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5 Practical Strategies for a Stress-Free Christmas Season

Are you looking forward to Christmas as we head into the last months of the year, feeling calm and in control, or are you starting to feel the pressure?

Christmas can be a special time of year where we slow down, recognise the year that has past, give thanks, spend time with family, sing carols, watch favourite movies, eat turkey with all the trimmings, and enjoy cheeky drinks with friends.

It can be exciting, and magical, especially if you have children… but it can also feel very stressful if you are trying to do it all. It’s tempting to feel like we have to create the perfect Christmas for everyone, full of wonderful memories, treats and fun!

If you are trying to do it all, it can feel overwhelming. You deserve to enjoy yourself too, to relax, have a good time and be present to enjoy time with loved ones. You don’t want to reach Christmas Eve frazzled and stressed out!

If you are feeling the pressure, these Christmas preparation tips will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed this season.

1. Take a pause!

Doing more and working late into the night may get you there eventually but it will burn you out in the process, making you stressed and taking the enjoyment out of it for you and your family. So make a little time to stop and take a breath, perhaps take yourself off to a café or for a walk so that you can get some headspace. It may feel counter intuitive but pausing will actually make you more focused and productive.

2. Make lists

Write out of everything that is spinning around in your head; to do lists; gifts lists; Christmas cards to write; events to attend, food shopping – get everything out of your head. Then let it go. You don’t need to remember everything now that’s it’s captured and you can focus on the most important.

Whilst I use my phone a lot, when I feel overwhelmed, I find it helps to write everything down on paper to get it out of my head and keep track of it all. So I’ve created the Ultimate Calm Christmas planner which includes checklists, key dates and ideas to help you stay organised this Christmas. Download your free copy here.

3. Strategise

It may not be possible to do everything you would like to do in the time available and it will stress you out trying. No-one wants you to reach Christmas a frazzled mess so you need to be strategic. Think carefully about what is most important to you this Christmas – for example, it might be spending time with family, meeting friends, taking a break or making time for community. Now go through your lists and prioritise. Pick out the things that align with what’s most important and down-grade those that don’t – if you don’t get to these it’s ok (cross them off if you are really feeling ruthless!)

The best thing you can do if it all feels overwhelming is stop for a moment. Refocus and think about what’s important. Remember…

‘Less is more’ – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

4. Be efficient with your time

Block time in your diary for events and meet ups, along with time to shop, cook and take other actions. This will give you visibility so that you can adjust your plans according to your priorities and energy levels.

Save energy by choosing gifts that are easier for you to manage; gift vouchers for experiences and treats that friends and family wouldn’t normally get for themselves. You could bulk-bake biscuits or other treats (handmade goods are always special), send e-cards instead of physical cards or make a donation to charity instead of sending Christmas cards. I share lots of other ideas in my Ultimate Calm Christmas planner).

5. Do it your way

Christmas is a big deal, particularly for retailers; more than 20% of sales are made in the month leading up to Christmas. Marketeers work super hard to sell us the best Christmas décor, foods, gifts, activities and events. But don’t be pressured to do, be and buy everything; create the Christmas that works for you.

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Get your Free copy of my ultimate Calm Christmas Planner

Listen to my podcast – You Deserve a calm not frazzled

You-deserve-a-calm-not-frazzled-Christmas-OrganisedWell-Blog-Podcast

Create a Relaxing Garden Space with These Quick Shed Organising Tips

If your garden is a mess, it’s likely a disorganised shed is the culprit. Try these quick shed organising tips and make space for a relaxing garden.

Imagine this; you walk out into your back garden to an inviting garden space. The calm, neat space is the perfect place to relax, work on your laptop or play with the family.

The problem is, this might be more like your experience: empty plant pots, last years growth wilting in containers, bikes, furniture and gardening equipment left out and piled up with good intention. You can’t fit anything else in the shed, and you’ll need them again sometime, so things are stacked up.

If your garden is far from a neat and inviting sanctuary, now is the perfect time to tackle it! Whilst the weather is looking dry for a while (hello UK summer!) you can regain control of this wilderness!

Your Shed is the key

If your garden is a mess, it’s likely that your shed is far worse. A shed full of stuff you don’t use is no help whatsoever.

If you had the space to store the things you do need, and organise them so they are easily accessible, it would be super easy leave your garden a serene oasis of calm.

The key to a calmer garden is your shed.

So when can you carve out some time to work on it? Let’s get that in the diary and get started!

My Top Tips for Regaining Control of your Garden Shed:

Declutter

Empty the contents of your shed onto your garden lawn or patio. I know it’s scary but it’s well worth the effort. You’ll see where you have duplicates, similar items and see the scale of your shed collection.

This is your opportunity to be ruthless and make space for the things you currently need to store. And if you could borrow or buy cheaply in future, don’t keep it ‘just in case’!

Remove everything you can see that you know you no longer need and dispose of it. Would your neighbours or family use it? Could a charity shop sell it? Does it need to go to the household recycling centre to be recycled or disposed of?

You don’t need to keep:

old paint
bits of wood or metal that you’ve held onto but never used
a vast range of screws and nails
attachments for tools, furniture and toys you no longer have
bike racks for cars long gone
children’s bikes and scooters long grown out of.

All of these items and more can be given away to be used by someone else, recycled or safely disposed of.

Check tools to ensure that it still all works and is needed. Working equipment can be given away. Local sharing groups such as Freecycle are good, and some charity shops take working electricals). Tools that have seen better days can be recycled at your local household recycling centre.

A handy tip for when you buy tools in future; the store where you make your new purchase will usually take your old equipment for the recycling.

Organise

We want your shed to be organised so that you and your family can access the things that you want, but more importantly they can be put them away easily.

Use the wall space as much as possible. You don’t stay in this space for long so don’t need to worry about feeling overwhelmed by things on walls. Where practical, add shelves and hooks on the walls to enable you to hang tools, equipment, small items of furniture.

If you have space to hang or rack up your bikes, it’s worth investing in the appropriate racks. Hang an entire bike using a wall mounted rack or prop it using a Klug.

Try to place or hang everything as if it is ‘on display’ in a hardware store. This will make it easy to see what you need whilst maximising storage.

Place the things you use most often (such as bikes and lawn mower) nearer to the door, so that they can be accessed most easily. The things you use less often can be placed nearer to the back, or stored in harder to reach places.

Use small bags in a larger box, jars or a container with small sections, to contain selections of screws, raw plugs, and other small items that you know you will use again in future. Label as needed to make it super easy to get to and find small items you need for DIY.

Get Help

You don’t have to do this work alone. You can rope in the children (make it a game), family or neighbours to support you with this task.

Read about Three Top Organising Principles here.

And don’t forget I’m here for you. I’ve supported my clients to create calmer, more organised sheds, garages and outside spaces and can help you too. Find out more about my services here.

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(Just so you know, I’m an Amazon Associate so I earn from qualifying purchases).

Banish Your Paper Clutter in 5 Easy Steps

It is possible to regain control of your paper clutter!

If you have paper clutter about your home, you’ll know how it makes you feel. Your home always feels messy, it’s stressful trying to find what you need and you risk missing important events or deadlines.

There is no denying we live in a digital world, but physical paperwork remains a fact of life. Letters, leaflets, tickets, manuals, kids artwork, official documents and other papers continue to come into our home every day. This paper clutter can soon build up, gathering on surfaces and getting in our way.

If this sounds familiar, you’ll know how it can make you feel!

If we don’t keep a handle on this paperwork deluge it can quickly have negative consequences for our home and our health. Messy unsightly piles can cause stress and embarrassment when visitors come around, and clutter can affect our ability to focus on tasks and our work. Plus, we risk impacting our family, finances and health if we end up missing appointments or payments when we can’t find the documents we need.

If your paper clutter is out of control, know that you’re not alone.

And, with some work (it’s well worth doing, I promise) it’s possible to get it back under control using my simple system to manage your paperwork.

5 Easy Steps to Regain Control of Your Paper Clutter

1. Prepare

Gather your paperwork together from all over the house and bring together on one clear surface where you have a bit of room. If you’ve built up a lot it may be easier to do this on the floor.

2. Quickly dispose

Recycle (shred personal details) all envelopes, leaflets, old notes and documents you don’t need. Any documents you were holding temporarily but are now finished with can also go. This step will thin out the pile of paperwork, reduce any overwhelm and enable you to give thought to the remaining documents.

3. Sort into loose categories

Organise your remaining documents into piles using the following categories:

Action: These are the documents that you are currently using or will need soon (e.g. forms you need to complete, letters that you need to take to appointments, I also keep name tags for kids items in my Action section as I always need to label something )
Keep long-term This pile will contain these would be documents that you need to refer to again in future or, that you can’t easily be replaced (including Identity documents such as passports and, birth, adoption, or marriage certificates; education and employment documents; important information and contracts related to your car, house, finances and health.) If you’re unsure of whether you should hold on to something, do so for now and get advice
Memories should be managed separately. Whilst you may wish to keep some school reports, children’s artwork, personal letters etc, make sure that you store these separately so that they don’t hinder your search for important documents when you need them.

4. Create your action folder

The idea is to create a holding space for all of the paperwork you’ll need soon. The things you put in here should only be there temporarily, until you use them or no longer need them, and then they should be thrown out or stored in your long-term filing system.

Many people like to use a letter rack in the entrance hall, a noticeboard, in-tray in the home office or magazine file in the kitchen. Alternatively you may not need to keep the document but instead can save a screen shot to your phone or cloud drive, or note the details in your calendar, a digital notebook or a secure filing app. Whatever works for you!

Whatever you choose to use, keep it somewhere you can easily access when you acquire new paperwork to deal with, and where you won’t forget to deal with what you’ve put in there!

5. Long-term filing

Now it’s time to create homes for all of the paperwork that you need to keep. You may want to invest in a safe or off-site storage for some important documents.

Take a moment to consider which documents you need to keep but aren’t necessary as hard copies stored by you. For example, you may be able to download some paperwork for your utility bills, subscriptions, online purchases, bank statements from your accounts as and when you want them. Don’t forget to get copies before you close any accounts if you may need them later.

Whether you store documents in hard copy or electronic form, it’s important to review them periodically and dispose of anything that you no longer need to keep. You might do this when you add a document; 1 in, 1 out.

You may have heard that bank statements should be kept for six years, but Martin Lewis now recommends you keep them for longer than this. You can read his thoughts on the subject here Don’t throw bank statements away after six years

Reduce your physical paper storage by going digital

If you want to keep physical storage to a minimum, you could consider filing original documents you’ll need for evidence in a concertina folder, filing box, or safe and digitise the rest. One example of a digital filing cabinet solution is the FYIO app.

How to manage your paperwork day to day

Now you’ve regained control of your paper clutter, it’s important to keep on top of it or it will only build up again. The key is to manage it quickly and as soon as it comes into your home wherever possible.

Here is my quick and easy process for how to do it.

Dispose! -Recycle/shred anything you know you don’t need. If you put it down and come back to it later, you’ll handle it more than once which wastes your time

Do it quickly! -If it will take 2 minutes, take action immediately – book the appointment, complete the return slip, schedule the bill for payment

Schedule -Diarise any task that will take more than a few mins and store any related paperwork for easy access

Give it a home -Pop it into your action folder or into your long term filing system!

If you loved this article you may also be interested in: Discover how the Apps I love could make you better organised.

Paperwork can feel overwhelming because we usually have a lot of it. If you’d like help with an initial sort, setting up your filing system and reviewing your paperwork or advice on storage options, contact me for practical advice and support.

Note: get advice if you are unsure about whether you need to keep a document and for how long.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Reset for Autumn

As the seasons change your priorities change, so your home should too! Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time to reset for Autumn!

One minute you are digging out your summer wardrobe, having picnics in the park and looking forward to getting away from it all, the next thing, the children are back at school, everyone is back to work so days are full-on, mornings are pressured and you spend more time indoors trying to juggle everything (including hungry children, mounds of laundry and keeping up with tidying and cleaning!).

Before it all becomes too overwhelming, now is a great time to reset your home; to declutter the summer paraphernalia and organise key areas of your home so that daily life flows more easily.

In September, I shared tips with Sarah Julian at BBC Radio Nottingham and Kelly Hinch at BBC Radio Leicester. Read my reset tips below and grab my quick Checklist to reset for Autumn!

My Autumn Reset Tips

It’s time to get practical! Your home needs to work for you. Now is the time to remove the excess from your functional spaces and organise them so you can access what you need and keep things tidy with ease.

Go for impact!

Focus on the area(s) that will make a big difference to your day. You use these areas daily, your day will run smoothly if you can access everything you need easily, the state of this space can have a really positive impact on how your mood.

Complete one area before you move to another. It’s difficult to complete an area if you try to multitask (which isn’t a thing by the way – the brain can’t multitask, it just swaps between tasks which it’s not very good at doing). Work on one area, if you find things that need to live elsewhere put them to one side (or in a box) to take to other rooms once you’ve finished.

Reset your Hallway

The hallway is your launchpad. It’s the last place you spend time before you leave your home and the first space you see when you come home. When you create a welcoming and functional space that supports you it will have a big impact on the start and end of your day.

Ensure you have homes for the shoes, coats, bags, and items that you need daily. Hang as much as you can, allocate space for each item and use containers for small items such as keys, tissues, wallets, gloves, glasses etc.

Occasional wear, summer coats, and shoes you only wear every now and again should be packed away or live in wardrobes. This is not the place to leave things that aren’t helpful to your mission of leaving or entering the home smoothly each day.

Reset your Kitchen

The heart of the home, it’s also the place where paperwork, bits and bobs, toys, pet paraphernalia, bags, clothes and all manner of other clutter gravitates to.

You visit this room at least three times a day, and probably much more. You’ll likely want to prepare meals, make drinks, clean, do laundry and many other tasks as easily as possible. You spend a lot of time here. You may also eat family meals and spend time with guests, so you want it to feel inviting.

Your reset for this space will include returning items to their homes, recycling/shredding/filing paperwork, packing away picnic sets, decluttering things you no longer use,

Reset your Wardrobe

You wear clothes everyday. When you have a sea of clothes you no longer wear and seasonal items peppering your wardrobe it can make it so difficult to find what you need.

Imagine how much calmer your mornings would be if you could find what you need easily rather than having to spend time rummaging for items you know you have but can’t find.

Keep the floor-drobe at bay by making it super easy to put things away:

Pack up off-season clothes and remove anything no longer fits or doesn’t feel great.
Separate clothes into categories such as work, social and occasional items to make it easy to access those items you wear day to day.

Need help to work through your Autumn Reset?

Are you ready to do your Autumn Reset? Download my Quick Reset Checklist to tackle your kitchen, hallway or wardrobe today!

Find out more about my Decluttering and Organising services

Contact Laura to discuss your organising needs on +44 (0)7970 989955

Laura’s Quick Guide to selling your decluttered things

Have you decluttered your home and put aside lots of items to sell, but just haven’t gotten around to putting them up for sale yet?

These things pile up in the corner, cluttering up your living space or filling your spare bedroom.

Wanting to sell items can become a barrier to removing them from your home and this type of clutter can be so annoying because you’re clear that you no longer want them, but haven’t been able to move them on.

Let’s get you started with my quick guide to selling your decluttered things.

Watch my video and get selling today!

I hope you loved this video! To join my email list where you’ll hear about future blogs, vlogs and updates click here to join for free!

Contact Laura to discuss your decluttering project on +44 (0)7970 989955