In today’s episode we’re talking about organizing gifts and decorations for Christmas.
This episode was inspired by my post on hiding Christmas Gifts
Big thanks to our sponsor The Organized Home — if you’re feeling like your STUFF is making it hard to live, jump inside that. It really simplifies organizing for families
In this episode
How to organize (and hide) presents
How to organize Christmas decor
How to organize and simplify holiday parties.
Other things that might interest you
Producer: Drew Erickson
Check out my other household tips podcasts:
Transcript
[00:00:00.000] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast today on episode 117. We are talking about Christmas and organizing for it, which is not quite as exciting as Christmas, but let’s untangle it.
[00:00:21.940] – Hilary Erickson
Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson. The Curly Head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast. We untangle pregnancy, parenting, home and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life tangled just like my hair.
[00:00:45.370] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, guys, before we get started, make sure that you leave a review. It’s so important that reviews help. Just push this podcast forward. If you’re listening, just head on over to Apple podcast and leave some stars, leave some words. It really does not have to be long. Maybe a favorite thing I said or a favorite episode. It totally helps. Words help more than stars. But I’ll take whatever.
[00:01:05.230] – Hilary Erickson
Do you ever just feel like it’s unfair that some people can have company over at a moment’s notice. Their house is just super easy to clean up, and they can relax on the couch with Netflix. Well, you feel like you always have things to do around your house that can totally be you. The organized home is all new in 2021. We’re talking about decluttering, zones, organization systems that actually work. We’ve got assignments and challenges. I hope you’ll join us. You can use coupon code UNTANGLED. Look for the Organized Home link in the show notes.
[00:01:36.440] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. So Christmas, it’s coming, right? And this episode may not be appropriate for little ears if they’re acutely listening. Just the FYI. So first off, speaking of little ears, we’re talking about gifts.
[00:01:50.330] – Hilary Erickson
And where the heck do you hide them? Right? We lived in a tiny house in California. I could barely put all of my regular things away. Where the heck do I put these gifts that I don’t want my kids to get into?
[00:02:01.080] – Hilary Erickson
Right. And we have small kids who were very inquisitive. So it was not super easy. So for me, I hit them in our luggage again. Hopefully little ears are not listening.
[00:02:10.110] – Hilary Erickson
That is where I had most of the gifts. I did some under my bed. I would hide some in my closet. Sometimes I would hide them in the garage under a blanket. But I also little ears could probably listen.
[00:02:19.740] – Hilary Erickson
Now, I also made it really clear to my kids that that was a lot of the fun of Christmas was finding out what they had gotten right. And my mom did that, too. She basically said, if you want to search this house from head to toe, you’ll find the Christmas present. But what fun is that the fun is on Christmas morning finding out what you were bought, right? So I really tried to just distill that into my kids, that if they were starting to peek like they were only ruining their own thing, they weren’t ruining anything of mine.
[00:02:45.800] – Hilary Erickson
And also those gifts may not end up under the tree. Maybe I’ll give them to a little kid who isn’t so inquisitive pretty good about not trying to get into stuff. But luggage is a secret spot that maybe you haven’t thought of. Another thing you can do is to wrap them. So a lot of times, especially if your kids are not going to peek under the tree.
[00:03:02.130] – Hilary Erickson
I’ve had a few friends I’ve seen on Instagram who kids just tried to secretly get into that paper and see what’s under the tree. But a lot of times I would wrap those gifts and get them under the tree because then I didn’t have to hide them. Sometimes Santa brings the smaller gifts. One last little tidbit of information is to make sure you’ve written down what you’ve bought, because I have been definitely the Queen of making sure that one kid suddenly has 30 presents and one kid has five or whatever.
[00:03:29.670] – Hilary Erickson
I just try and keep an eye on what’s getting bought because especially as you’re trying to hide them out of sight.
[00:03:35.080] – Hilary Erickson
Out of mind. Yada yada, I tried to have a secret thing that I would write in my notes section or even just keep tabs on how much money you spent or however you’re going to divide your gift money. It could be awkward. Okay, let’s now move on to like, Christmas stuff.
[00:03:49.420] – Hilary Erickson
I’m gonna give you three tips for organizing your Christmas stuff. First off is I make sure that the Christmas stuff is separated. I know some people just kind of, like, mishmash it all into one thing, but I have straight up red and green Christmas bins that the Christmas stuff goes in. It’s very easy to tell what goes in there. We just have to haul in the bins and then haul them back out.
[00:04:08.710] – Hilary Erickson
Also, that’s all we get. We aren’t like, gonna add another bin at some point. Nope. We get the three bins they fit there. It’s all good.
[00:04:16.160] – Hilary Erickson
If we don’t like a decoration, we can throw it away, and maybe we can get a new one. And speaking of decorations, I find that decor that can be flattened. Like I have some trees that criss cross into each other, and that’s how they stand up. And that’s been really effective and helpful. So anything that you can flatten.
[00:04:29.930] – Hilary Erickson
I know why people love those giant blowups, right? Because it gets a lot of decoration for a very little amount of space in your house. So anything that you can flatten or squish down is a total win in my decoration book. Christmas trees can be planned to, but they sure are annoying to put up. And then, like I said, my third tip is to make sure that you limit the decor to the area that you have to store it.
[00:04:49.340] – Hilary Erickson
Stop buying things that aren’t going to fit into the area that you have to store it. No matter how cute it is, decide to throw away certain things or something like that. Now, sometimes with a wreath or something like that, you can get away if you have a place to hang it in a protective bag. So it’s not just getting full of dust all year. That might be an option.
[00:05:07.190] – Hilary Erickson
You can make things work, but just try and stick to the space that you have. Don’t just constantly be buying more things, because then when Christmas ends, the Christmas spirit leaves when you realize that it doesn’t fit in your house. Okay. Finally, I want to talk about organizing parties because as a kid growing up, I felt like parties were a huge deal and you had to put a lot of effort into it. And because they were such a huge deal and so much effort, I wouldn’t have them very much because I didn’t want all the stress of that.
[00:05:31.270] – Hilary Erickson
But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized the parties do not have to be huge in order to be fun, right? I’ve had so much fun with, like, white elephant gifts and potlucks where people the hostess just provides pretty much the plates and her own dish and probably the beverage. And then everyone else brings a dish and they bring a white elephant gift. And the hostess hasn’t done a whole lot. Maybe she’s cleaned up her house, but it’s just a super good time without a whole lot of effort.
[00:05:54.040] – Hilary Erickson
So don’t feel like you have to have a giant party in order for it to be fun. In fact, after a COVID, I think a lot of us have realized that we can do parties. Even on the Internet. We use a thing called Jack box games, and it’s really fun. We’ve done game nights with my brother and with my parents, even though they don’t live in the same areas that we do.
[00:06:11.260] – Hilary Erickson
And we can have a good time doing that together. Just super fun. So even you could think about like a virtual party. They still work, even though COVID where it is at. And then finally, like I said before, think potluck don’t feel like you have to provide everything.
[00:06:25.330] – Hilary Erickson
I love it when people bring lots of different kinds of dishes and I can try lots of different things and learn new appetizers that my family can love and all those different kinds of things. So I love bringing a dish to somebody’s party. I love that I don’t really need a gift, a hostess gift because I’m horrible at finding those. Instead, I can just bring my potluck dish, which I can totally make and feel good and enjoy the party and not feel guilty that I’m not doing more to help out the hostess. So those are my tips about Christmas.
[00:06:52.410] – Hilary Erickson
I would love to know your Christmas organization tips. Find us over on Instagram. Leave a comment on the post for this episode. I’m so glad you guys were here and I hope you guys are ready to have an awesome Christmas this year.
[00:07:02.920] – Hilary Erickson
You totally want to stay tuned for next week’s episode. I am going into my fear of flying. So if you’re headed somewhere for the holidays or if you have had a fear of flying, don’t miss that one. For sure.
[00:07:13.150] – Hilary Erickson
Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly. And until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.
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