2019 Holiday Grand Plan Begins...

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sweetpumkinpye

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Ohhh how exciting. I need to get myself organised so that I am ready to go.
September is not that far away.
 

luludou

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working on continuing all cleanup after vacations. I want to continue decluttering so it's easier to clean afterwards. I have declutterd alot in the past few years but now I'm on to 'virtual clutter'... things that have been there for years and I don't even see anymore
 
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Miss JoDee

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working on continuing all cleanup after vacations. I want to continue decluttering so it's easier to clean afterwards. I have declutterd alot in the past few years but now I'm on to 'virtual clutter'... things that have been there for years and I don't even see anymore
I was just reading an article about clutter we don't see. Of course it was on pinterest and I can't find the link for it.
Will look for it and share it if I can find it.

PS I found it https://handlinghomelife.com/decluttering-tips/#comments
 
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AuntJamelle

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It's just sad how excited I get about this plan starting soon - yay - cleaning!!!! LOL

I'll be starting HGP a bit early this year - to compensate for the weeks we'll be gone at Disney and for Halloween camping trip...

Off to peruse my lists! And your article Jody - tfs!!!!
 
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AuntJamelle

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I've reviewed my list of HGP weeks/tasks - I am going to start week of Aug 18th...the long lists look intimidating but I'm just going to doing what I can as I can!!!

I've got a head start of holiday prep tasks of course.

Looked through calendar and plugged in dates for freezer cooking AFTER we get back from Disney. Working on finalizing menus, so I can finish Master Groc List and then decide which dates I am making what freezer meals so I know what order to buy things in.
 
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Minta

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I started cleaning my kitchen cabinets and back splash. I was looking in my cabinets last night, making metal notes of areas I want to tackle to re-arrange to get things to fit better. May relocate some items to other cabinets in the dinning room to free up space in the kitchen. Hoping to have that done this upcoming weekend.
 

Minta

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Went and bought a 10 pack of clear show boxes yesterday after work. They are the perfect size to hold snacks and once they are filled they take up so much less space then snacks original boxes. Got one filled with assorted granola type bars and got another one filled cookies, fruit snack and cracker jacks. Even got all my assorted cupcake and mini cupcake papers, holiday themed snack bags and food gift bags all corralled neatly in another show box and they stack so nicely on top of one another.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Went and bought a 10 pack of clear show boxes yesterday after work. They are the perfect size to hold snacks and once they are filled they take up so much less space then snacks original boxes. Got one filled with assorted granola type bars and got another one filled cookies, fruit snack and cracker jacks. Even got all my assorted cupcake and mini cupcake papers, holiday themed snack bags and food gift bags all corralled neatly in another show box and they stack so nicely on top of one another.
That is a great idea.

I too am making notes of what needs to be tackled over and above the normal cleaning. For example, instead of just tidying the linen cupboard I want to look at ways to organise it to save space. Same with my pantry, so these are the type of ideas that I am after.
 

Minta

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That is a great idea.

I too am making notes of what needs to be tackled over and above the normal cleaning. For example, instead of just tidying the linen cupboard I want to look at ways to organise it to save space. Same with my pantry, so these are the type of ideas that I am after.

Glad my idea helps. I am thinking about buying another 10 pack of them to use under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and in my bathroom drawers, especially for my stuff. The bins I have in those draws now are short and these shoe boxes are deeper. My daughter has some in her bedroom, one for her nail polish and a couple others for her craft stuff which she now neatly stacks on the shelf in her closet.
 

PamelaG

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There's been some discussion here and on the declutter thread about sheets and towels so I thought I would share what I learned from the organization book I've been reading and see what your take is on the subject.

Sheets - Keep a maximum of three sets of sheets per bed (the thinking is one set on the bed, one in the laundry, and one in the linen closet).

Towels - Keep a maximum of three sets of towels (a bath towel, a hand towel, and a face towel) per person including guests. From the picture in the book, it looks like a different color for each person is the way to go.

I have three sets for our bed (king) - two cooler sets and one flannel. I found a set of sheets with no matching pillowcases and a set of pillowcases with no sheets so they were decluttered. For the new queen bed, I have a cool set and a flannel set.

According to the book's rule of thumb, for the three of us with a guest room that can accommodate two people, we should have 15 sets of towels, that seems quite a lot! We have a lot of mismatched towels so that's definitely an area I need to spruce up during the Holiday Grand Plan. I have a tote of older towels in the garage - we used to call them MudLynn towels so now they are Spectra towels for drying the wet dog and wiping muddy paws.

What did you find in your linen closet?
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Towels I have 3 sets for DH and I and 2 sets for DS.
Sheets I have 2 cool sets and 2 flannel sets for us. DS does not like flannels, he gets too hot so he just has cool sheets.
The bed in the spare room is made up with cool sheets (an electric blanket) and it has several throws if guests get cold.
I have four quilt (duvet) covers. 1 for Summer/Spring, Autumn, Winter and my new Christmas cover. I have pillow cases for all of these.
DS has 2 different quilt covers and matching pillow cases.
I have several throws.

15 sets of towels seems like way too many for my family and I certainly would not have enough room to store it all.
 

Minta

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We have 5 sets of sheets per bed, 3 regular and 2 flannel. I have extra mismatch sets for the air mattresses and for the kids to use at camps. The kids have a quilt and 3 comforters of different thickness and material for the different season and we have 3 quilts and 2 comforters for our bed. I keeps a couple spare comforters for the air mattresses for when we have guests We have a ton of towels but they are stored half in our closet and half in the kids bathroom. Older towels that are showing their age get moved down to our dog to dry her and her paws and I also like to keeps some older towels in the vehicles incase of spills or being caught in the rain.
 

AuntJamelle

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We replaced all our towels and sheets after the fire and thus have 3 sets of 4 bath towels, 6 hand towels and 6 washcloths in 3 diff colors. Each color has been assigned to a bathroom and only 1 or 2 bath towels are out at one time - 1 or 2 hand towels are out - everything else is stored in drawer or cabinet in that bathroom.

Makes it easy to quickly swap dirty for fresh - then I wash the dirty right away - put them away and it all starts all over again!

Sheets are stored somewhere in each room that they go to - up on a closet shelf or in a drawer.

Winter sets that are flannel - or just colors that go with winter comforters get stored in less accessible drawer/area over the summer.

Our big winter comforter goes upstairs to storage area in the bag it came back from the dry cleaners in :)
Summer bedding I can wash and I save extra dry cleaner bedding bags to use for it - once again storing upstairs. I also always save the original packaging new bedspreads come in - the plastic kind with a zipper - they work great for storing things off season or for just storing extra blankets and bedding.

I use them to pack blankets and sheets for the camper too :)

Beach towels and extra "old" towels go in drawers under our bed with spill over in the bathroom closet downstairs.
 

Holiday_Mom

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We are a family of seven. Our linen closet also serves as our medicine and toiletry closet. One shelf and the closet floor is devoted to the linens for the current season. The other two shelves are for storing our second set of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, and medical supplies.

We have 18 sheet sets. That's two sets for the spring, summer, and fall. We use one set of flannel sheets for the winter. We have 14 bath towels for our use. We don't use face cloths. Hand towels are only in the first floor bathroom for drying hands. I have two for daily use and then when we have company, I pull out up to 4 more depending on the size of the crowd.

Like AJ, I save the clear zippered bags from the sheets and use them for storage as well as the Rubbermaid totes. Since we are tight on space, all unused sheets, towels and blankets are stored in our basement until needed. We use the same bedspreads year round. In the winter, we pile on the crocheted blankets for warmth.