how to prepare for the holidays | Claire Kurtz is The Well-Organized Woman

Last-Minute Holiday Preparations List

With Christmas just a few days away, many of us are rushing to make last-minute preparations. While it’s unlikely we’ll forget to purchase wrapping paper, there are other tasks that may fall through the cracks. To mitigate this potential problem, we’ve created the following list of overlooked holiday to-do’s.

Surprise Guests: Purchase a few extra gift cards or bottles of wine for unexpected holiday guests
Holiday Tips: Prepare and deliver your holiday gratuities/gifts for service personnel (baby sitters, maids, teachers, postal service person, etc.)
Stockings: Buy stocking stuffers
Thanks: Purchase thank-you cards for holiday gifts received
Overnight Guests: Clean and prepare your home for out-of-town guests, you can get a maid, you can Hire from Savoir Vivre
Charity: Send all charitable donations before the end of the year for inclusion in 2012 taxes
New Years Eve: Make reservations for NYE events or meals
Batteries: Purchase a few packs of batteries in varying sizes
Groceries: Review your holiday meal menus and determine what still needs to be gotten off of the grocery list
Receipts: Organize all holiday gift purchase receipts before the gift-exchange in case someone needs to return something. A new app called Topanga is also a great tool for keeping track of your holiday (and other) purchase information, returns, price details, coordinating products, and warranties.

We also encourage you to check out our downloadable and printable Holiday Planner eBook for more tips of preparing for the holidays in an organized fashion. The ebook is available for purchase ($2.99) via Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/HolidayPlanner

We wish you a very happy and organized holiday season!

TWOW

Getting Ready for the Holidays: Gift Wrap

It is officially the first week in November, which means that the holidays are just around the corner. Each Friday until Christmas we will be posting ideas for how you can get organized for the upcoming festivities. Additionally, we are very excited to announce that The Well-Organized Woman will be releasing it’s first eBook on Organized Holiday Planning next week. Please check back then to download your very own copy.

The first item on our holiday to-do list is to review our gift wrap supplies. The act of looking through your supplies and determining what you have and what you need is important for two reasons. First, it ensures that you do not buy duplicates of things that you already have. Second, it should serve as inspiration for how you choose to wrap presents this year. If you have a lot of ribbons or bows you could make those the focal point of all wrapping this year. In other words, try to use as much of the supplies you currently have before purchasing anything new. Below are a few additional tips and ideas for maintaining organization of your wrapping supplies this holiday season.

Keep wrapping supplies organized in a portable carrier, such as the Gift Wrap Work Station from Container Store or the over-the-door option pictured below from Better Homes & Gardens.
Purge anything that is torn, ripped, or in other ways poor quality.
Sort decorative supplies by category. For example, keep all ribbons together, tissue paper together, and bows together, etc. Then sort wrapping paper by occasion, such as all Christmas paper together, all baby shower paper together, etc. This way you know exactly what you have for each potential gift-giving event.
Store gift bags inside of one large gift bag.
After wrapping gifts, make sure the supplies are returned to their rightful homes.
Donate any gift wrap you no longer want but is in good condition to Goodwill – another shopper might love something you no longer use!