A graphic of the hands of Father Christmas with pen in hand, writing a note saying 'Preparing for a stress free Christmas' with other Christmas items - gifts, baubles, tree and a clock
Episode 158 – Getting a head start on Christmas

Episode 372 – The Opposite of Swedish Death Cleaning with Guest Alison Binney
Episode 371 – 10 Areas of Your Home Where the 80/20 Principle of Decluttering is Holding You Back
Are you ready to talk about the C word? (We mean Christmas, by the way!) Do you break out in a sweat by thinking about it? It seems so far away, but yet it’ll be here before we know it. In today’s podcast we talk about what you can do to make Christmas a stress free affair.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
[00:00:00] Ingrid: It's October, dare we say the c word, and by that we mean Christmas. It seems so far away, but yet it's actually really close. Do you break out in a sweat by thinking about it? Then you definitely want to listen in to this podcast.

[00:00:19] We do like our loyal listeners, don't we, Lesley? We 

[00:00:22] Lesley: do. And if they are a brand new subscriber, they're going to think we're completely nonsensical talking about Christmas at the beginning of October, to be fair. And so we better explain ourselves, hadn't we, Ingrid? 

[00:00:34] Ingrid: Well, I, I, I, I'm actually wondering if I'm ready to talk about this, Lesley.

[00:00:39] I mean, I haven't even got my head around Christmas just yet. I think I actually need to think... You know, I, I want to get my birthday out of the way always, and then I can kind of go, right, that's done, now I can think about other stuff, and it just, it's all so quick. It all goes so quick. 

[00:00:58] Lesley: Your birthday is in the past now, Ingrid.

[00:01:01] Your birthday is in the past. That's gone. Now it's time to move on two days later. Happy birthday, by the way. Did you have a lovely day? 

[00:01:08] Ingrid: I did. I did. Thank you very much. Well, I don't know. I had, I had to go to the dentist, so that was maybe like bad planning on my end. But on the other hand, it had to be done.

[00:01:17] It had to be done. Yes, 

[00:01:19] Lesley: Christmas. Now, there are other holidays out there. We are well aware, of course, and a lot of what we're going to talk about today is applicable to any holiday that you might celebrate. So let's get cracking. Why are we talking about Christmas today, Ingrid? 

[00:01:31] Ingrid: Well, I think because, Lesley, we always underestimate how much needs to be done.

[00:01:39] And we think, I think there's more time than there actually is. So I think it's a bit of a double whammy, isn't it? Yeah, and I'll tell you what 

[00:01:49] Lesley: we did last year. We thought about it long and hard this time last year and we created a course in our membership didn't we called A Countdown to Christmas and we saw within our six week countdown, which is what we did this time last year.

[00:02:05] how successful that was in the membership. And so we thought let's not just leave it to the members. Let's let other people have a chance to buy a countdown to Christmas because other people might be interested in that too. So we're here really to talk about how you can best prepare for the Christmas period and what you need to do to make it.

[00:02:22] stress free and cost less money and actually enjoy yourself on the big day. 

[00:02:27] Ingrid: That's the thing, isn't it? We get so caught up in all the preparations and all the doing everything that by the time it's Christmas, okay, we're here. Good. We made it. And then, then you're just almost too naked to enjoy it. 

[00:02:42] Lesley: I know people completely, people, a lot of people are really burnt out.

[00:02:46] I mean, how many times have you heard people saying, I was so exhausted, I just spent Christmas in bed and everything happened around me. And so that's what we're trying to avoid really, isn't it? It's all about creating a stress free run up to Christmas. That's what we want, isn't it? We want you to do it calmly in a collected manner, save money, save stress and enjoy yourself.

[00:03:05] Ingrid: Yes, I like it. I like it. Yeah, and you're right. All of our members really enjoyed our countdown to Christmas and we just realized It's not just our members who struggle with Christmas. There's loads of people out there who are like, I want to get organised I want to be on the ball this year. I don't want to be absolutely shattered on Christmas Day I want to have a great time and start on time But then where do you start?

[00:03:31] Because there's a lot that needs to be done. 

[00:03:34] Lesley: So you've talked about the fact that you need to wait till your birthday is out of the way. I'm a little bit later actually at Christmas. But I do like to start probably definitely early November, starting to... And so it's interesting if you've got birthdays in the middle of it, you know, we've got a lot of December birthdays.

[00:03:51] And so I'm really quite full on by December, but I've definitely started in a lot of the thinking prior to that. So decorations and wrapping and things like that. I tend to do after my youngest son's birthday on the 2nd of December, all the other stuff. stuff I definitely think about in advance and I think that's absolutely the key to enjoy it.

[00:04:08] Kanye. So what sort of things do you need to prepare that England and what sort of things do we talk about in our countdown to Christmas? Well 

[00:04:14] Ingrid: I think first of all, and I think that's the thing, but people actually spend a lot of time on his presence, isn't it? Yeah. What are we going to buy for other people mostly?

[00:04:24] And sometimes gosh, maybe somebody will ask me what I actually want to have for Christmas. Maybe I should make some sort of wishlist because every year I'm saying, Oh, I'm not sure. But actually then later I think, Oh, I could have asked this. I could have asked that. So I think, but it's mostly about present buying for other 

[00:04:39] Lesley: people.

[00:04:40] Yeah. And do you think we should be, so it's all about intentional shopping really, isn't it? So do we think that we should be saying to people what we want? Do you like that idea of actually being clear about what you want? Or do you think you should leave it to the other person? It's an interesting debate, isn't it?

[00:04:55] Ingrid: Oh, wow. Well, as you know, Lesley, maybe I'm not the right person to ask because I'm not a big present person in the first place. But I think if somebody would ask me straight on, like, what can I make you happy with? What can I... You know, what would you like to have for Christmas? I think I would actually answer and give him, you know, a couple of options.

[00:05:14] Kind of, Oh, I like a book or maybe, um, a voucher for a certain shop that I like. And if somebody doesn't ask, you know, it's just nice to get a gift. Let's be honest. But if, if people really kind of ask you out, I think I would be honest because then they can also buy something for you that you're going to 

[00:05:32] Lesley: enjoy.

[00:05:34] I think the interesting thing really is whether or not when we are buying presents or shopping for presents, whether we go with a list, I think that's the key, isn't it? Going with a list. And we really need to think about that intentional shopping. And so as part of our countdown to Crispin, we have a master gift list.

[00:05:49] But again, my tongue is being twisted. I can't even say my words as part of our countdown to Christmas. We have our master gift list, which really keeps you on track as well when you're doing that shopping to make sure you're not overspending, to make sure you've got a clear track of what you're doing, when, who you're buying for, what your budget is, that kind of thing.

[00:06:07] So getting that right is key because we spend a lot of money on people quite often. January, that credit card comes rolling in and it can be a bit of a shock on it. 

[00:06:17] Ingrid: Yes, I think we all get kind of, well, taken in by the moment, shall I say, like that. We kind of go all a bit crazy, and then we see all the things in the shops, and we kind of get sucked into the whole kind of, let's get lots of stuff, and then later it's a bit like, ooh.

[00:06:35] I kind of went a little bit overboard here. The budget has been blown to smithereens. This was a nice idea when I kind of thought about it, but it didn't really work out that 

[00:06:46] Lesley: way. I know exactly. Now the other things that we talk about, there's lots of things that we talk about in our countdown to Christmas.

[00:06:52] And we, we deliver the content by video, don't we Ingrid? So you and I chatting things through and thinking about how to prepare, light bulb moments, that kind of things. And one of the things that you love, you might not love presents so much, but you do love your cards, don't you? And we talk long and hard about cards and how to prepare Christmas cards.

[00:07:10] And so. You're a bit crazy with the cards. We, we, we, we talk about this in the countdown, so we don't want to spoil the debate, but let's just say she's crazy with cards.

[00:07:26] Ingrid: I do. I do like. I mean, I'm not a big present person, but a card though, at the other hand is, yeah, I don't know. I do spend my time. I try to thin out my list every year thinking, Oh my gosh, this year I'm just not going to send this many, but I'm thinking, Oh, but they really probably appreciate receiving a card of me.

[00:07:49] Lesley: Can I remind you what you said at the end of the last Countdown to Christmas from a recording when you said you were completely going to change your mind on what we do? So I think you need to go back and listen to, well, maybe not your own advice, but maybe your own light bulb moment from this time last year.

[00:08:04] So I'm going to put you into section two of the Countdown to Christmas and you listen in what you said in 2020. Okay. 

[00:08:12] Ingrid: I will do Lesley. I will do. Yes. You tell me because I do agree with you. It's, it, it, it, I have gotten better, but it compared to most people still write the ridiculous amount of 

[00:08:24] Lesley: cards. It does.

[00:08:25] I mean, it's nice to receive them, but you know, we have to think about lots of things, don't we? When it comes to cards. As well as wrapping as well. So wrapping is also a huge chore and we need to really plan it out, particularly if we want to go overboard on wrapping. Some people's wrapping is beautiful.

[00:08:40] I am not one of those people. I'm kind of like wrap it up and get it done and put it away. If you've got young kids as well, it can be an absolute nightmare to get that wrapping done on time and to get it done when they're not there and hide it and all of those things. So we cover all of that stuff as well.

[00:08:54] Don't we? 

[00:08:55] Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. I think some people just are, just have a knack for it. Don't they? They, they spend time and they're so creative and they've got the ribbons and they put like fresh holy in it and they've got the little tags. And I'm like, I'm always very, very impressed with people who can do that because.

[00:09:12] I probably, because I'm not a very creative person, I'm always very much in awe of other people who do that. But if that is a thing that floats your boat, maybe it's not cars, but maybe rapping is the thing that you enjoy the most. By all means, go for it, but you know how much work it is. 

[00:09:29] Lesley: And then the other thing that sets people into a completely blind panic is the thought that lots of people are going to come into their space that perhaps, you know, we've all been in the midst of a pandemic, a lockdown, not many visitors having been come over the last little while.

[00:09:42] And so sometimes the fear and dread of having to get your house prepared. for an onslaught of guests is like, Oh, I just don't want this to happen. So we talk a lot about how to prepare your space and what's important and what you need to focus on, what you need to prioritize. So preparing your space, your rooms is super critical.

[00:10:01] So again, you don't feel judged. You don't feel uncomfortable in your own house and you're ready to welcome guests. And super, super important, isn't it? And so of course we talk about a little bit of decluttering. Of course we talk about resets. Because we love that so much, don't we Ingrid? And so we cover that in our countdown.

[00:10:18] Ingrid: But Lesley, you know these, these like funny little, uh, cartoony and things and memes when they say nothing gets a person on fire. It's the kind of, when they know company's coming over and you need to clear your house, right? So you do a lot of stuff in a very short time. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. 

[00:10:36] Lesley: But is that like a saying?

[00:10:42] Is 

[00:10:43] Ingrid: that Have you never seen them then? Well, I've never seen 

[00:10:48] Lesley: one that says nothing gets you on fire to someone coming to your house. 

[00:10:54] Ingrid: Anyway. Anyway, that beside the point, but the point is you don't want to do everything 15 minutes before your guests arriving with Christmas. You want to have a stress free Christmas.

[00:11:06] So you need to start a little bit earlier. And that's why. Exactly. We've got a whole video about preparing your space. You need to start early and do a little bit in advance so you don't have to do the blind panic of tidying up. If you see people pull up in your drive for your Christmas dinner and o'clock on 

[00:11:27] Lesley: Christmas Eve, you're like, Oh, I forgot about that whole decluttering and organising my house thing.

[00:11:32] Now I've got a job on tonight. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay, so people are coming over, or maybe people aren't coming over, but we still more often than not want to prepare a nice meal, don't we, for Christmas Day, for Christmas Eve, different people celebrate at different times, of course, don't they? Yeah. So, we buy a lot of stuff, we buy a lot of food and drink, don't we?

[00:11:52] Like, every time we, ooh, that's nice, ooh, let's get some mince pies, ooh, let's get some, ooh, let's get some Quality Street, ooh, let's get... We just become a little bit obsessed and we have... Huge amounts of food and drink. We don't really have a problem, to be fair, in getting through the drink here in this house, I must admit.

[00:12:08] But food we definitely still have to buy sometimes. So, but yeah, food and drink, we need to budget for that. We need to plan it out, don't we? We need to make sure we've got the right amount of stuff. Stuff we need to make sure that it fits in the fridge because can't just buy whatever we wanna buy because it might not all fit in the fridge.

[00:12:24] At the same time, if we are having multiple meals on this, on different days, the shops are closed. So it's tricky, isn't it, to get it right. 

[00:12:31] Ingrid: I think also because we're so tempted, Lesley, in the shops, because they suddenly have all these nice crackers and nice kind of nibbles and the, and it all looks so festive in the packaging, and you think yourself, ooh.

[00:12:45] I fancy that. That looks good. Why did they not sell it throughout the year? Why do they sell it only with Christmas? So I think that's one we can kind of sucked into the buying as well because they love that. They know how to do that presentation to get us to buy more stuff. And I think, I mean, you open the fridge and you think how many people are coming here?

[00:13:06] And then it's like, Oh, it's only the two of us or the four of us. We could, we could feed like three families, you know, in one day, no problem. It's, it's, it's all, it's a bit crazy. 

[00:13:18] Lesley: It is, but we, we succumb to it every year don't we? That's the thing. So we're not going to, we're not going to try and spoil things by saying don't succumb to it, but we're just going to try and make you have a little think and maybe plan it Yeah.

[00:13:28] Now, now this is my favorite thing. This is my domain. You like cards, I like, well you like decorations as well to be fair. You love a tree, but I kind of go overboard a little bit on decorations. And I blame my time in America for that. That's what America made me do it. So a couple of years in America and I completely bought into everything and bought everything in fact as well, bought into it and bought it.

[00:13:54] And so I now have these beautiful decorations that go out, but again, decorating the house, however you do that takes a lot of time and energy and planning, doesn't it? 

[00:14:03] Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. That even if, even if you have one tree, Lesley. That, that's half a day's worth of work, you know, getting everything together, getting it out of the basement, the garage, the loft or wherever you've got it hidden away in your house in the eves of, of, of cupboards and whatever, getting the room ready to put a tree up.

[00:14:22] You know, it, it, there's a lot of work involved and there is, you need to do planning and especially if you're going to go outside with lights and decorations and all of those things. Oh 

[00:14:34] Lesley: yeah, that's a day's work in itself, really doing outside. So, um, yeah, Steve and I split between inside and outside to be fair.

[00:14:40] So he does outside, I do inside. So, um, but yeah, again, needs planning. And also it's important to them, put it away in the right way as well. Isn't it super important to put your decorations away in the right way so that next year you are very organised and ready to go. 

[00:14:59] Ingrid: Yeah. I think, I mean, that's, I mean.

[00:15:00] This is the reason why we've done a whole video about decorations, because there, there's so much that needs to be sorted out to do it properly, to set it up properly, and then to tidy it away all properly, properly again. 

[00:15:13] Lesley: Yeah, and there's going to be loads and loads of hints and tips in there that are really going to help you because we've done this a lot.

[00:15:17] So the content of the course is all done by video. So it's Ingrid and I chatting things through, loads and loads of hints and tips, checklists to keep you on track. And each video is probably somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes, I would say. And what we did last year is we... Each of our members took that one week at a time.

[00:15:36] So we have like a six week countdown, which is called our countdown to Christmas. So you will get all the content at the same time. You don't need to count down if you want, but we definitely recommend that you maybe take it one week at a time so that then we, what we don't want to happen is for it to become overwhelming again, which is why we want you to do it on a countdown.

[00:15:53] So that's basically the way that it works, isn't it Ingrid? Yeah, 

[00:15:56] Ingrid: yeah, it's, it's just, you know, yeah, it's really handy and we should not forget our prepare yourself video, Lesley. I 

[00:16:06] Lesley: know. Well, this is the most important thing is that we think about, we always think about everything else first and then we think about ourselves last.

[00:16:12] But I think one of the super important things when you're decluttering and organising your house or whether you're preparing for a holiday, whatever that is, is to allow yourself to enjoy yourself, to allow yourself to take part in the special thing that you've created. So that's why when we're decluttering and organising our house, to be able to finish the projects and sit back and.

[00:16:33] Celebrate the wins that you have had, and sometimes we get so wrapped up in Christmas and everything that comes along with that, that we don't allow ourselves to, to breathe and to enjoy and to be able to sit down, you know, we're constantly, constantly on the go, particularly for a lot of people in a lot of houses, it falls very much on one person to do most of the organising, not all of the organising, but most of the organising, and you will know if that falls on your head.

[00:16:58] And so we definitely want you to spend some time to enjoy yourself and enjoy that Christmas period. 

[00:17:03] Ingrid: Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I think that's definitely true, Lesley, and I think delegation is a big part of that as well. That's what we talk about a lot in our, um, in our Countdown to Christmas video, that's, that's part of the course.

[00:17:15] So very, very important to do that and to think about that in advance and not when you've got basically everybody in your house and, um, and waiting for food sitting around the table, basically, that's a bit too late. So that's why. Again, we talk about Christmas in October. 

[00:17:34] Lesley: It does sound a little bit crazy, doesn't it?

[00:17:36] But yeah, it's important. It's important, isn't it? So Ingrid, we've spoken about the videos, we've talked about the checklist, is there anything else that's included in the course? 

[00:17:44] Ingrid: Yes, Lesley, you're right. Besides the video and the checklist, we're also going to open a dedicated forum for everybody who buys the Countdown to Christmas course.

[00:17:55] Because you might think to yourself, I have a question, or I would love some feedback, or I'm running into a problem about this Christmas course. I would love to know what other people think about it. And you can ask us your questions. 

[00:18:11] Lesley: I think I'm going to go and listen to the course again to remind myself of our advice to be fair.

[00:18:16] You need to listen to the cards one, I'll listen to the decorations one, and I'll listen to food and drink one and then between us we'll get all sorted for Christmas, won't we? Yeah, the most organised Christmas ever. And I bet you're really looking forward to Christmas this year, Ingrid, because you're going to be able to spend it with your family this year, of course, which you couldn't last year.

[00:18:33] Yes. We all had a cut down version, didn't we, last year? of us were still in some kind of lockdown last year. And so wouldn't it be nice to be able to hit the ground running again this year when most of us are able to get back and do it the way that we want to do it? Yeah. So Ingrid, let's talk about price.

[00:18:50] So our ideal is that people get started sooner rather than later. That's what we like. We like to be super organised and prepared. So what we're doing is we're putting a special, a kind of super early bird on till the 15th of October. So that's not long to go till the 15th of October. The course is going to be discounted from 49, which is our standard price, and this is American dollars, down to 29.

[00:19:14] Don't worry if you're elsewhere in the world, it will convert to your local currency on checkout. And then after the 15th of October, it's going to go to 39 instead of 49. And then from the 1st of November, it's going to go up to our standard price. So you see what we're doing there. We really want you to buy it in October and get started.

[00:19:33] And so that's why we're giving you this little incentive. 

[00:19:36] Ingrid: Yes, definitely. And if you would like some more details, and if you're like, yeah, I'm in, I want to do this, go to declutterhub. com forward slash countdown. You can find the details there. And then if you're like, I want to buy this course, you can click on the button and the course is going to land into your inbox straight away.

[00:19:55] Now, Lesley, before we go, what are we going to do on the podcast next week? Because I believe it's going to be you next week. Isn't 

[00:20:02] Lesley: it? Yeah, it's going to be me. I was talking to our lovely member, Abby. So Abby is going to tell us all about her decluttering journey with the declutter hub. And I loved it so much because she got her parents involved.

[00:20:13] And so it's such a lovely story. So do check in and listen in to my interview with our guest. 

[00:20:21] Ingrid: So thanks so much for being here. Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next time.
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