2022 - HHP - Week 1 - Planning Week

[Holiday_Mom]

Welcome back, old friends! Welcome, new friends! Who's ready to get started for Holiday Prep?! I know I am. It's been a busy few months and I have not kept up with the house like I usually do. I really need to get things decluttered and organized. For those who are new, do what you can. If you can't get to it all in one week, it's ok. Check in throughout the week to share what's been done and cheer one another.

This year will look different since the Organized Home site is being shut down. Typically, the assignments were linked each week. Since I saved a copy of the HHP, I'll post it here each week.

House and Holidays Plan by Cynthia Ewer

Week 1 - Planning and Paperwork
Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity
Week 3 - Me & Mine
Week 4 - Close to Home
Week 5 - House Room
Week 6 - Wardrobe
Week 7 - Bed & Bath
Week 8 - Family Space
Week 9 -Public Space
Week 10 - Cooking Space
Week 11 - Food Storage
Week 12 - Dining Space
Week 13 - Entryway
Week 14 - Storage
Week 15 - Final Clean
Week 16 - Nearly There
Week 17 - Celebration
Week 18 - New Year’s

Week 1 - Planning Week

This Week's Focus: Planning and Paperwork

To make a good beginning takes planning. Where do you go to dream, to budget, to plan? This week in the House & Holidays Plan, we turn to our home's planning center. How is it working for you?

This week, we'll clean, organize and declutter the home office or planning area, and begin the basics of holiday planning: our values, our budget and our gift list. To take aim on your household's planning center and kick off Christmas planning, get this inspiration from the Web:

This Week's Household Checklist

• Declutter and clean the home office or paper handling area. Declutter home office or household paper-handling areas this week. Think STOP--Sort, Toss, Organized and Put away--as you clear clutter from your space. Once free from clutter, clean the workspace for a fresh start to the Plan.
• Set up a basic household filing system. A clean and clutter-free workspace is half the battle; next up in the war on paper clutter? An efficient household filing system. Get up to speed on the ABCs of household paper management in your organized home.

This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist

• Make the promise! Plan time this week to begin preparing for the holiday season. Even 15 minutes three times a week will make a good start on holiday prep.
• Set up a Christmas notebook. Whether it's a simple three-ring binder, a section in a paper planner, or a database on computer or PDA, make a Christmas planner to hold holiday calendars, checklists and planner pages.
• Focus family values. Using the Family Values Worksheet, identify and focus the values your celebration will serve. [Below are questions from the sheet. They were not originally part of this bullet point.]
  • What went well last year? What activities made the season special? Did you make changes that made the
    holiday more organized, more calm, more centered?
  • What stresses did you face last year? Were there too many activities on the calendar? Did household
    systems fall apart? Were you wrapping gifts at midnight on Christmas Eve?
  • Were you spiritually invigorated by the holiday celebration? Did your family participate in meaningful
    worship, giving, or service activities?
  • Did inappropriate influences enter your home last year? Were décor, clothing or gift-buying decisions
    influenced by competitiveness or insecurity? Did the pace of the season affect family closeness or values?
  • What would you have done differently last year?
• Create a Christmas activity center. Whether it's a simple basket or a dedicated space with a comfortable chair, set aside an area for holiday planning.
• Establish a holiday budget. Credit card debt is nobody's idea of a great Christmas gift! This year, set financial limits before you plan the celebration. Tool of choice: a holiday budget form. Keeping tabs on expenditures as you prepare prevents overspending on the holidays.
• Consider a Christmas savings plan. Start now to save money for Christmas. Whether you open a dedicated bank Christmas Club account, set aside cash each week or add to a gift card balance, begin to accumulate funds for holiday spending now. Your wallet will thank you, come January!
• Begin a Master Gift List. Make a master gift list now. In the weeks to come, you'll check it a lot more than twice to organize holiday gift-giving.

What's on your list for this week?

 

[Miss JoDee]

Set up a basic household filing system. A clean and clutter-free workspace is half the battle; next up in the war on paper clutter? An efficient household filing system. Get up to speed on the ABCs of household paper management in your organized home.

Does anyone have a paper filing system they love? There is always papers that need to go somewhere. I have my bills and medical set up online (paperless) I recycle mail as it comes into the house. I fight with myself with the need for hard copies and online. Whether or not a 3 ring binder system works better or file folders. I use both. I like file folders but the drawers get so full and it is hard to reach to the back to get what I need. I am thinking I have to many categories. Help!

 

[jampss]

If this helps ... go to You Tube on a computer to The Minimal Mom and in the Search bar type "paper clutter". She has a lot of videos on this subject.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMinimalMom/videos

 

[Miss JoDee]

If this helps ... go to You Tube on a computer to The Minimal Mom and in the Search bar type "paper clutter". She has a lot of videos on this subject.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMinimalMom/videos

Thank you. I did go and reviewed her method. I discovered my categories are way to detailed. I am going to give her method a try and see if I can't reduce everything to 2 file cabinet drawers.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Does anyone have a paper filing system they love? There is always papers that need to go somewhere. I have my bills and medical set up online (paperless) I recycle mail as it comes into the house. I fight with myself with the need for hard copies and online. Whether or not a 3 ring binder system works better or file folders. I use both. I like file folders but the drawers get so full and it is hard to reach to the back to get what I need. I am thinking I have to many categories. Help!

I use an A to Z accordion style folder for bills, contracts, receipts, etc. I've been using this system for at least 21 years now. I file according to the name of the company or person's surname. During the first two weeks of January, the papers are removed from the file, put into a labeled bag and stored for a couple of years in case we have a question. Then we use the old papers for fire starter. I usually file the papers when I do the bills.



I have binder for manuals. I use the page protectors to corral the manuals. I also use a binder to keep track of the household information. Everything is kept together with the idea that if I need to grab the binders and accordion file due to tornadoes or hurricanes, I could.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Household

• Declutter and clean the home office or paper handling area. We have two office areas this year. I use to have the office until dh began working from home in March 2020. Since then, he has had the office and I converted a bedroom into an office. I was using that for classwork. I will put away all the books and papers from my assignments this week and get ready to move downstairs. Dh will move upstairs for a few months so I can get that office space in order and the rest of the house in order. The upstairs office is much quieter than the downstairs office. Will continue this next week.

Holiday Prep

• Update Christmas planner. I do a hybrid. I write notes on paper and then transfer them to the cloud. Then I can access the online planner if needed while I'm out shopping.
• Update Christmas activity baskets. I use a picnic basket for Christmas cards, stamps, pens and addresses. I use another picnic basket to store tea, hot chocolate, specialty cookies and a Christmas scented candle. That is kept for those days that I have to wrap gifts in September and October in particular when it doesn't even seem like Christmas. Just need to get some cookies next time I see them at the grocery store.
• Answer questions for Family Values Sheet and review my Christmas notes from last year. It's always interesting to see what I remember off the bat from last year and what I forget until I read my notes. Well what I remember and what I forget didn't match up. LOL! It's good to do a debriefing at the end of the cleaning plan and review before the next cleaning plan kicks in.
• Figure out a Christmas budget.
• Start a Master Gift List.

 

[happy2bme]

I'm excited to be starting this plan for another year. Things are going to be very different now that DD has moved away and my nest is empty, but that's not going to stop me from prepping for and enjoying the holidays!!

HOUSEHOLD CHECKLIST:
declutter paper area - done

HOLIDAY PREP CHECKLIST:
set up notebook on phone - done
establish budget - done
begin Master Gift list - done

 

[farmerswife]

I am excited to start as well. I started early, so I am a little a head, which is good because I usually end up falling behind around November. Lol.

 

[Ahorsesoul]

Decluttering my paper clutter is top on my list. I have tons from DD records that I need to keep. I now have them stored by year in a file envelope. I did make the mistake of moving them to a different place (instead of a box under my office table) and also had split them up. I put the newest ones in the file cabinet but never labeled the file. Took me forever to find it. So now all of them will be going into the file cabinet downstairs so they are all in one place. I need to make new file folders since mine are rather ratty looking. That will be when I declutter those files for the yearly declutter. I am starting binders for medical records for each of us. This project will take the longest since it is the biggest mess. DD of course already has three binders plus a huge pile. I will declutter those bit by bit starting with the newest records. Then mine and last Dhs. And I will start making a RED folder file for important documents for keeping in our safe. Thought that idea was wonderful after watching the video. I give myself till the end of the year to have this project done since it is a huge undertaking. I have boxes of paper downstairs too.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Interested in tidying my paperwork too. There just seems so much that we need to keep. Will look at the videos and see what I can use.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

I'm excited to be starting this plan for another year. Things are going to be very different now that DD has moved away and my nest is empty, but that's not going to stop me from prepping for and enjoying the holidays!!

Mel - Oh, that has to be a different feeling! What are you planning for yourself?

I give myself till the end of the year to have this project done since it is a huge undertaking. I have boxes of paper downstairs too.

I think that's realistic especially if you can set a weekly goal. I've found having good music, podcast, video or audio book to listen to while working helps with the motivation while actually doing the work.

I am excited to start as well. I started early, so I am a little a head, which is good because I usually end up falling behind around November. Lol

Something always happens to throw us off, doesn't it. I've gotten better at giving myself grace over the years.

I dusted the upstairs office and organized the books and papers. I'll work on the other office next week if I can't get in there some evening this week.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Something always happens to throw us off, doesn't it. I've gotten better at giving myself grace over the years.

I too have learned this. Even though I am full of good intentions sometimes things just do not go to plan. I have also learned that we can only do our best and whatever we do get done is a step in the right direction.

 

[happy2bme]

Mel - Oh, that has to be a different feeling! What are you planning for yourself?

I think that's realistic especially if you can set a weekly goal. I've found having good music, podcast, video or audio book to listen to while working helps with the motivation while actually doing the work.

Something always happens to throw us off, doesn't it. I've gotten better at giving myself grace over the years.

I dusted the upstairs office and organized the books and papers. I'll work on the other office next week if I can't get in there some evening this week.

DD is planning on being here for Christmas, just not sure what days or for how long. I will enjoy watching Christmas movies and decorating as I do every year and getting ready for DD’s arrival.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

DD is planning on being here for Christmas, just not sure what days or for how long. I will enjoy watching Christmas movies and decorating as I do every year and getting ready for DD’s arrival.

I need to ask my kids what they are planning for Christmas. Probably a little early just yet, they will so roll their eyes.
It is exciting thinking about plans and counting down the days until they return home.

 

[happy2bme]

I need to ask my kids what they are planning for Christmas. Probably a little early just yet, they will so roll their eyes.
It is exciting thinking about plans and counting down the days until they return home.

I agree, I’m looking forward to it!

 

[Cindylouwho]

Hi everyone! *waves*
This is my first check-in of the season. Just sent the kids off to college last week. We too am now empty nesters. Wow it feels weird. As soon as I got home from the airport I immediately started their Christmas lists to make myself feel better! Their rooms and the hallway were left as wreckage so there's lots to do. Things I have put off this past year are quickly backfilling and it has only been a few days.

Gosh, love seeing all your names here -- my little holiday family! I see CEO retired. I too saved all the notes and the calendars in case that ever happened. In response to last week's thread about the two plans, ...years ago I too had originally based my choice of plans as to what went best with FlyLady and my own general flight pattern. And I too normally hit something to screw up my plans somewhere along the way and that is when I am so darn glad we start in August. There's always something!

So for this week, my focus is on generally finding the floor in the house, decluttering as I can. The Labor Day sales coming up this weekend (for the outdoor gear clearance and hopefully some deals on winter jackets since one kid won't make it til Christmas) and a little time each day in the office -- which is about to get a complete overhaul since DH is retiring. I have lots of catching up to do in there.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Hi everyone! *waves*
This is my first check-in of the season. Just sent the kids off to college last week. We too am now empty nesters. Wow it feels weird. As soon as I got home from the airport I immediately started their Christmas lists to make myself feel better! Their rooms and the hallway were left as wreckage so there's lots to do. Things I have put off this past year are quickly backfilling and it has only been a few days.

Good to see you here again! This is the first week my college students are all away for the semester. I took a certification course and handed in the assignment last Monday. I've been trying to catch up with housework and getting everyone ready for school. High school started last Friday and this is the first full week of school. August looks so different than it did when the kids were all little. Time flies...

 

[farmerswife]

. August looks so different than it did when the kids were all little. Time flies...

This is so true, I heard it so much when the kids were young, but was so busy didn’t give it enough thought, but in a blink of an eye the season of raising children moves swiftly into friendship with our adult children. Thankful for each season, but sure did love the childhood years!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

This is so true, I heard it so much when the kids were young, but was so busy didn’t give it enough thought, but in a blink of an eye the season of raising children moves swiftly into friendship with our adult children. Thankful for each season, but sure did love the childhood years!

This is so well said. I miss the years when my kids were at home, such a rewarding time and so much fun. Even the struggles were worth it.
But I do love seeing my kids as adults and making lives of their own and seeing how our influence has made them who they are.