‘Tis the season to get organized for holiday shopping and whether you’re starting now or waiting until December, having a good plan of attack can really make gift shopping easier.
Having a plan for my gift giving helps me simplify what I can as the hectic holiday season approaches. Here are six things I do—and that you can try too—to get prepared to tackle all of that shopping:
If you find yourself overwhelmed by everything on your plate, turn to the tried and true “To-Do” list to get on track.
I’m drowning in details. I have a lot on the go, as most of us can relate to. Summer is shifting into the busy-ness of Fall. The Kid has started Grade One and we’re gearing up for a full extra-curricular schedule. And work continues to be busy. Ridiculously busy.
As a natural born planner, I have a list of things I always do to get ready for day-tripping. But I also love discovering new ways to get organized by finding online tools and smartphone apps. I'm going to tell you more about them as I share 7 things to do when planning a day trip.
The Kid, Mr. Organized and I love driving. My 5-year-old is crazy about vehicles, so hitting the open road is the best way for us to travel. Enjoying the ride, spotting any cool sports cars, and checking out work going on at road construction sites are all part of the experience.
If you’ve been wondering why my posts have been few and far between over recent months, just take a look around you.
Managing the re-branding, re-design, and re-building of the YMC site has been a labour of love for me that began almost a year ago, kicked into overdrive mid-summer and took over my life for several weeks before our launch. A project this big exercised all of my organizational muscles and tapped out my planning prowess.
There are dishcloths, tea towels, napkins and the facecloths we use to wipe down the sticky Kid after every meal that pile up every day. And then there are the dirty clothes that Kid is always stripping off as he walks in the door – sometimes at our request when he has been playing in the dirt and sometimes of his own volition (man that kid enjoys hanging out in his underwear!) – that always wind up in the kitchen. This adds up to little piles of not only dirty, but often damp, laundry in my kitchen.
I was in a lunch meeting with Erica and another colleague yesterday, when somehow in the conversation I mentioned something about my husband creating a spreadsheet to manage some aspect of our household. Knowing my flair for detail and having received many of my spreadsheets, our lunch guest looked surprised that I was married to someone as organized as me.
We have a small house. A semi with an unfinished basement.
That means that we spend a lot of our family time on our main floor, mostly in our little living room. Playing games. Building Lego. Racing Hot Wheels. Watching movies. Relaxing.
But the room is only big enough for a few pieces of furniture and can get cluttered with toys and stuff really quickly. So we’ve maximized storage everywhere we can in this room, tucking it in any available space. Here’s where we put it all:
