Tiny Tasks, Big Results - Day 12, Holiday Decoration Swap

Do the Decoration Swap
   Empty your Christmas storage totes onto the kitchen or dining room table.  Using the now empty totes, go through the areas of your home you plan to decorate - clear coffee tables, mantles and shelves of your everyday decorative items. Put these everyday items into the Christmas totes.

Since these totes already have a home in the garage, attic or a closet, you’ll be able to store them easily.  Your holiday decorations will present themselves even more beautifully when the everyday items are gone.

After the holidays, just reverse the process.  This will make it easy to dust, and tidy up before you replace the everyday stuff.  My guess is that you probably have more Christmas stuff than you have "everyday" stuff.  This will leave you with a couple of extra empty totes. You can use these empty “decoration” totes to store/hide Christmas gifts, just don’t forget you put them in there.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!  I hope your holiday season is going well.  If you have comments or ideas about holiday organization, I hope you'll take a moment to share them with me.

Tif

 

Tiny Tasks, Big Results - Day 11, How did Thanksgiving go?

Start a holiday – "How it went" diary
    This is as simple as it sounds.  You can do it on your computer or you can use an actual journal. 
We've already jumped two major holiday hurdles, possibly 3; Thanksgiving, Creating a Gift Shopping List, and that joyful yet exhausting event - Black Friday Shopping.
  After each event take 5-10 minutes to make some notes about how things went.  What worked out well, what didn’t go so well and what you would do differently. 
  When you pack up your holiday decorations pack up the journal with all of your holiday stuff.  Next year you can re-read your notes, make changes and add new notes.  If you use a 3 ring notebook you could include a tab for the journal, a tab for recipes and a tab for the shopping lists you’ve created this year. Again, pack the notebook away with your Halloween or Fall Decorations so you'll have it on hand when things start to get crazy next year.
  If you're doing your journal digitally, you can scan the recipes, attach the shopping lists via a hyperlink, and create a simple Word Document for notes.  If you use OneNote - this would be a WONDERFUL Notebook that is easy to access each year.
  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope your Tiny Tasks are generating big results for this holiday season and those in the future.
  Tiffany

Tiny Tasks, Big Results - Day 10, Dish by Design

Before the Big Meal(s)

Your holiday meals are planned.

You've got the menu, the shopping list has been made and the shopping done.

Cooking day is tomorrow, but...Do you know where your dishes are?

Do you have enough serving dishes and serving utensils? 

  Time to do a quick check! Pull out your serving dishes, utensils, Menu and some sticky notes.  Label each serving dish using a sticky note.  You’ll be sure you have enough serving dishes and your kitchen helpers will know where to put each of the dishes as they come out of the oven or off of the stove. 

  Want to make clean up a snap?  Stop by the dollar store and buy clear plastic serving dishes.  After the meal you can toss them out or fill them with left overs and send them home with your guests.

Thanks so much for stopping by to read my blog today.  Please let me know how your holiday is going.  Do you have tips you can share with my readers? We'd love to hear them!

Tif

Tiny Task, Big Results - Who loves that Tradition anyway?

Who loves that tradition anyway?
  Sometimes we do things every year simply because we’ve done them every year.  Today’s Tiny Task -  take some time to talk to your family, both immediate and extended to find out which traditions are really important.  It might help to make a list of traditions before you start the conversation. (Facebook or Email can make this conversation easy to have.  No, you don’t have to call everyone individually.) 

   You may find that there are not as many really "important" traditions as you think.  You may also be surprised to learn that it’s the little stuff – for my kids I thought the annual Gingerbread House making party was really important.  It was fun, but expensive in both time and materials. After talking with them about traditions, I found out the one thing they liked the most, was getting a Grande White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks and driving around our local neighborhoods looking at lights. 

 Wow, what we call the cocoa drive was more important to them, and cost me a whole lot less in time, money, and planning.  Who knew?  Consider the Gingerbread House party a thing of the past.

 If you do find that one member of your family is crazy about a tradition that others aren’t attached to, let that person take charge of the event. 

Thanks so much for stopping by to read my organization tip for today. How is your holiday season going?  Do you have a great tip you'd like to share?  Are you struggling with a particular task? I'd love to hear from your!  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks Again,
Tif

Tiny Tasks, Big Results - Organize your Purse, Organize your Receipts.

  YIKES - how do you take control of all of the receipts that end up in your purse, wallet, pockets, etc.   It's simple to keep your receipts organized if you just do a little planning in advance.  Your Tiny Task for today is to find a tray, box, or some type of container that you can literally DUMP your handbag into at the end of each day - if you don't carry a handbag, it's a place to empty your pockets.
  Why dump you ask? Because we collect things in our handbags that don't actually belong there. Yet once they make it in, it could take weeks or even months to get them out.  By dumping your handbag each night you're forced to "re-load" each morning. 

  This "re-load" will lighten your load and help you stay organized.
  What does all of this have to do with receipts?  I use the dump tray all year round, but during the holiday season, I leave an envelope in the tray, along with a pen and some sticky notes.  Each night I dump my bag, sort the recipts by store and put them into the envelope.  I use the sticky notes to indicate the stores, and occassionally to tag a receipt that is unclear.
  This is a simple task, an EASY task, But it will go a long way toward keeping your handbag and your holiday receipts manageable.  There's a little added bonus here too ladies, if you're like me, and you love buying handbags, but you get in a rut carrying that same black bag all winter, this simple little task will make it easy to use a different bag each day.

Budgeting Tip - If you're trying to stay on a budget this year, buy yourself a Visa Type Gift Card for the amount of your budget.  Only use it for Christmas Expenses.  You'll be able to check you spending online, and stay within your budget. 

  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I'd love to hear how you're managing your holiday receipts and maybe your handbag too!
  Tiffany

Tiny Tasks, Big Results - Day 7, Wrap-n-Roll

Be ready to Wrap-n-Roll this season.
It never fails, there's always a last minute party, event, or some other situation where you find yourself buying a gift "on the way." 
  The biggest problem with this - you can often end up buying wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, - and maybe even scissors, at the same time.

    Save yourself some time, money and stress by packing a Wrap-n-Roll tote and putting it in the trunk of your car.

 

Fill one side with ribbons, bows, tags, pens, scissors, etc.

Fill the other side with paper, tissue, cards, gift bags, and gift card holders.

 

I used the Tote-tally Organized 13x13 Tote.  I filled one side with Wrapping Paper, Gift Bags, Cards and Tags.  I filled the other side with Ribbons, Bows, Pens, Scissors, Tape etc.  Everything needed to create a beautiful gift at a moments notice.

Want to hear my whole "Wrap-n-Roll" Tote story.  Watch the Video.

Do you need a good Wrap-n-Roll tote for you car?  Shop for your tote now - click here.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by to read today's tip.  Feel free to add a comment and let me know how your holiday season is shaping up!

Tif 

Tiny Tasks - Big Results, Day 6 A list you can check twice!

   Lists, lists, lists and more lists.  That's what the holidays come down to, how to manage the long lists of things you need to do.  Today I want to talk about your Gift List.  With holiday sales starting earlier and earlier each year, keeping track of purchased gifts can be overwhelming.  Here's a simple solution for taking control of that Gift Shopping List (GSL).

  Start with a small notebook. Once that will easily fit in your handbag or pocket.  I love the Moleskine (3.5"x 5") notebooks that can be purchased at bookstores like Barnes and Noble or at office supply stores like Office Depot.  The thing I love about them is their "thin-ness".  Because they don't have a spiral binding or a book type binding they are pretty flat and easy to carry.  They also have perforated pages, so when the season is over you can pull out the pages easily.  The one I'm using this year is the same one I used last year.


Step 2 - Create "sticky note" tabs for each major category of shopping.
   These might be individual people or groups of people.  For example, each of my children have their own tab, as I buy the most for them.  Then I have a tab for; FAMILY, one for FRIENDS, one labeled HOSTESS - Little things that are appropriate for taking to a holiday party, one for SERVICE - these are people like Teachers, Postman, UPS Driver, etc.  My last section is tagged with a "?".  This is where I keep a list of things that I've purchased that have yet to be assigned to a recipient.   This doesn't mean I'm out buying "willy-nilly" items, it means that I found something that would be perfect for more than one person.  As I get closer to Christmas, I'll assign the gifts and/or return some of them if I've found something better.  This little section is GREAT if you've forgotten someone or need a gift sooner than you had anticipated. 

Step 3 - Controlling your list information
  Some gift lists are easy to manage.  Hostess, Service, etc - these generally include one name, one gift, and no need to "hide" the gift in the process.  Create a "code" list on the inside of your notebook. I use a pretty simple series of letters to identify where I am in the process with each gift:
P = Purchased
W = Wrapped
D = Delivered
S = Shipped
  If you spread your gifts around the house for storage, you may want to include a note as to the location of the gift.

   With kids, I use one side of the page for "Gifts" and one side of the page for "Stockings". 

Step 4 - Storing your purchased gifts
  If you can keep all of the gifts you don't have to "hide" in one place it will make things much easier. I use labeled boxes in the garage that follow my "tabs" FAMILY, FRIENDS, HOSTESS, SERVICE, etc.  If you have room in a spare bedroom or closet that's even easier.
 With gifts I have to hide, I use two large boxes in the garage.  One is labeled "Baby Clothes" the other is labeled "Travel Stuff".  I actually use these boxes all year for things I don't want my kids to find, birthday gifts, Easter treats, etc.  Max is my youngest, so all of his things go in the Baby Clothes box, London - obviously gets the things in the Travel Box.  This system has worked well for years.  If something is too large for the boxes - like a bicycle or skis, I usually leave those at my office until Christmas Eve.

List Tips -

Try to leave a line or 2 between each entry in your gift list - this will provide extra space if needed.

Write in pencil.  I try to keep a mechanical pencil clipped to my list.  That's another benefit to using the thin Moleskine notebook.

If keeping track of your spending/budget is important to you, add a column to each page and/or a section to the back of your notebook for an easy reference. I assign a budget to my kids pages for both Gifts and Stockings.

I hope your holiday season is getting off to a smooth start.  I'd love to hear how you're applying these organizing ideas and others to your life.  Please feel free to share a comment and to share this post with your friends and family.
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Tif