of giving.

 

10. Drop off treats for fire department, police station or other emergency responders in your community

We are supported by many in our community who keep us safe.  Remember them this holiday season with homemade or store bought treats.  It will bring joy to you and those you meet.

 

holiday organizing holiday traditions

 

 

What are your holiday traditions?  It takes just a few minutes of planning, a spot on your calendar and communication with your family to share the joy of holiday traditions.

 

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Wishing you an Abundance of Blessings!

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happy thanksgiving

Wishing you an abundance of blessings this holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fuss Free Thanksgiving

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fuss free thanksgiving

 

 

Thanksgiving can be less stress and less mess.  It’s all in how you organize your preparation and meal.  Here are a few tips on making your day fun, festive and a fuss free Thanksgiving.

 

Beverage station

Make it easy for your and your company to help themselves.  Set up a beverage station with ice, your choice of adult and kid beverages, and glasses.  If it’s a cool day you may decide on a hot cider with a ladle and mugs too.  Place your station in an area that will bring traffic away from the kitchen and into a gathering spot.

 

Nibbles

Take a tip from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa, and have a few nibbles out before the main meal. It will keep kids and adults from being underfoot in the kitchen.  A plate of fruit and cheese and a bowl or two of nuts is a great starter for the holiday meal.  If anyone wanders into the kitchen, put them to work!

 

Disposable plates

There’s already a lot to wash and dry, why not go with biodegradable dishware for the day?  Available from LeafNFiber, these lovely plates will add to the natural decor of the day and make clean up easy.

 

It’s all about timing

Make a list of what’s for dinner. After this, create a time line for what goes into the oven at what time.  If your list is the same each year, consider creating this in Evernote or a notebook to keep and save.

 

Add entertainment

Everyone’s stress level goes down with a soundtrack.   Have a guest create a playlist as a back drop for the day.

 

Leftovers

Plan ahead to keep and share leftovers.  Purchase inexpensive plastic ware to give away as leftovers leave.  Everyone loves this gift!

 

Go team!

Take a trick from  football and other team sports that are on television on Thanksgiving.  Get your team in gear.  That means everyone has a part to play or a job for dinner, clean up and other activities.  There are many small jobs that can be done throughout the day, including ones specifically for your kiddos.  Help everyone pitch in by giving everyone something small to do to be a part of the festivities.

 

 

What ways do you make it a fuss free Thanksgiving at your home?

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Thanksgiving Dinner Organized

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organizing thanksgiving dinner

 

Thanksgiving is a one of my favorite holidays! It brings together all that I love! It’s our family sitting together, lingering, chatting and enjoying each other at our dinner table.  It’s a food festival with special seasonal treats like noodles, bread dressing and gravy.  It’s a day of thankfulness, blessings and mindfulness.  Here are a few tips for Thanksgiving Day Organized.

 

It’s also a day to be especially organized!

 

Invite guests

Make your plans and invite your guests two weeks ahead.  Knowing who is coming is a blessing to you and your guests.

 

Decide on your meal plan

It’s fun to share the day and share the cooking. Who will bring the turkey? Who will bring what side dishes? Who is bringing the pie? Share the responsibility and also get some help from Mrs. Kroger.

 

Grocery shop and prep early

There’s a lot of food to buy and veggies to prep. Start early with both of these to be sure you have enough time and energy.  Turkeys need time to thaw and cook properly.  A great timeline helps you stay organized.

 

Enjoy your day

Enjoy the day with family friends.  A game of charades, snooze on the couch, afternoon walk, or color pages can make for a little extra fun.  It’s the little touches that add to a special event and make family memories.

 

What makes your Thanksgiving Dinner organized? What tricks do you use?

 

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Easy Ways to Organize Your Halloween Decorations

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organize your halloween decorations

 

Pumpkins, black cats and witches are everywhere!  It’s the first holiday of the fall season and a prelude to all other fall and winter holidays.    According to the National Retail Federation, almost 50% of us decorate for Halloween.  Make it easy to decorate for Halloween with these easy ways to organize your Halloween decorations.

 

Go orange

Organize your Halloween decorations in orange easy to spot totes.  Label the totes on two sides and on top to know exactly what is in each bin.

 

Inflatable decorations

We love those giant inflatable decorations! Store them in individual 18 gallon tubs to keep them in good condition.

 

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

Pumpkins can be difficult to store because of their generous size.  Keep these from crushing with extra large ziplocs.  Your pumpkins are all together too.

 

Halloween lights

Flameless candles, candle holders and strings of lights can be stored together in a small bin.  Wrap the strings of lights in circles then store in gallon size ziplocs.

 

Just like all holidays, it’s best to make a plan for when to decorate and undecorate.  Enjoy a fall afternoon outside with your family creating a spooky spot on your front lawn.

How do you organize your Halloween decorations?

Happy Fall Y’all!  Check out the fall fun on my pinterest board.

4 Smart Student Strategies

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student organizing

 

The school year is well underway.  It’s time to think about how successful your student strategies are.  Are you getting the grades you want? Are your strategies helping you work smarter not harder? If the answer is no to either of these questions, check out these 4 smart student strategies to make a difference.

 

Get in a groove

Great routines help you get the grades you want.  A routine is a daily habit or series of habits.  This includes recording your homework in a planner or on your smartphone, getting started with your homework at about the same time each day, and finishing up at a good time to get in bed.  Routines are not easy for everyone, but a timer and smart phone reminders can help too.  Be sure to have a great planner for school and a clock in your study space.

 

Study space

Your study space needs to be distraction free and inviting to help you make the most of your study time.  A distraction free environment means clear of clutter and easy to work in.  Your family dining area or office can be one of the best spots for this.  Your room is usually one of the worst spots for this.  Set aside your devices or use the tech tools below to stay on track.  Set yourself up for success by pulling together all your tools and set up a space that works for you.

 

Plan for your papers

Many schools are going paperless with online tools to learn. However, we still have some  papers no matter.  Create a paper management system that works for you.  It can be a single binder with tabbed slash pockets or an accordion file.  Have a small file box with hanging files for each subject for papers that you have finished with but need for later. Start a routine of refreshing your paper plan and filing these papers weekly.

 

Tech tools

We love our smartphones and there are many tools we can use.  Here are some of my favorites:

Know your style and know how to study.  It’s not just about spending the time, it’s about making the time valuable. Take a quick learning styles quiz to learn about your best modality to study.  You are ready to make the grades you deserve by learning more about yourself.

3 Tools to Check Your Productivity

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productivity

 

Having a great tool makes any job easier. When it comes to productivity, your tools help you become more aware of what you accomplish and help you staying focused. These are 3 of my favorites for both home and work.

 

RescueTime

RescueTime runs in the background of your computer all day every day.  It tracks time spent on applications and websites, giving you an accurate picture of your day as well as detailed reports.  The tools also permits you to block certain elements to be sure to stay on task.  RescueTime gives me an analytical view of how much time I spent on my computer on different projects.  With new perspectives comes changes in behavior.

 

StayFocsd

StayFocusd is  Google product that helps you configure your access to different websites and the internet in general.   It has a timer that helps you set amounts of time permitted online or on specific sites.  No more surfing the net or looking at social media rather than getting your work done on the computer.  It’s difficult to undo too!

 

Stickk

We all have goals, but some are much harder to achieve. That’s where Stickk comes in.  With commitment comes goal accomplishment.  Stickk has a commitment contract to help you acknowledge what it’ll take to accomplish it, and leverage the power of putting money on the line to turn that goal into a reality.  You can track your progress, post images  your journal and invite friends to commit to accountability.

 

 

These three tools are just some of the tech ways to help yourself be more productive. Not all of my tools are tech and some of my favorites are simple notebooks.  Whatever is your trusted tool, work with that.

 

What are your favorites?

 

 

Check out my pinterest page High Tech and Technically Organized.

 

 

10 Ways to Procrastinate and NOT Get Anything Done

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procrastinate

 

 

It’s 5 o’clock and you are wondering, “what did I accomplish today?”  Maybe it’s even Friday and you are wondering about the week as a whole.   Maybe you are thinking why didn’t I get anything done?  There are so many ways to procrastinate.

 

  1.  Check your email over and over all day. Start your day with email.  Don’t make any decisions and leave everything in your inbox.  According to research, we check email for as long a time as we binge watch a tv series.
  2. Not feeling up to getting the day started? Check on facebook, instagram, or pinterest to have a little fun. An hour slips by before you know it.
  3. Make everyone else’s priorities your priority.  Their work is urgent and your’s can be on the back burner.  Answer everyone else’s requests first.
  4. Jump from one task to another.  Let’s start this project, move to another and another.  Research shows multitasking appears and feels productive, but the results can show otherwise.
  5. It’s already 11 am. You’ve missed your best work time.  Why get started now? Just take an early lunch.
  6. Don’t make a list for tomorrow. You can do that once you get in the office.  There’s no time for a list and why decide on what’s tomorrow’s priorities.
  7. Don’t schedule in tasks.  No need to set a time to accomplish a task when you can  just do it when you’re in the mood.
  8. Schedule a lot of meetings, have no agenda and be sure to start late.  It’s a great way to fill days without getting anything accomplished.
  9. You’re too busy to take care of yourself.  Be sure to get in bed late, don’t make a meal plan or take time to rejuvenate. Put yourself last on the list.
  10. Never take a vacation. You’re too busy to take time off.  You haven’t accomplished enough to take a vacation.

 

Maybe you have other areas you can procrastinate to add to this list too.

 

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10 Common Mistakes when Organizing

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common organizing mistakes

 

 

Even with the best of intention and efforts, your organizing may not be making a difference. You may have tried many times to get organized, but for some reason your home is cluttered.  It may be that one of these common organizing mistakes is a problem.  Check out these solutions for common organizing mistakes.

 

Plan your work and work your plan

Too often we jump into organizing and find we have made a bigger mess.  Take a few minutes to think about what you would like your organization to look like, what you need most, and what routines will keep it organized.  A little pre-planning makes all the difference.

 

More bins = more organized

It’s not about having more storage. It’s not about having the right bins.  Hold off from buying bins until you have worked through and decluttered your space. Then you are ready to decide on storage options.

 

Difficulty decluttering

We start decluttering, get everything in a bag, and it stays at your entry or in  your car for weeks.  Make decluttering easy with an easy way to drop off your donations.  Have a donation bag set up in your home for regular drop offs.  The easier it is, the more you will donate.

Zig zag organizing

You start in one space and realize you need to bring stuff to another room.  You head there and – oops – that space needs work too. Labeled as zig zap organizing, you will see the most success if you remain in and worn on only one space at a time.  Place the stuff at the door with a post it note on it.

 

Too much coming in

Even the most organized home suffers when more and more is brought in to the space.  Start an awareness of how much you purchase, why and when you purchase items.  By creating a barrier to more stuff, you are able to establish organizing systems and routines.

 

Label, label, label

It can be surprising how much labeling a space makes a difference. Everyone knows where items belong and can put them away.   Labeling keeps you organized.

 

Daily distribution

It’s easy to stash and dash. That’s when you get a new item but regretfully never put it away.  Set up a daily distribution time to reset your personal and family organizing, put items away and put away the bags they came in.

 

Paper, paper everywhere

Keep your paper together. It sounds overwhelming, but keeping it in one spot helps you sort, recycle and keep the important papers. When paper gets spread out, all of a sudden it’s everywhere.  Create one designated spot for mail to come to and sort.  Triage it daily and work on your papers weekly.

Keep it all, just in case

We don’t know what paper we might need to we keep it.  We think we might use something, and we keep it just in case.  It’s time to make a decision and decide what to eliminate.  Basic questions to ask are these.   When will I use it again? Do I have another good one?  Would I purchase this again today?  Don’t let indecision keep you from being organized.

 

Team up

Organizing is hard work! Don’t go it alone!  Gather up a team, whether it’s your family, church members, office colleagues or hired help. When  you work together you make more progress and have fun too.

 

Are you struggling with getting organized? Post your question or problem here for a solution.

 

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