Home Organization Tools for the Holidays

The holiday season is a time of good feelings, happy memories, good food and drink, and love. It can also be a time of stress, unending lists of things to do, crowded stores, long lines and sometimes short tempers. A few home organization tools can help you cut your stress and enjoy the holiday season more.

One of the most important holiday home organization tools in my arsenal is being realistic in my goals and plans. In general, this is a difficult one for me and around the holidays, it gets to be even more of a problem. I think we often stress ourselves out around the holidays because we are not realistic in what we can actually accomplish. Part of being organized around the holidays means looking at how much time you actually have and then deciding what is most important to you.

One of my other favorite home organization tools goes hand-in-hand with this one and that is making a prioritized list. Around the holidays, I always make a list of everything that I need to get done. Then I go through and prioritize that list. At the bottom of the list are the things that I would like to do but that are not critical for me during the holidays. At the top of the list are the things that have to get done. Only the really important stuff goes at the top of this list, things like buying gifts for friends and family. I then go through the list and assign things by week. I have family that lives out of town so I need to make sure that my gifts for them get out in time. If you have any mail that needs to be sent during this time of year, be sure to keep track of mailing deadlines.

And the last of the home organization tools that are important during this time of year is patience. Patience with yourself and with everyone else. Chances are good that you will not get everything done that you want to get done and you may not get things done in time. That is okay. Try to focus on what you have accomplish instead of what you have not. Enjoy the sights and sounds of the season. And try to be patient with everyone else as well. Chances are that you will have to endure long lines, crowded stores, impatient people and short tempers. Try to be patient with all of this so that you can truly enjoy your holiday season.