The Christmas season is a wonderful time, filled with gatherings of friends and families, good food, and generosity.  But often our mile long to-do lists, gift wrapping, and party planning leaves us feeling stressed, overwhelmed and ready to throw all our candy canes  and unwrapped gifts out the window while driving 70 mph down the highway.

That’s why it’s so important to focus on staying organized during the holidays.  Organization will save your sanity when you have a million things going on.  

And I’m not just talking about “making sure your house is organized”, I’m talking keep your life organized, food on the table, and stress levels in check.  Let’s get into it!

Here are my best tips for staying organized during December.

Write it all down 

Lists are your friends.  Get those ideas and thoughts out of your head and put them on paper to help reduce the stress of carrying them around in your brain.  Make different lists for everything you can think of: things you want to bake, gifts you need to buy, events to go to, and people you want to see.  Using different list for different categories helps prevent creating a giant brain dup list that is hard to follow.  

Once you have your lists, you can schedule the to-do items in your calendar.  Assign specific tasks to each day, mark important dates and deadlines, and schedule in activities like baking, wrapping and addressing holiday cards.  Share these lists with your family so everyone is on the same page.

Meal plan

During the busy weeks of the holidays, meal planning for both normal weekly meals and holiday meals becomes essential. It doesn’t have to be complicated or take a long, you just need a quick outline of meals for the week.  Here’s how I do it:

Weekday meals

List out the days of the week and choose a meal for each night.  How do you decide what to eat?  Ask your family what they want to eat, look at the grocery ads to see what is on sale, look in the fridge/freezer/pantry to see what you need to use up.  Then make a grocery list with everything you need to complete these meals.  Don’t forget to think about breakfast and lunch and add any items you may need for these meals. 

To keep weekday meals easy and fast, utilize countertop appliances like the slow cooker, instant pot, or air fryer.  Choose meals that you know how to cook and your family likes.  Make large batches of soups and casseroles so you always have lunch leftovers or enough to make one night a leftover night.  

Holiday meals

List out the holidays you will need to cook for and brainstorm what you want to make.  Don’t forget to list out extras besides the main meal – condiments, drinks, desserts, paper products, etc.  Check your house to see what you already have and add anything else you need to your grocery list.  You can even start purchasing some of the non perishable items ahead of time to spread the expense of holiday meals over the entire season.

Don’t forget to plan for beverages, appetizers, desserts and even snacks for the kids!

To relieve the pressure of holiday meals, choose easy items that you know how to cook.  Minimize the number of new recipes you try, as that can lead to stressful situations of wondering “what if this doesn’t turn out?”

Outsource what you can

Don’t try to do everything yourself.  Get help wherever you can!  Order presents online, use grocery delivery or pickup services, buy pre-made desserts from the bakery.  Anything you can take off your list will help.  

Ask your family for help.  Do you need help wrapping presents or writing cards? Ask! Set up a card stamping party and get your kids to help close envelopes and add stamps or stickers.  Remember, you don’t have to be a martyr during the holiday season!

Click here to see how I organize wrapping paper

Keep track of presents 

With online shopping and boxes that show up at your door it can be hard to remember what all you purchased (and where you tucked it away for storage)! Keep track of everything purchased by using the notes app on your phone or a present tracker worksheet.  

I like to track presents that I’ve purchased in my notes app since no one in my family generally looks in there.  I make a list of items purchased and check it off once it’s wrapped.  And if you need to hide things from your family, make sure you note the location of each present as to not forget something you stored in a very clever (at the time) location.

Click here to see how I hide presents in a small home

Use a calendar 

This time of year, your calendar is your best friend.  With so many commitments, dates to remember and holiday events, having a habit of checking your calendar and adding to it a few times a day can be a helpful.

Write down all important events with notes of what to bring.  Add deadlines to keep your holiday prep on track.  Even add notes about cleaning tasks or to do list items that need to be completed.

I use a physical planner since I always need to write things down. But using a digital calendar is also an excellent way to keep your family on the same page.  

Figure out the must-dos and get rid of the rest

Decide what is important to you.  No really!  What do YOU want to do this holiday season?  These are the things that you will prioritize and make sure that you fit in.  Think about holiday traditions and ways to created magic.  These are the things you want to make sure to prioritize.  

And then once you prioritize the things that matter, it’s time to let go of the rest.  Let go of the perfectionism.  Let go of the comparison.  Just let it go.  

Start early

Even if it isn’t early (HI it’s December 15th already).  You can always benefit from starting where you are.  Don’t have any presents wrapped?  Take 30 minutes every night this week to wrap what you can.  By working at this a little bit every day you will find that you wrapping will be done in no time. 

If you haven’t started shopping for holiday food, make a list of things you will need and pick up the non perishable items early.  Getting a large chunk of your shopping done now will help during those last few stressful days before Christmas. 

Don’t forget about decluttering

During a time when there is so much coming into your house, don’t forget to get things out of the house.  Taking a quick pass over your holiday decorations, kids toys and clothing and other household items that seem to be cluttering your drawers and countertops.  A quick trip to drop things at a donation site will help relieve the pressure of too much stuff in your house and will make it easier to clean in preparation for guests that may be arriving.

Spread the cleaning over multiple days

Trust me, you don’t want to be panic cleaning your house the day before Christmas Eve.  Breaking the cleaning up into easy to manage tasks and spreading them over a week will help you get more done in less time.  Here’s some tasks to consider adding to your calendar

• Pick up and put away items that don’t belong in a room
• Clean bathrooms
• Clean kitchen
• Prepare guest spaces
• Clean out your fridge and freezer 
• Organize your pantry
• Clean out your car
• Sweep off your porch or entryway
• Vacuum and mop

If you need help putting together a plan, you can download my free 7 Days to Christmas Home Prep Schedule right here!

This schedule spreads the Christmas cleaning tasks over 7 days so you can get things done without burning out before the big day.  

Happy organizing my friends!