A graphic of the hands of Santa writing a sign saying preparing for a stress free christmas, with gifts and part of a christmas tree and a clock
Episode 63 – Preparing for a stress free Christmas

In this podcast, we talk all about the preparation you need to do to ensure you have a stress free Christmas. Whilst Christmas can be a wonderful time of year, it can also be super stressful trying to get everything done, so we are going to chat about certain things you can do a week or so in advance, so a stress free Christmas is on the agenda!
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of the declutter hub podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:32  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 63 of the declutter hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley  0:38  
And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:39  
If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the show for you, as well as the free resources on our declutter hub.com website, like the podcast checklists, some guest blogs. We also have an exclusive area where we guide our members step by step to declutter their homes, we realise this can be very overwhelming. So we're here every step of the way. With courses live q&a s and a community discussion. Take a look on members dot declutterhub.com. Now in today's episode, Lesley and I will be talking about getting your home ready for the holidays. By now you will probably have your Christmas tree up most of your present shopping done. And if you do cards, they probably should have been posted by now if they have to go to somewhere International. But there are still lots of other jobs to do before Christmas. So let's chat about what you can do between now and Christmas day. She can enjoy spending time with your family. And yes, Lesley, please comment on my lovely Christmas hat that I'm wearing, especially for for recording this podcast. 

Lesley  1:45  
And so it just came we do we do this by video. So we do this podcast via video because I'm in Manchester in England in London, as you know. And then she pops up with her Christmas hat on and my okay. And there but mine is still in boxes. And so I won't be wearing my Christmas hat today. But you do look incredible, Ingrid.

Ingrid  2:01  
I know it is very cute, actually. But you actually should. I know you've made a photo that was really, really good. Because I think I look very cute with my lovely. I've got a really nice Christmas hat, which I use as well when I go singing with the choir. And we do these Christmas performances in like December time. And we're allowed to wear Christmas hats. So I've got a really nice hat. So I thought to get into the spirit of recording this podcast.

Lesley  2:26  
I know it's crazy. And I feel like we need to put a picture on somewhere with you in the Christmas. Yeah.

Ingrid  2:34  
That's a really good idea. So Lesley, it's a mid December, my tree is up my international Christmas cards that I sent I sent quite a lot of cards, I'm not gonna lie, I love it. And Allah for being connected to all my friends and family all over the world. So they've been posted. The shopping is done, attached. So quite a lot of other bits to do. So how far are you in your preparation? Not very far.

Lesley  3:01  
Basically, not very far. But I will get there. It's all in my head at this moment in time. I know one of the things that's a really good thing to do is to start making making a list, isn't it? So if you're not, I am a kind of in my head type person to be honest, in terms of lots of the things that I do. But I know if you're if you feel a little bit disorganised and a little bit out of control, then writing a list is definitely the first thing that you should do. Because you can get overwhelmed. Can't you talk about lists writing quite a lot. And you love your lists don't yeah, I'm I had person. Ingrid is a list person for sure. And we both come up with the same things and the same output, I'm sure at the end of the week. So we encourage you with your listen me with my head. But yeah, I think it's really important to gain some control rights unless you can start ticking things off.

Ingrid  3:48  
Yes, I agree. And I think all of the things we're going to talk about hopefully will help you as well when you start to create this list. Or maybe you're like maybe even pressing pause on this podcast. Now you thinking I'm going to write some stuff down first, and then I'm going to read, repurpose play on the podcast. And then I'm going to listen to what Ingrid and Lesley have to say, I don't know, whatever works for you go ahead and do it. But I agree. If a lot of things are swirling around in your head, it's just really nice to jot things down. You don't even have to tick them off. But just to get them out of your brain onto some sort of piece of paper or task list in a Trello in your phone. It doesn't really matter how you want to do it. But make sure you start writing a list.

Lesley  4:28  
Definitely. And ideally, if you can try and offload some of that list to some of the people within your family so there's anything at all that you can give to someone else to do do it just me I mean I quite often if I'm cooking at dinner at night and I know that we need to do an online shop I will literally get one of my kids to open online shopping. I'll be doing the cooking going through the cupboards saying we need this we need that we need the other and they're doing the ordering online so we're doing it together. But you know that that takes less effort than it does for me to sit down and keep flitting back and forth in between the computer my computer See my office, but they've got laptops in the kitchen. So things like that, you know, do your online shop. It's a little bit late probably for online shopping, because I think all the slots have probably gone this time of year, haven't they for the pre Christmas shopping, but definitely get all the people in your family involved in things.

Ingrid  5:14  
Yeah, I true definitely delegate tasks to other people. I mean, even if you're going to have to do some cleaning in your house, you're not the only one who has to do that. I mean, you can tell somebody else, can you please run over through that room? Or can you just take a cloth and wipe down some dust on the surfaces? It doesn't have to fall only on you the one who's listening to this podcast, if there are other people in your family delegate? Yeah, sometimes more

Lesley  5:41  
successful than others. I'm not gonna lie. Someone's time. Definitely, you know, there's certain people I may delegate to in my house. And there's certain people, certain people where, you know, I've may as well just do it myself. And I think that's the problem is that we get caught up in this rat race of, it's just easier sometimes to do things yourself, because by the time you've explained it, and then checked it and made sure it's alright. And chances are if you've got high standards, then it's not going to be okay. Anyway, so you're going to redo it. So yeah, delegation is a great thing for certain things. And to certain some people, I would say,

Ingrid  6:13  
yes, know what the strings are foreign for another person, and use that, if you know, I'm not sure if this does actually work, if I delegate it to somebody else, who can do it yourself. But if you think you know what, actually, they really enjoy going to the shops and getting the stuff for the food or the wine or whatever, delegate that task and maybe make a list together to say, Okay, what exactly do we need? What do we want? And don't just send them off with a random just going buy some drinks, if they've got no idea what that means? And they come back with loads of stuff you think, why did you buy that? Talk about that? Right? So what else Lesley between now and kind of Christmas? What else do we need to think about?

Lesley  6:55  
I think one of them, we're talking, we're gonna talk a lot about preparing your space and preparing your home on it. And one of the big things really, that you need to get on top of quite a few or a couple of weeks, at least before Christmas, is a hiding place, I'm feeling confident that most of the people listening to this podcast are listening to it on their own, not with the kids in the car. So for years, like that's the case. But if you've got if you've got presents that you're gonna give your children at Christmas, then you need to create somewhere in your house to hide these things. And sometimes, if you've got, if you've got quite a few kids, this is quite voluminous, isn't it in terms of the space that you need to hide these things? So think about what that might look like. We've got hiding places in our house that I'm not going to divulge even though my children are 2321 and 16, where those hiding places have been, I think they might know I'm not gonna lie, I think they might know we're now at that age. But yeah, we've had very successful hiding places for the last 23 years. And so it's important to make some space, isn't it?

Ingrid  8:01  
I think also, if you have started your Christmas shopping very, very early at some people do, make sure you go past all your hiding spaces and make sure you find all the stuff that you've actually bought. So you don't forget that you've actually bought it then think you have one or two or three present shorts, then you go out shopping like crazy, because you think oh my gosh, and then later in January, some of the use on the FET. Find the stuff that you had hidden away because it was a good hiding space. So have a run through and kind of go right? Have I been through every space that I could possibly could have put stuff? How are the persons going? Have I got everything for everybody? Where am I going to hide this until the big day. So don't do this on Christmas Eve, right? That's basically what we're trying to say, don't do this on Christmas Eve. Do this. That's why we're doing this book is on the 13th of December. So you still have about 10 days to get all of these kinds of stuff up and running. One of the

Lesley  9:02  
things that I've always done is is made a list so that I can compare and make sure that each child is getting a fair amount between the three of them. So I think that's really important as well. If you're like me, you like to wrap as you go. So I wrap as I go so that it's not this colossal task or together. And so then when you wrap and then I will keep things and they've all got their own individual spaces. And so I can see things as I'm going. Because the thing with says it's hard to keep track on where you've put things, particularly if you've not got one space where we can put everything. If you've got to have one present here and one present there. Most of our cupboards are crammed to the rafters with stuff and we've not gone well use the whole of the top of that wardrobe to put things that's that doesn't happen for a lot of people. So just be careful that you don't lose sight of things and forget that you've bought things quite often when we're decluttering people's houses. We will find wrapped presents and people should have given that to my daughter last year. I kind of try and keep some kind of control of things. So yeah, schedule some time for wrapping presents. As well decide how you're going to do that are you going to do it as you buy it quite often people prefer to do that so that kids can't find him if they do find things can't see what they are unless they map them, which they're not going to do. So things like that scheduled time for rapid and make sure you've got it all under control with a list.

Ingrid  10:14  
So yeah, point well made, Lesley about the wrapping presents. And I would like to talk to you a little bit about cleaning as well. Now some of us do all the cleaning ourselves, some of us have a cleaning lady that helps them or a cleaning person that helps them in their home to keep on top of all kinds of household tasks. If you know you're going to have people over for Christmas, and you're gonna have guests, and you're gonna have people for dinner or lunch or whatever books in there, because it doesn't really matter. Don't do all of your cleaning last minutes, you can already now maybe this upcoming weekend, do give your spare bedroom, if you've got guests saying Give your spare bedroom, almost like a deep clean, maybe get some Hoover under the bed and take some cupboards off the side, make some space, do a bit all of that. So at the last minute, one or two days, before they arrive, you just have to do a light dusting, fluff up the pillows a little bit and open a window and then you're done. So do something 30 minutes or 20 minutes daily on top of what you normally do around your home to kind of get ahead a bit of yourself. So you're not stressing out on Christmas Eve thinking I'm going to have six people for Christmas Day. There's thick dust on my on all my flat surfaces. And then you're going to be running around like a lunatic until two o'clock in the morning. And you're like, Oh, you're so stressed that you can't even enjoy the day. So start a bit now and do a little bit on a daily basis to kind of get ahead of yourself a little bit. Yeah, cuz I think it's really important

Lesley  11:44  
to be able to enjoy the time, isn't it? The end of the day, you know, we talked about presence, we talked about food. But ultimately what we're trying to do here is enjoy time with family and friends. And what you don't want to feel is judged for the state of your house, or control overwhelmed because there's things that you didn't get done that you wanted to get done, that there's things that you didn't take off your lesson, give yourself a break and give us an end, give yourself plenty of time to get things done, then that's the important thing. It's just about being able to relax, isn't it? Yeah,

Ingrid  12:13  
if we talk about the guest room a little bit more, I use my guest bedroom as a laundry room. So I know that always a couple of days before I have guests a week before I do a few more loads of laundry. So it's all dry two days before they arrived. So I can actually have time to fold it all away, and maybe do a bit of ironing the day or two days before. So I don't have an especially around the holiday season, you don't want to have piles of laundry and an ironing lying around everywhere. It's nice to already be on top of that a little bit. So if you can do an extra load this weekend, go for it. Because then maybe you think yourself, you know what, I'm going to have guests over Christmas. I'm going to actually get the guest bedding out this weekend. And if you think oh gosh, that could actually do with a bit of a wash and an iron or wash and a fold. You still have time. So get that out. Have a look at it. Decide if you need to give it a wash and possibly an iron. Do you have enough towels? Do you need to maybe do an extra load of towels. So you've got enough for your guests to come? Where's the extra duvet shed get all of that out? So it's not a last minute scramble to get everything together? Yeah, I think

Lesley  13:26  
anything that you can do in advance. I'm sorry. I'm laughing. In great anguish Christmas hat is like disturbing her. So she's like scratching her head in the middle of it was just making me laugh. I'm like, Yeah, you think you were all swanky and your Christmas hat? Ah,

Ingrid  13:45  
that's exactly I was just meant to say it. I'm actually roasting hot. So I'm going to take my hats off, because normally it's just for outside and I'm sitting here in my living room. And I'm going

Lesley  13:55  
to be but it was it was not falling last year. So thank you for the effort. So but I was getting slightly distracted by the scratch of the head underneath the Christmas hats. So anyway, right? Well, what was the words of wisdom that we were saying I'm sure there must be something. Yeah, if there's anything that you can do in advance of the tech, you know, like long enough passwords 13 to December or whenever you listen to this podcast over the next couple of days. Make sure that anything that you can do now do it. So if there's no one standing you get through between now and Christmas, put the burden on now it can sit there, you know if you can go out and buy things, booze, get things ready get glass or anything like that. Just do it in advance and just give yourself a little bit of a head start. Yeah,

Ingrid  14:37  
yeah, indeed. Let's talk about food and drink then because if you haven't even thought about what you're going to have for Christmas dinner, maybe now's the time to kind of get your head around that get your recipe books out the side you know make make a shopping list to make a meal plan. Another tip connected to that. Eat a little bit from your freezer and your pantry. So start to make some base for all that influx of food and drinks that are going to come into your house over the festive season. And of course, if you eat from your fridge is really, really good. And secondly, also in your freezer, and you save money as well. So that's, I think a bonus in this time of year. But you also create space for all that stuff that's coming in.

Lesley  15:19  
Definitely, I mean, we bought during, we do really forward plan, because we have quite a lot of sort of parties and people here really over Christmas, mostly young adults sending more. And so we have to have quite a large quantity of alcohol for Christmas Day. And so we tend to get that one earlier on in sort of October, November time, when it's 25% off, or six balls or more that kind of things we've already done out, you know, we definitely are all stocked up for things like that. If you've got things in your drinks cupboard that you've not used for ages, you know, like cures and spirits and things like that, think about a Christmas cocktail that you might do to use some of those, because that's one of the things that really sticks around in your house is alcohol, you know, for years and years and years. You know, think about using some of that up with like a sangria or some kind of Christmas cocktail or something like that. So it's quite so it's quite useful to use things, isn't it? Yeah, that's

Ingrid  16:09  
a that's a great idea. I hadn't even thought about that. That is true. That's a great idea. Lesley.

Lesley  16:13  
Not too much tequila.

Ingrid  16:15  
No, definitely not too much tequila. That is for sure. But also, if you are going to do like a whole Christmas dinner with 2345 courses? Do you have enough glasses? Is there enough? Okay, you do need to think about if you maybe need to do your Christmas cocktail in a cocktail glass or a champagne glass, because you're going to need your wine glasses white or red for your for your meal itself. Or if you're doing a non alcoholic Christmas, can you maybe maybe have a virgin version of a lovely cocktail that you're making so that people who are driving or cold drink for whatever reason, also feel that they are included? So think about glassware and don't kind of, you know, you don't want to have you need the same kind of glass, you're like, Oh, I actually only have about 12 of those. Well, I need 24. So be a bit smart about what you're going to serve, and what you're going to put on your table. So let's talk about the Christmas table then Lesley. 

Lesley  17:11  
Yeah, I think it's interesting, I think, and I know next week's podcast, we're going to talk to everybody about what our Christmases look like, aren't we? So we're not gonna go into too much detail. Yeah, preparing a Christmas table is one of the really nice things. I always do that on Christmas Eve. So I don't have to do it on Christmas Day. But I do definitely think about the types of things that I'm serving. So I already know that on Christmas Day, I will do something like for starter, prawn cocktail, or pate or something like that that's on a plate, rather than soup, which is in a dish. Because if I use the dishes, and then put them in the dishwasher, and there's lots and lots of people, that's one whole load. Whereas if I've got 1516 plates, then I can put them together. So I'm thinking that through dishes are much more bulky aren't they then plates? And so that's the kind of thing that I would think about for sure.

Ingrid  17:58  
I would probably say if you're now still about 10 days before Christmas, where's your tablecloth? Where are your napkins? Are you going to do linen? Are you going to do paper? If you're going to do paper? Can you get some within maybe a nice, a decorative holy on it or a Christmas theme on it? If you're very traditional? Is the silver coming out? Does that need a Polish cake that you can do that? Now you don't have to do that a day before Christmas? If you've got lovely candlesticks Do you still have the right candles for it? Where's the special crockery or plates for serving dishes that are traditionally always used for Christmas and maybe for special occasions, now's the time to get them from top or bottom cupboards in the corner and get them out and already, maybe give them a wash and give them get them ready. So it's all your prep, and nothing lasts super last minutes. I think that's really, really helpful.

Lesley  18:51  
On the day before any sort of big party or big gathering in my house, I always bring everything out all of the crockery, all of the glasses, and I don't get them out of the cupboard. When I need them, I get them out and put them on my work surface. So they're all there so I can check them all make sure they're all clean. And there's not any gone in though sometimes things do go in there a little bit rogue down there. So yeah, it's things like that, that I always do. And then you prepare, it's just one less thing to do, isn't it?

Ingrid  19:14  
And if you love I know a lot of families have a CD with Christmas music or a DVD they always watch that not might not be on Netflix or streaming available or maybe you've got it. But where is it because sometimes we put it away with your other DVDs or CDs or music or maybe it's gone into the Christmas box. Where's that stuff gone? So you don't have to do a scramble around on Christmas Day when everybody's ready to do the tradition of watching the snowman or the sound of music or whatever it is that you do on Christmas. And then you're like, I've got absolutely no idea. So if you do something like that, get that out and have that ready to go. So you again can enjoy it instead of having a scramble and having to fight to cupboards through stuff and going, Oh, no, it is that it is. So you can really sit down and enjoy it as well.

Lesley  20:07  
And I think that's so important. You know you mentioned enjoying it. We've said that once before, the important thing is that you enjoy it, and that everything is calmer. And it can only be calm if you think about how the day is going to run. So you know, time just kind of haemorrhages a little bit, doesn't it on Christmas morning, when you get up and do presents, then you have something to eat, get ready, you're trying to do a little bit of tidying up, particularly if it's anything like me where we go out in the morning, and then we come back for Christmas dinner, you got to be kind of advanced prep really for that. And so it's important to give yourself plenty of time to enjoy it. And so you're not rushing from one thing to another. But that really needs to be thought about. So be realistic about your timings on Christmas Day. Because there's an awful lot to get in, isn't there? Yeah.

Ingrid  20:49  
And you were talking, Lesley about having a plan on Christmas Day with your timings. I'm assuming you mean, because the Turkey needs to go in for a long time in the oven that you don't kind of think an hour before Christmas. Oh, let's put the turkey in. That's kind of three hours too late, isn't it?

Lesley  21:04  
Yeah, next week's podcast, we're definitely going to talk about what our individual Christmases look like, aren't they? And traditionally, and talk a little bit more about Christmas day and what we do on Christmas morning and Christmas Eve and things like that. And they're both quite different. You want to talk about that. So we're not going to spoil the surprise. Yeah, timings are very critical to me on Christmas Day, because I'm tend to be the one that hosts most of the time. So yeah,

Ingrid  21:26  
and I think our last thing is listeners, if you do have kids, and you know that centre is going to be very generous, maybe not only from you, but also from family members. Is there any option you can declutter of some toys before the big day. So you've actually got room for for new things to come in. So maybe this is a good time to go through the puzzles or go through the board games or go through the blocks and go, you know, what, if I'd grown that, I know that something is coming in from Santa, and I'm going to make a little bit of space. Or maybe even it's a good idea to ask the kids themselves and say, you know, what I'm hoping centre will be, you know, you've been really good. And this is gonna give you some presents. So can we clear out some things, so we can have room for all the presents that centres going to bring. So I think that's really important as well. And that doesn't have to be done on the last minute, but can be done as well, of course throughout the year. But if you can make a little bit of space, just before Christmas, that would be really great as well.

Lesley  22:26  
And I think it's a very important message, isn't it to the children as well, that things can't just come in, you know, something has to go out. And that's why it's always great for the children to give toys away in December, a lot of them will will give toys away at schools and things like that, or take them to shops and give them to homeless shelters or children's charities. So I think that message is super important as well to kids as well. Well,

Ingrid  22:47  
that's it. I think for this episode, Lesley, still quite a lot of things on how's your list doing in your head? Are you like Now go? Oh, my goodness. I have to do quite a lot. Yeah,

Lesley  22:59  
I think so. Yeah, I'll probably kick into action. You know, to be fair, Steve does an awful lot of it. So Steve does an awful lot of the present buy in and the just the food buy in and the drinks buy. And so he does an awful lot of that. And then everything else and he's really helpful on the day and the kids well, they know that mums always a little bit super stressed and trying to get everything better on Christmas Eve and they know better than to kind of descend. They'll either disappear out of the house so they don't have to be around. Or they'll they'll step in and they won't move because they know that it's more than the last worth so

Ingrid  23:32  
yeah, I mean, you're Charlotte a bit older. So I think I mean, my mind. I mean, mine will you know, I will give them jokes. I'm the delegating person. You do this, you do that. But yes, I'm looking forward already to next week's podcast. Let's see, because we're going to talk about our traditions and the things that we do over Christmas. So listeners that's it for this episode. And we hope you've all enjoyed listening and are inspired to take action. Can you maybe carve out between half an hour and an hour a day between now and Christmas, to get some of this planning on the go to do some of these jobs. And of course, we wanted to give you a little heads up that we're going to do another challenge in January. Because of course January is such a great time of year with the news resolutions and the things that you have planned for 2020. So yes, I can spill the beans, Lesley and I are going to do a January challenge. So we are looking forward to that already. Thanks for taking the time to listen today. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review and tell us what you think about the show. If you'd like to get more tips and advice please follow us on social media. We are an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as at declutter hub, and we have a lively supportive Facebook group where we chat all things clutter, you can search for the cultural hub community. We'd love to see you there. Take a look at members Delta declutter hub.com To find out more about our membership. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, please Subscribe to the declutter hub podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and iHeartRadio. And it will drop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time.

Outro  25:14  
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