Holidays

Happy New Year, everyone!  So many people are out right now returning gifts that didn’t work, for whatever reason that might be.  But what if you got a gift card to a store that you don’t want to shop in?  Or what if you really wish a bunch of gift cards were all consolidated so… Read more »

Well, this is fascinating!  Self-storage services are billing their units as "Santa Closets," renting for $1/day, to help people hide their gifts from family members!  Gifts are really hard to hide if you don’t have extra storage space in your homes.  Here is an article about this from the Houston Chronicle.  To be fair, some… Read more »

Look out Harry & David, you have an anti-gift-basket nemesis out there:  www.nobasketsplease.com.  This site was created after a company received 63 gift baskets in one year and started donating them to charity after basket #5.  The site recommends socially- responsible, healthful, and practical gifts that can be given instead.  This reminds me a lot… Read more »

The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" always fascinated me… the idea that someone could give a person a series of gifts each day and keep building on them.  I was wondering how many gifts that actually ends up being…  In our work as Professional Organizers, we get a lot busier in January, obviously from… Read more »

Today my team member Laura and I organized a guest room closet with a lot of gift wrap and gifts in it, some of them being "re-gifts." According to an Oprah.com poll, 44 percent of respondents think it’s morally acceptable to regift.  That seems really low to me!  So what that means is that 56%… Read more »

Let’s STOP and think this year before creating more clutter, both for ourselves and for people we care about.  Here are 3 ways you can prevent clutter this holiday season. 1.  Plan ahead.  Think through what you are going to buy for other people and consider truthfully whether this is something they really need and… Read more »

Now that we’ve started the busiest shopping season of the year, that also means we need to get organized to wrap a lot of gifts.  The average US household purchases up to 14 holiday gifts for friends, relatives or co-workers (that sounds conservative to me!).  Here are the major elements of a "Gift Station" that… Read more »

Butter, enough for serving at the table and for cooking potatoes and rolls and dessert Whipping cream or “Cool Whip” for desserts Club soda for cleaning up wine Candles for the table Nice napkins and paper goods (it can be great to use paper plates for the dessert to minimize clean-up time) Extra ice Extra… Read more »