HGP Week 12: November 17-23, 2013

[HouseElf]

By Cynthia Ewer, Author of Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Organized

Cooler weather makes it easy to check and organize the attic and storage areas during Week Twelve, Attic Week.

No attic? Use this week to work on undone tasks, or to tackle a bonus area in the home.

We continue to move toward Thanksgiving in holiday prep, preparing to set a pretty holiday table. Are you working on holiday gifts?

Ready? Let's get organized with Attic Week in the Holiday Grand Plan!

Deep Cleaning/Organizing Area:

Attic / Storage
Attic / Storage checklist

Holiday Prep:

• Make one batch of Holiday Goodies.
• Make one extra meal for freezer again labeled HOLIDAY MEAL.
• Buy two canned food items from menus (get 2 of each item, one to use and one to donate to food drive).
• Buy 1/8th of TO BUY gifts. Save all receipts, note return policy before buying. Ask for gift boxes.
• Wrap and label packages. If needing to ship, get some shipping boxes now and store packages in them.
• Work at least 1 hour a day on homemade gifts.
• Make place cards.
• Make 3x5 card for each serving dish, list what goes in it, garnish, how much before dinner can it go in and serving silverware used with it; tape it to edge of dish.
• Be sure all dishes are clean!
• Borrow or buy any additional serving dishes needed.
• Buy reusable foil bakeware from party paper place.
• Are linens clean and ready? Unfold and verify that all spots can be hidden by centerpiece.
• Work on centerpiece.

 

[HouseElf]

This week I continue work on Attic and storage areas - with three sons and a husband, I have a wee bit of help with the heavy lifting

My husband does not throw anything out, but gets happy when I start to go through stuff and toss. So it works in some ways. I am not a keeper of 'stuff' - and have been known to deal with a junk drawer or DH highschool papers by opening a bag and emptying the whole thing in. Mind over matter. Only complaint over the years, is that a did toss out this horrible poly shirt of his that could be seen from space! He obviously had an attachment - more than I thought

I do have serving dishes for each of my recipe staples, and will be working on a recipe binder/scrapbook. For the men in my home the holidays are very focussed on food and family - so thinking a recipe book with our holiday meal plans will not only be useful for me, but something they would like to look at too!

Added flatware to my list, seem to be a lot of missing spoons in my house!

For holiday meal, I made "two meals" of homemade pork sausage patties. Precooked now and put in freezer for quick breakfast sandwiches.

Cards are almost done, and I have signed up for a workshop to make a winter urn. I usually just do it myself, but thought attending a class would be a fun way to spend a few hours on a Saturday. Maybe learn a new trick or two.

Our local store had their 'Mountain of Food' campaign today, so emptied my box of food bank donations. Starting again.

Week 12 ladies! We are doing great

 

[luludou]

Great work HouseElf!

Nope not going in that attic until dh puts up some tablets so I can organize things. Will focus on the Christmas part this week.

Right now going through my gift closet, figure out how many boxes are missing and what gifts are missing.
Holiday food: cooked & froze 76 meatballs, 1 big package of breakfast sausages. Made a recipe of date squares too.
Waiting on some addresses then will start labeling Christmas cards. They are ready though (I added something special to each & everyone of them).
Finished dniece's felt doll in a tin can too.
Will continue putting stuff in the freezer too.. hoping to decorate maybe next weekend?

 

[Winged One]

I am not doing fantastic, but I am making some progress.

Yesterday, I had a couple of hours spare, so I tackled the paperwork pile beside the armchair in the living room. All those recipes from magazines, great knitting, sewing and crochet patterns and instructions I had printed from the net before those pages were taken down, things about healthy living from other magazines....that sort of "useful" paperwork. Firstly, I took on the "travel" shelf in the bookcase, which had become a repository for lots of things unrelated to travel. I threw out all the pregnancy and early baby advice leaflets, am donating a "natural pregnancy" book to the book swop case in the office, and finally found a map of a local area I had been looking for to put in my car. That shelf is now sorted again, and the space in front of the books only has the single cross-stitch project I had been working on last Christmas (a holly leaves design)that I might actually get finished for this Christmas.

I sorted the papers, threw out a stack over 6" tall, and filed away the sewing and crochet, and some knitting. But I need to organize more folders for this task, and a shelf in the study to keep the ones that I may use at some stage. But at least that corner is now neat, tidy, dust free and spider free!!

This week will be too busy, as I have 2 nights out (a formal work dinner - not fun, and the pensioners' mass at work - which will have some nice chats to retired colleagues afterwards) and DH has one too (a team night out - so will probably be fun). And then we drive to Cork for the weekend, as the last of my Dad's retirement events is happening (the senior exec's from the US are coming over for a dinner - so it will be formal, but I expect that I will enjoy both the food and hearing some of the high level discussions on policy matters).

BUT, I have 2 nights at home to wrap the presents for my DSis and her family (as she is flying for the dinner, and bringing a suitcase to drop off her presents and will bring home whatever the rest of us have ready - saving postage!). So I will try to get ahead on the other things I have already bought. And I want to get started on the overseas cards (I have about 15 of those to do), so that they will be ready for postage deadlines (some are before the end of November!).

I put 5 steaks away in the freezer yesterday, and I will put a chilli there tomorrow.

And the diary is getting sorted, presents list is almost there (a few still to buy but have the ideas for almost everyone and over half the purchasing done). So progress is being made. And I warned DH yesterday that we may decorate the weekend that he is away - to keep DD occupied and as the weekend he gets home is our last here before Christmas and is almost fully booked up already!! (from 11am to after 6 on Saturday, and 11.15am to at least 5pm on Sunday!).


HouseElf and Luludou, you are both doing so well that it encourages me each time I make it here!!

 

[HouseElf]

Wow that is a busy week Winged One! Progress is great, no matter how small at least that is what I tell myself - when the day ends and there is still items on my to-do list. 'I made progress and there is always tomorrow!'

Lucie, must be great to have the oven again - back to baking

I put a lovely roast in the freezer for Winter Solstice. Found an Almond Pear Cake recipe on Pinterest for dessert! Our turkey for Christmas Day and the Ham for Boxing Day brunch is in the freezer too!

Made progress on DH scrapbook, started the holiday recipe scrapbook, and will take the boys out next weekend with Bella for a Christmas Photo to send family out west.

 

[luludou]

Decorating has started! Kitchen & kitchenette are done. can't seem to find my Christmas tablecloth? maybe in a box that hasn't been emptied... or else it was ripped & I threw it away? If I don't find it when I finish I'll HAVE to go buy another one

Still have stuff to do for the freezer but it might not get done before next weekend. Hate having appointments on my Mondays!! next year, appointments will have to be during summer or fall at the latest (those that can be scheduled earlier).

Wings & HE you gals are doing great.

 

[Winged One]

Work was way more hectic than I anticipated last week - the dinner was a late night (after 1am), I couldn't stay long after the mass as DH had an extra dinner thrown in (another 1am night), and I worked late Thursday to keep on top of it all so I didn't get packing until 10pm! But I managed to get organized for our trip, and the presents for DD and DNiece, DNephew got wrapped and handed over (even if I was wrapping at the last minute on MIL's kitchen table! At least I had remembered the gifts and wrappings).

And when we got home last night, while DD unwound and DH was busy with the ironing and laundry, I cleaned off the kitchen counters and washed the tiled splashback. Small jobs but needed doing.

This week, we are both concentrating on looking after ourselves - early nights to catch up on sleep, I have my salads with me for today and tomorrow, and DH has extra fruit with him, and I have plans for healthy enough meals. We can't keep burning the candle at both ends or we'll be burnt out by Christmas!!