It’s about time to start putting away your holiday decorations and begin cleaning up your space to make room for the new year.  But before you pack up all of those decorative items that you so carefully arranged just a month ago, pause for a moment to take a quick photo to preserve the image for next year.  Be sure to take photos of each room or decorated area to jog your memory next holiday season.  Whether you print the photos or save them on your hard drive, be sure to label them appropriately and store them in a place that you’ll be able to find them a year from now.

Once you’ve done this, you can start breaking down your masterpiece and store the decorations.  As you are cleaning up, consider whether you should get rid of holiday decorations that you didn’t use this year.  Don’t take up valuable space in your home by storing unused items for another year.  As always, be sure to label each container of items you decide to keep.  You’ll be all set to decorate easily next time!

As you start packing for your holiday travel this season be sure to leave extra room in your suitcase to bring back any new items you may receive from the loved ones you are visiting.  You may want to pack an extra, smaller, empty bag within your suitcase just in case you hit the mother-load this season and need to expand beyond the limits of your suitcase.  Just keep in mind the 3-1-1 regulations of TSA at the airport to make sure you don’t hit a bump in the road as you go through another security checkpoint on your return trip.  Happy Travels!

Do you have people on your gift list for whom you haven’t yet found that perfect present?  Are you strapped for cash this season?  Were you just looking around your living room wondering when you’re going to have energy to clear the clutter? 

Well, I may have a solution: think about “RE-Gifting”.  Regifting is the practice of wrapping up an item you have received from someone in the past and giving it a second life by gifting it to a friend or family member.  It is common practice not to tell the gift recipient of the regifting, but to pretend it is a new gift just for them.

This concept came up last week when I was talking with a friend about the practice of regifting.  She was invited to attend a White Elephant Gift Exchange party and couldn’t decide if she wanted to regift an item she owns or purchase something new.  The best part of regifting to me is that you can take an item that you love but haven’t used yet (or haven’t used often enough) and provide it to someone that may really treasure the item. 

I am not an advocate, however, of regifting an item that you own and consider to be junk in order to get it out of your space, be funny, or pawn it off on someone else.  That practice is what I call “Clutter Passing”.  The only places clutter should be passed to are donation centers, recycling bins, or the trash.

One example of successful regifting occurred at a holiday party that I hosted a few years back.  My hubby and I invited several other recently married couples over for a fun-filled evening of holiday cheer, and we included a gift exchange in the festivities.  We encouraged each newlywed couple to wrap and bring one great item they received as a wedding gift but had no need for, could not return, and had not yet donated.  Every one of us had at least one such item we could share at the party. 

During the gift exchange it became apparent that the regifting concept was a hit.  My hubby and I discovered that the extra waffle maker we had received as a wedding present and had never used was very much appreciated by another couple who had been wanting one for a while.  It was great to regift this item to someone that really wanted it.  And, what did I receive from the process?  Well, one of our friends had wrapped up a bunch of organizing bins that she had received but had never found a good use for in her home.  I welcomed the bins with open arms (imagine that?!) and could immediately think of several places I would use them.

What do you have that someone else may be able to use and treasure?  Are you a regifter?  Perhaps you should consider regifting as part of your holiday routine this year.

Here are some links that you may want to check out for more information on regifting:

National Regifting Day

Regiftable.com

Still haven’t mailed your holiday cards yet?  No need to worry, I’ve recently come across several online services that can help you streamline your card-creating and card-sending process this year.  Check these out and see if one of them will come to the rescue for you this year:

Snapfish - This site is great if you have a fun family photo that you want to add to a holiday card.  You can turn your family photo easily into a postcard, holiday card, or even some other fun goodies that make great holiday gifts.

Shutterfly - Another wonderful site that is easy to use where you can upload your best family photo directly into a holiday card.  It really is that easy!

VistaPrint - This site is designed mainly for business printing needs, but they have some of the most cost-effective holiday cards I’ve found on the web yet.  Just choose the style of folded card, postcard, or photo card, then enter your own specialized message and you’ll have an amazing card all ready to go!

USPS Stamps Store - Do you need stamps?  But don’t ever have time to make it to the post office.  Well, did you know that you can now buy your stamps online?  This is one of my little secrets.  Yes, you have to pay a minimal fee for shipping but it sure does beat sitting in traffic and using up gas.

If you need more tips or want help creating or sending your holiday cards just let us know.  I’m always happy to help with any projects you may have or answer any questions too.

Organize all your gift wrapping supplies in one area of your home.  Make a dedicated wrapping center that includes bows, ribbon, tissue paper, wrapping paper, gift bags, scissors, tape, gift tags and cards.  If you buy plain colored or patterned paper that does not contain words, you can use this paper year round for a variety of occasions as well. 

Happy Wrapping!

It’s that time of year again… time for families across America to put on their Sunday best, stand together in front of the camera, and then mail their family photo to everyone and anyone for whom they have an address.  Yes, it is time to start sending and receiving holiday cards! 

Have you already started to receive them in the mail?  I was shocked when I received my first one of the season the day after Thanksgiving (go Denise!).  I had to quickly pull out my holiday card stand to ensure that the holiday card didn’t get lost!

What do you do with your holiday cards?  Do you have a place to display or store them all set and ready to go?  If not, then here are some tips that may be useful:

- Using a long piece of ribbon, hang cards vertically on the back of a door or horizontially across your mantle

- Switch out the typically framed family photos you have dotted throughout your home and fill the frames with the cards you receive instead… one by one your space will be transformed into having more holiday colors

- Line your doorways with your cards and create a fun arch to pass through as you go room to room

- Use a few photo clip stands to display your cards in one large group on a bookshelf or side table

- Transform an everyday bulletin board into a work of art by neatly pinning each card on the board as they arrive

For those of you that don’t want to display your holiday cards but simply enjoy reading them instead, make sure you recycle them once you’re done enjoying the notes and photos.  No need to keep them around for too long.  You know that you’ll be receiving more of them again next year.

Did you survive the holiday madness last week?  I definitely enjoyed some time relaxing while my fabulous hubby cooked the entire turkey day meal (yes, I know… I’m spoiled). 

It always amazes me each and every year the way that people flock to the shopping malls the day after to join the crowds to find the deals of the year.  If you were among the many that hit the stores last Friday, I hope you were prepared with your holiday shopping list.  Perhaps you even surprised your shopping buddies with how organized you were. 

Well, don’t let it stop there… here are some other lists that may make your holiday season a bit easier this year:

WISH LIST: Make a list of all those items that you would like to receive as gifts.  Then when someone asks what you’d like as a present you’ll have the list ready to hand out.  You might just be able to avoid being the recipient of the “hmm” and “ah, thanks” gifts this year.  You’ll be able to say “Yippee” and “Hooray” instead!

CARD LIST: Start compiling a list of everyone you’d like to mail a holiday card to this year.  Add to this list as you receive cards too.  Just make a note of the return address on cards you receive and that will be a foolproof way to ensure those that thought of you first aren’t forgotten in the rush.

THANK YOU LIST: As you open and receive gifts (hopefully ones from your Wish List) start jotting down a list of who the gift is from.  Then when you have time in early January writing quick thank you notes will be a breeze.

HOLIDAY REFERENCE LIST: Keep a master list of each gift you give and receive this year to use as your master reference when the next holiday season is upon us.  Having this master reference list will help you avoid duplicating gifts two years in a row.  You’ll be so prepared and organized next year that your friends won’t know what happened!

Get ahead of the crowds! Create a holiday shopping list early this year.  Start purchasing items now for each person on your list as you are out and about during the last few weeks in November.  Then you should be able to easily avoid the crowds at the stores in December when the lines begin to get longer. 

You may just be able to relax this holiday season after all.  Won’t your friends be envious?!

One of my favorite time management tips (yes, I have alot of favorites) is to schedule time with yourself for something fun and relaxing.  I truly believe that unless you make an appointment with yourself on your calendar for “relaxation time” that you will continue to run, run, run from event to event making time for everyone else but yourself.  Make an appointment with yourself just as you would if you had a hair cut appointment at the salon or a cleaning at the dentist. 

Whether you need to schedule just one hour a week, one whole hour a day, or even an entire weekend to relax and decompress make sure you put it on your calendar and stick to it!  Whatever it is that you need in order to relax honor it just as if it was an appointment with someone else.  You deserve to relax and take care of yourself too!  Once you start scheduling your “relaxation time” you’ll come to crave it and the rest of your day or week won’t seem quite so overwhelming.

Is your email program overloaded?  Is your inbox full?  Do you currently use Outlook as your email program of choice?  If so, I want to tell you about a great new product I’ve been testing over the past few months to streamline my email process.  It is called “Xobni” (or ‘Inbox’ spelled backwards) and is a free downloadable program online that installs directly into Outlook to help you manage your email.  Xobni adds another window area to your existing Outlook email view (see the image above) and enables you to view your email as on-going conversations (just as you would if you used Google’s online email system, Gmail, to read your messages).

According to the Xobni website, “Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments.”  After using Xobni myself for the past few months, I can agree.  It makes finding past emails with particular contacts a breeze.  I have been able to save a few steps each time I want to respond to an email while also knowing what was previously discussed with the same person.  I especially have enjoyed the attachment feature.  Since I send out alot of attachments in my emails, Xobni helps keep track of all these files in just one area.  Now I don’t have to go back through my older messages searching for a specific attachment that was either sent or received.

The only down-side (and my biggest complaint) about using Xobni is the color of the interface.  Currently the Xobni interface is bright orange and purple.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Xobni creators will soon adjust the interface to a more pleasing (and subtle) color palette.

But don’t take it from me, if you want to test Xobni for yourself, click here.