With such a talented Happy Gal team, I thought you might enjoy hearing what they do to keep their holiday season organized. You will love the variety of tips shared in this episode – and you’ll also see why each person is such a perfect fit here at the Happy Gal. Check out our about page HERE to learn more about our Happy Gal team.

 

 

Lisa Amundsen

Happy Gal Speaker and Coach

Holiday Tip: Personal post-holiday appointment – After the holidays, schedule an appointment with to ask yourself what went well, what didn’t, and what do I want to be different? Add this feedback to holiday task lists to review next year.

How this works for Lisa: In October I set a reminder to check my holiday task list, such as scheduling concert tickets that go on sale in October or setting a date to cut our Christmas tree in November. Other things I’ve added to the task list is setting a date to have my kids make their Christmas list, dates I want to start shopping, and dates I want to be finished shopping. I’ve decided that November is my month to get ready for Christmas, so I can spend December focused on celebrating. I set reminders to help me remember when to do tasks like scheduling holiday activities and wrapping and delivering gifts. 

Takeaways: 

• Set your personal post-holiday appointment to assess your holidays.
• Our problems are not really problems – just our next opportunities if we take time to learn from them.
• “The obstacle is the way.”

Kimball Romney

Social Media Manager

 

Holiday Tip: Plan annual traditions using Evite – and the right mindset.

How this works for Kimball: Each year we invite everyone we know to an annual caroling party. We set the date early in November while our guests’ calendars are still open. Throughout the year I add new contacts into Evite, so when I’m ready to send invitations the guest is list is ready to go. Evite makes it so easy! It gives me invitation templates and tracks the RSVPS.  I have also learned that when this tradition starts to feel stressful instead of fulfilling, I need to simplify, such as scaling the food back to a simple hot chocolate bar. “Done is Better Than Perfect” and “It doesn’t have to look a certain way” have kept this tradition alive and meaningful for our family. 

Takeaways:

• Use Evite for invitation and guest list management
• Done is Better Than Perfect
• It doesn’t have to look a certain way

Renee Charbonneau

Tech Specialist

 

Holiday Tip: Organize your holiday menus using Trello

How this works for Renee: Food is a big part of our holiday celebrating. I collect fun recipes all year long and spend the last few days before Christmas preparing everything, so we have a beautiful spread on the counter on Christmas Eve. Not only do we enjoy great food that night, but we snack on leftovers on Christmas Day which means I don’t have to do any cooking! Between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years I am cooking from a lot of menus, so I use a free app called Trello to organize them all. Trello allows you to keep track of multiple lists, and within the lists you can add recipe links and grocery lists. This means that as I collect recipes throughout the year, or want to review what I’ve cooked in the past, I have it all at my fingertips in Trello. 

Takeaways:
Check out Trello. It is free, and can help you organize more than just your menus. Search up trainings in YouTube or start playing around with it on your own. This app syncs from your computer to your mobile device, and is a game-changer when it comes to organizing information.

 

 

Rebecca Holbrook

Jenny’s Virtual Assistant

 

Holiday Tip: Organize your Christmas gifts with designated boxes for each child.

How this works for Rebecca: With all the gifts I am purchasing for my kids, sometimes I stash them away and forget where I’ve hidden them, only to find them months later! Or things have been in such random hiding spots throughout my home that I don’t have a clear idea how much each child really has until I collect it all in the days before Christmas. This usually leads to some frenzied and stressful last minute shopping to even out the presents. I’ve solved this problem by putting a box for each child at the top of my closet to collect their gifts in as they come into my home. After shopping or when packages are delivered I sort through them right then. I know what I have, where it is, and what needs to be returned. 

A few additional tips: 

1. To keep the kids from looking through the boxes, I keep them out of reach at the top of my closet. And because I keep the boxes there all year, they are not a novelty during the holidays. I also tell my kids that my closet is off limits!  
2. I use boxes, not clear bins, so they aren’t see through. I also don’t label them. The boxes can be reused amazon boxes or bankers boxes.
3. Because the boxes are there year round, I use them to help organize other gifts, such as easter baskets or birthday items. 
4. If gifts are too big for boxes, I store those in a different location and just leave a note in the box to remind me where I am storing the gift.
5. The boxes can serve another purpose on Christmas morning! The kids use these same boxes to collect their gifts as they open them up, which helps them take all their new things to their rooms after opening presents – and makes cleaning up the living room so much easier. 

Takeaways: Check out these banker’s boxes as a great option to store Christmas gifts. At the Happy Gal we love banker’s boxes and have many uses for them!