70 TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR HOME ORGANIZED BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS

There's nothing like hosting a holiday get together to get you motivated to clean and organize your home. For some people, this will mean hiring a sitter so they can get the cleaning and organizing done. With your children in the hands of a capable caregiver, you can turn your focus onto getting holiday ready. For 70 great tips on getting your home organized for the holidays, whether you need an additional helping hand or not, read on.

Cleaning Checklist for Parties
Cleaning for parties is a little different than typical daily surface cleaning. To get your home squeaky clean and festive, you'll need to start cleaning about a week before the party. Try to do a little deep cleaning every day to avoid getting overwhelmed. You'll also want to use checklists to keep track of what you've done and what you still need to do. Check out these 10 blogs to get some cleaning ideas and downloadable checklists.

Easy Cleaning and Home Organizing Tips Organizing and updating your laundry room can turn a once-boring chore into a much more pleasant task.

How to Speed Clean Your Home for the Holidays Follow this checklist for cleaning and organizing your home for the holidays to make this season a little less stressful.

Cleaning for the Holidays Start cleaning and organizing several days before your party.

To Do: Your Holiday Organizing Checklist Get the fireplace cleaned and the chimney swept before you invite people over.

Countdown to Clean Series: Annual Routines {With Free Printable Checklist} You'll find cleaning tips and checklists on this post.

Holiday Cleaning and Organizing Plans There are different cleaning and organizational lists you can pick from on this blog.

7 Days of Holiday Cleaning Follow these tips to break your house cleaning into manageable, bite-size pieces so that you aren't exhausted by the time the holiday arrives.

Christmas Checklist: Clean House for the Holidays Follow this list to clean your house one room at a time to stay methodical throughout the process.

How to Clean Your Home for Holiday Guests This checklist will help you manage your time by listing out the things you should in the days leading up to your party.

Christmas Countdown: Six Weeks to an Organized Christmas! You can sign up for this free organizing plan to learn what you need to do as the holidays approach to get ready and stay sane.

Getting Junk Mail and Paperwork under Control
What do you see when you look at the surfaces in your home? If the answer is stacks of paper, you're not alone. You are in luck though, because eliminating paper clutter is relatively simple to do. Start by going through each stack of paper in your home and sort it into piles. If it's junk mail, throw it out. Now, decide which school papers you want to save and which need to go. Store the ones that you are saving in a designated box for each child. Once you do that you should be seeing a light at the end of the paper clutter tunnel. Go on to file the rest into appropriate files. These 10 blogs will help you determine how to file, what you need to hang on to and what needs to be shredded.

10 Tips for Getting on Top of Your Paperwork Implement these steps to clean up your paperwork and stay ahead of junk mail.

9 Decluttering Secrets from Professional Organizers Create a paperwork filing system that you store on a wheeled cart so that you can move it around wherever you need it.

Declutter Your Mail & Paperwork in 30 Minutes a Week Read more about how to handle mail as it comes into the house to make sure it doesn't become clutter.

A Fast and Easy Guide to Organizing Paperwork Learn how to break down the organizing process into manageable chunks.

Declutter Your Life—Organizing Paperwork Follow these daily steps to get your office and paperwork organized in less than a week.

What Papers Can You Get Rid Of? With the tips in this blog post you can learn how to limit the useless paper that comes into your home and organize the paper you need.

8 Easy Steps to Organize Your Financial Paperwork and Declutter Your Life Learn which papers you need to keep and which ones you can shred.

How to Organize All Your Paperwork Create a system to file your paperwork and then get into a routine of filing your paperwork every week or month.

Declutter Your Paperwork—How to Get and Stay Organized Make sure you have the proper tools to organize the papers you need to keep, then go through the stacks to get rid of what you don't need.

7 Simple Ways to Organize Paperwork at Home… Don't wait to get rid of the paper that comes into your house; instead, decide what to do with the mail the minute you bring it home.

Organize Your DIY Projects
Do enjoy the occasional DIY project? The holidays tend to bring out the crafty, creative side of people, whether it's baking a batch of cookies or fixing the broken latch in the bathroom. If you are expecting guests this holiday season, you may want to do a few tasks around the house that you have been putting off, like touching up the paint or fixing a squeaky door. Start a list of the things you need to do and organize a repair kit for touch-ups around the house. You can also organize your decorations to make them simpler to find when it's time to decorate. For tips on organizing your projects, take a look at these 10 blog posts.

Top 5 Holiday Home Organization Tips Make sure you have one main list where you put down things like mail holiday cards, attend school activities and parties, put out decorations, etc.

Holiday Organizing Go through your Christmas decorations and clear out anything that's broken.

The Holidays are Just Around the Corner: Dazzle Your Guests– and Showcase Your DIY Talents—With these Clever Home Updates Add hardware to your cabinets or change out the faucets in your home to give your home an update.

10 DIY Home Repair Projects for the Holidays Fix those little scratches on the table or marks on the wall before your guests arrive.

Tips for Organizing Holiday Decorations There are tips for sorting and organizing all of your holiday decorations on this post.

31 Days of Falling for Fall Try some of these projects to get ready for Thanksgiving.

Get Festive Holiday DIY Ideas Organize your ideas now to save some stress later on.

Easy DIY Décor to Take Your from Thanksgiving to Christmas Take a look at these projects to see if you'd like to incorporate any of them into your holiday To Do List

Holiday DIY Quick Tips: Creative Cards Learn how to make your own cards to send at Christmastime.

Organize and Decorate Everything Create these glittered bottles and use them to organize with during the holidays.

Create a Holiday Task List
Do you love to look at creative ideas on Pinterest? Have you got big plans for this holiday season? If you answered yes, it's time to create a task list of everything you'd like to accomplish during the holidays. The sooner you can get started on your list the better. Take this opportunity to cross a few things off your list, too. Removing a few items from your To Do list will reduce your stress and hopefully allow you to enjoy the holidays more. Find some sample checklists on these 10 blogs to help you get started.

Checklist: Holiday To Do List Follow this checklist or create your own using this one as a guide to give yourself a plan of action.

How to Organize the Family's Holiday Season Take a look at the ideas on this post to help you get and stay organized during the holidays.

Top 10 Holiday Organizing Tips Create a central calendar that has everyone's holiday events on it so that you can keep track of what you have coming up.

Christmas To-Do—Make a List and Check it Twice This blog gives an example of what you might want to put on your holiday To-Do list.

Get Organized for the Holidays Look at the ideas listed on this blog and see how and when you might add these items to your task list.

Your Holiday Task List by Task Complete From choosing a holiday card to decorating your tree, this blog post will help you get your holiday act together.

Holiday Checklist If you will be traveling during the holidays, this packing checklist may come in handy.

How to Make a Holiday Planner for a Stress-Free Season Grab a 3-ring binder and get to work creating this planner that will organize the things you need to stay stress-free.

Time Management: Tips to Reduce Stress and Improve Productivity Make your list and stay focused on what you need to get done.

To Do List Template Calendar Download one of these templates to help make your task list more structured and simpler to follow.

Decluttering Tips
Clutter makes everything more difficult to manage, and often is comprised of things you don't need or want. Decluttering is different from organizing because once you remove clutter you can organize what is left. What better time to clear out the clutter than before the holidays? These blogs will help you get started decluttering your home.

12 Ways to Declutter for the Holidays Start decluttering the area in your house with the most clutter.

The Amazingly Awesome Pre-Holidays Declutter Guide Follow along with this blogger's guide to get ready for the holiday influx of gifts.

Peter Walsh's Strategies for Decluttering Your Home for the Holidays The upcoming holiday season may be just the thing to motivate you to start decluttering.

Decluttering for the Holidays This blogger starts the decluttering process with the kids' toys by going through what they have outgrown or broken.

3 Reasons to Declutter before the Holidays You may think that you should declutter to clear out room for all the new stuff or to get ready for guests, but this blogger has three other ideas.

Holiday Decluttering Tips Make sure you declutter before you decorate so that you start with a clean slate.

Kitchen Decluttering Before the Holidays You will be spending more time in your kitchen during the holidays, so decluttering this area is a priority.

Organize and Declutter Your Home for the Holidays This blogger talks about asking everyone in your family to do the black bag trick; read more to find out what it is.

Tips for the Holiday Season: Decluttering and Donating Not only is donating at the end of the year a smart idea for your taxes, it also frees up space for new items.

Inspired Holidays: Clean Your House for Christmas [4 Tips] Break down the decluttering into steps by gathering up anything that doesn't belong in the room into a box. Make it a game and include the rest of the family.

Create a Command Center
By creating a command center in your home you will have a central space to keep important information. There's always a calendar at the command center, and often storage baskets to contain papers and mail. You may also like to keep your coupons at the command center or your menu planning supplies. This spot should serve a purpose for you and your family. If you can't visualize what a command center should look like, take a look at these 10 blogs.

Ideas for Creating a Family Command Center Depending on your taste, one of these command center ideas might be ideal for your family.

Done in a Day: Family Command Center Get out the painter's tape and create a plan for your command center ideas.

Create a Command Center and Get Your Paper Piles Off the Counter! Read these ideas on how to take a small section of wall and create a command center.

How to Create the Perfect Family Command Center {Hint: Involves a Close Relationship with Command Strips) Take a look at the things that this blogger thinks a command center should include.

Family Command Center Ideas and Free Organization Printables You should be able to find an idea on this blog post to use as inspiration, no matter what area you are thinking about turning into your command center.

Set Up a Family Command Center Start by making a list of items you would like your command center to include, then determine where you'd like to put it.

Kitchen Command Center You may be able to reduce the amount of clutter that piles up in your kitchen simply by creating a command center.

Customize Your Home Command Center If you have a built-in desk in your kitchen, it will function perfectly as your command center.

Working Woman: 7 Ways to Do it All and Still Stay Organized You may want to include things like menu planning and homework papers in your command center plan.

Create a Command Center for Family Organization this Fall Before you create your command center, map out the different ways you want to use it.

Get Organized for Guests
Are you expecting guests this holiday season? One idea to help you always be prepared is to create a basket full of fresh linens and other items guests can use that you can grab at moment's notice. You can also reduce the stress of unexpected guests by making up some appetizers, cookies or meals ahead of time and storing them in the freezer. For more ideas on how to prepare for guests read these blogs.

Getting Your House Ready for Holiday Guests You'll want to clear out the coat closet so that your guests have a place to hang their coats.

5 Ways to Get Your Home Ready for Holiday Visitors Organize your pantry so that guests can find things if they need a snack, and provide them with a hamper for dirty laundry.

How to Clean a Very Messy House… and Get It Ready for Guests! (with a Printable Checklist) Go through these step-by-step directions to create a plan for getting your home ready for holiday guests.

10 Things You Should Do before Holiday House Guests Arrive Cook ahead so you don't have to spend valuable visiting time stuck in the kitchen.

Get Organized for House Guests Make sure that you have a supply of breakfast foods and that you set the table the night before.

Organizing for Guests: How to Roll Out the Welcome Mat Start by cleaning up the yard so that your home makes a good first impression.

Getting Ready for House Guests: Guest Room and Guest Bath Tour Watch this video to get some tips on how to make your guest room and guest bathroom welcoming.

Get Your Guest Room Ready Read through this list of questions to see how your guest room stacks up and get some ideas of ways you can make your guests more comfortable.

Christmas Organizing: 10 Ways to Get Organized before Your Guests Arrive Try to give your guests a private place to sleep if possible.

Get Organized to Welcome Unexpected Guests Keep a few basics on hand for unexpected guests, like fresh linens and spare toothbrushes.

Originating at www.housekeeping.org