Time to Wrap up

My presents are all wrapped and stacked in “giving piles” or already given.

Now it is time to put away the gift wrap and bows until next year. This year, try packing your holiday wraps and trims in a special storage box so that next year you are ready to go. Here are a few containers that work well for our clients:

The Jokari hanging gift-wrap organizer hangs in the closet and has storage on both sides.
The Spacesaver hanging storage organizer folds to standing position for easy access.
The Rubbermaid 48” low profile gift-wrapping organizer can fit under a bed for storage.
The Sterlite storage tube is an inexpensive choice for a limited amount of paper and trim.

You can find these items at the following sites:
www.target.com
www.walmart.com
www.thecontainerstore.com
www.amazon.com

That’s a wrap! Have a great holiday!

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Tips for Managing Holiday Gatherings

Getting together with friends and family is one of the joys of the season. It can also be a trial when personalities clash or the event arrives before you are ready. Whether you are hosting the gathering or attending it, here are a few tips to lessen the stress.

Deciding what to wear is one of the great stressors for gals who often plan the wardrobe for the whole family. Make that decision long before the day of the event and hang the entire cleaned and pressed outfit, including underwear and accessories, on one hanger. When it is time to dress, there is no second-guessing, the right underwear is not in the dirty clothes hamper, and you do not have to scramble to find the missing snowflake earring.

When giving a party, be ready a half an hour early. I have never hosted a party when someone did not arrive before the stated start time. If it is a dinner party, have a few help-yourself appetizers set out for the early arrivals to nosh on while you put the finishing touches on the meal and table setting.

Be prepared for an unexpected guest by having a place setting in reserve and a plan in your head for where you will seat the extra guest. Under the best circumstances, no unexpected visitor will show up, but if one does you are prepared and cool as a cucumber as you squeeze him in next to Grandpa.

A hostess gift is a nice gesture, but do not expect the hostess to set out your home baked goods or wine. It is her choice whether to share your gift or save it to enjoy later. I saw a party brought to a standstill last year because a guest insisted that everyone taste his homemade snickerdoodles and peppermint Schnapps, even though the party had a carefully planned Felice Navidad theme. As a guest, follow the host’s lead and let it go his way. As a host, just say “ Thank you for the lovely gift. I am going to certainly enjoy this later.”

Steer clear of confrontation by having a few stock phrases for irritating and disagreeable encounters. Some of them are: “ I can’t say I agree, but what an interesting idea.” or “ Let’s talk about this another time” or “Look, there is Leo. I have been looking for him. Excuse me.” Then go somewhere else quickly.

Planning and preparation are the first to steps to organizing and they are good ways to take stress out of holiday gatherings.

Have a terrific holiday and may all your gatherings be happy ones.

Beverly and Kristen
www.KeyTransition.net

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Many of us shook off the turkey-induced lethargy and began decorating for the holidays. That was when we ran into those ghosts of Christmas past: the tangled lights, the broken nativity figure, the hastily packed boxes of decorations and the boxes of decorations that have not seen the light of day in years.

Those decorations that have not been used in a long time fall into several categories. Only a few of them are in the “oh, my gosh, I forgot I had this beautiful object!” category. Most of them fall into the “what was I thinking when I bought this?” or the “this gift is sooo not my taste!” categories. Give yourself a head start on organizing your decorating for next year by donating those unwanted things to a charity and you won’t have to keep rejecting and re-packing them.

The other possibility for unused decorations is that you have downsized your space, your decorating activity, the size of your tree, or all three. Why not share treasured items you no longer use with others who will enjoy them? There is a television commercial running now where a young mother shares with her family a box of decorations from her youth. How thoughtful her parent was to give her such a gift. Just box up those memories and put them under the tree for those you love. It is the very best kind of re-gifting.

As for the things you do use as decorations, consider putting them away in boxes grouped by the room in which they are displayed. Next year, you can just plunk the boxes down in the room and decorate at your leisure. While you are putting things away this year, also take time to make small repairs and discard broken items. That will make for merry decorating next holiday season.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organize Mounds of Magazines and Collections of Catalogues

Magazines and catalogues are good things. They give me hours of pleasure. We actually use them in our work to show clients products that will help with organization. The challenge is to keep them from taking over the house.

Here are a few tip to help you keep magazines, catalogues and, (for you crafters) pattern books organized.

• Keep them close to where you use them. If you peruse catalogues while you watch television, keep them close to your viewing perch. If you use them in your work, store them on a shelf near your workstation. If you like to read them in the bathroom, spring for a bathroom magazine rack. This will minimize the opportunity to mislay them somewhere in route from where they are kept to where they are used.

• Keep them contained. You can choose a lot of different magazine racks, boxes and other containers. Some of our favorites are the ultra-clear magazine boxes at www.containerstore.com and the desk magazine files at www.ikea-usa.com. Ikea also has baskets that hook on underneath a shelf that are great for pattern books when you are working on a project. To get an idea of the variety of magazine holders available, log on to www.magazineracks.com. They have great ideas for wall-hanging, free standing and traditional varieties. One of the ways we organize the catalogues we use in our work is to gather them in large three-ring binders using 3 ring catalogue/magazine organizers. These handy tools snap into the binder and allow you to slide the magazines over them for easy access. Also consider using other containers like flat baskets, copper ham boilers or pretty wooden boxes you may have around the house.

• Keep them accessible. If you store your pretty box on a closet shelf, the catalogues and magazines will get old and probably unread. Keep them out, but keep them neat.

• Keep them current. When you get a new catalogue, throw out the old one. Magazines are a little harder to get rid of when they have a great article, suggestion or recipe you want to hold on to. Clip out the article and save it in a file or notebook and discard the magazine. If it is hard for you to get rid of perfectly good reading material, donate current magazines to nursing homes, clinics or prisons.
  
  Happy reading in an uncluttered house and office.
  
  Beverly & Kristen
  www.KeyTransitions.net