Episode 376 – Countdown to Christmas – prep early, stress less

Ingrid: As October unfolds, it's time to start ahead and think about Christmas. The festive season can be wonderful, but it can also be stressful when we leave everything to the last minute. In this episode, we're diving into routines and advance preparation. You can start in October to set yourself up for a calmer, more organized December.

From planning meals and gift lists to creating household habits to reduce overwhelm, we'll share practical strategies to make your Christmas stress free, enjoyable and truly festive.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

Ingrid: If you like what you hear, be sure to hit that follow or subscribe button. Share us with your friends or leave us a review. It makes a huge difference to us.

Well, hello Lesley. it's October and we are talking about Christmas, who would have thought?.

Lesley: I know, but you know, it is interesting 'cause even a month ago it was so strange, right? As soon as the 1st of September kicked around, all of a sudden. the Christmas stuff is on your feed. Right? I think there must be an unwritten rule out there in the, in the retail world, which is like, okay, it's fair game.

And people kind of play around at it a little bit, don't they? And they, over the summer and you're like, oh, there's like Christmas things in the shops already. But on the 1st of September, it really ramps up. We're like four weeks down the line. And we're really starting to think about it on a personal level.

You are always gonna have those people that are super organized and like to prep things and budget and all of those for lots of different reasons. But the vast majority, but majority of us really started to think about it October, maybe November time. And so what we're gonna talk about today is. We don't wanna go over the top with this, but there are some things that are gonna help you generally in your home, but also set you up for success for the festive period. And there are many festivities, not just Christmas, but Christmas tends to be the one that we focus most on. But whatever it is that you're celebrating a lot, there's a lot of stuff going on in December. Let's try and do a little bit of adv advanced prep to make sure that we really enjoy it, because it becomes so stressful, doesn't it?

Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. I think we really want to kind of get your mindset changing a little bit and go, this year I just don't wanna do that last minute craziness of, of shopping and thinking about what I'm gonna have and going super stressful because suddenly guests have decided to show up and you're thinking that your house is not in order, and all of those things.

Let's just take a step back and think and talk about, okay. There is time. There is now two and a half months of time to think ahead, plan ahead and just, we want you to have a nice Christmas because always the people who don't have the nicest Christmas are the people who've put in the most work. That's wrong, that's not right.

We want you to have a nice time as well.

Lesley: Because some of these things are nice, you know, like there's always gonna be things about, about Christmas, about any other festivity that we enjoy. Some people love shopping for gifts for other people. Some people love wrapping and what that presents, you

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: represents, you know, and really get great joy out of wrapping.

But if you've suddenly got 40 things and you've got, you know, sort of four hours to do them. you rush it and you can't spend the time enjoying it. So the earlier you start, the more you can enjoy it because it is about enjoying the whole runup. You know, we said this so many times before, Ingrid, you know, we, we focus very much on the big day itself, but actually the runup to it, particularly in December, and particularly if we've got children. It's so lovely because there's all of the things, the nativities, the, you know, the going, the Christmas plays, you know, going out, seeing Father Christmas, all of those things. That's what it's all about. And if you are kind of running around like a headless chicken. Worried about what you're gonna buy and what you're gonna buy for food and who's coming and making those things, then you can't enjoy the things that are enriching at Christmas.

And so if you

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: in October or November, it leaves your December that little bit more free to actually enjoy the things that we wanna be doing, which is generally socializing or lovely family time. Right.

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely. So Lesley, what have you so far then organized for Christmas? Have you gotten anything off your list yet or are you like, right, this is, this podcast is like giving me a great reminder to get cracking now or are there already some plans in place?

Lesley: Yes, there are plans in place. I've got a broad idea of what I wanna do. I'm really lucky 'cause in terms of the present buying

Ingrid: I.

Lesley: Steve, as we know, loves buying presents. He's now retired. So he is got a little bit more time on his hands, but then it comes over to me for the food side of things. He'll do the shopping, loves to shop.

That boy loves to shop, so he's happy. Any kind of shopping type stuff, he's happy. but all of the other peripheral stuff around it, typically I'll do. So I'll do the wrapping. Have I started wrapping at this moment in time? No, I have not. I won't leave it till the last minute. It'll probably be something that I do in early December, to be honest with you. yeah, I, I've got a plan and I probably. We'll do, it depends. The last couple of years, I'm not gonna

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: bit more frantic, but I think this year I'm just that little bit calmer than I was last year and the year before. So I think, will try and get things done in October and November to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: that time in

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Lesley: then?

Ingrid: Good. so, our, we always go to Holland over Christmas to see the family, and we are spending there a good eight days, doing both sides, and seeing lots of friends as well. So we already have got some plans with friends booked in. we are going to go to holiday on ice on Christmas Day.

We literally have just a book that, only a little while ago. We were like, right, we always love doing something with my side of the family. so, my mom, said, well, why don't we go to Holiday on Ice this year? So that's, I'm, I'm, except super excited about that. And, we're, I'm as always going bowling on Boxing Day.

That's the tradition. We stick with it. We love it. So those are like the main plans where we're staying travel, what we're do, are kind of really firming up now. So, yeah, it's nice to have that, that broad plan in place. So. Really helpful, but of course that does mean I don't have to host at my house, which takes away some of the stress.

But I do have to be super organized because I'm not in my own house over Christmas, so I have to make sure that I bring all the right stuff, so my brain is already thinking ahead as well.

Lesley: Just thinking about the poor ice skaters they have to do. Skate around on Christmas Day entertaining you? Is that what happens? There's

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: stuff that goes

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: Christmas Day. Is there normally, I wonder if that's because sinterklass is the big focus in Holland and it's not actually Christmas Day

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: as it is elsewhere in the world. And so perhaps there's a little bit of that because I'm sure in the UK don't get stuff happening on Christmas Day like that, you know, that kind of entertainment type thing and shows and theater and stuff. So. but

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: yourself and they'll just work themselves into the ground anyway, so, but what, what's important for us to talk about, Ingrid is.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: of these things that we're gonna talk about today, many of these things that we're gonna talk about today are good for everything. So yes, we're giving ourselves a little bit of head start of Christmas, but let's talk about some of the things.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Getting routines established is really powerful, isn't it? And it keeps your everyday

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: running smoothly. So even if this, this is just a kind of, oh, I need to get myself sorted for Christmas, all of these things that you put into place now in October, November are gonna really help you long term. So. Reset routines, planning, all of those kind of things. The future proofing things a little bit, aren't they?

They're helping you get into good habits. So let's talk a little bit about the kinds of things that you can do to give yourself that little bit of head start. And I wanna go in on laundry. It's something that is overwhelming

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: in people's homes, and if you can get on top of your laundry. And sometimes it might take weeks to get on top of your laundry.

If you've got really behind, really gonna help you long term, isn't it?

Ingrid: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Laundry is such a massive bug bear for people because laundry has so many steps involved, and it needs to go in the dry, in the washing machine, taken out of the washing machine, hung up being dried, being folded, being possibly ironed, going back into the cupboards, and of course, if there's one.

Two or more people in your house, you know, the mountains of stuff just grow. And if that's something, that laundry basket, you know, the laundry basket, let's be realistic, will hardly ever be empty. There's all, you've literally just emptied it and somebody throws in a pair of sneakers in the, and you're like, I've literally just been on top of everything.

But there's a difference between, okay, I just need to do one or two loads of laundry. Compared to, I've got a backlog of 12 loads of laundry and there's piles of washing everywhere, and I've lost track of what's clean, of what's dirty and all of those things. So. And of course, laundry and clothes create a lot of their volumous of voluminous volumous.

That's a new word, Lesley voluminous. So if you've got behind on 12 loads and there's piles everywhere, it creates a massive amount of visual clutter as well. Apart from all the times you see your head like, I need to do these chores. I need to get on top of it. So now, you know, go right, I'm gonna do. Every other couple of days, I'm gonna do an extra load of laundry to clear that backlog because that will save you from buying more clothes.

It'll save you from actually going through and thinking I've got nothing to wear and go, actually, wow. Yes. Somewhere in this pile was this stock that I couldn't find, that I would love to wear. So you're gonna save money, which we love as well.

Lesley: Yeah, I, I think the thing is about laundry, once you start to get down to the bottom of that pile, if it's got a little bit out of control, what it then does is it allows space for decluttering as well. So you undoubtedly will declutter as you go through that laundry pile. So laundry is definitely something to start to get ahead on for lots and lots of different reasons. As

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: planning and starting to eat out your fridge, your freezer at your store cupboards. So it, it feels kind of counterintuitive 'cause what we do at this time of year is we start to build stock up, but in order to, to build things up and start to plan for that festive period, depending on how much you're hosting, like if you're not hosting at all, then there's no reason why you need to go and spend like 400 pounds in one week at the shops.

We just feel we've got this weird like habit thing in our heads, which means it's Christmas, we have to. Spend all this money on. Things that we would never ordinarily have, you know, I mean like copious amounts of minced pies, nuts that we might not have the rest of the year. All of those things we just, oh, we need to buy that.

We need to buy, jars of mince meat. We need to buy all these things. And so we've really got to kind of cut it down to the wire. I just feel like we feel as if we're missing out if we don't do that, order to kind of build things up, if we are gonna have additional food. We definitely need to pare down, and so we need to make sure that there is space in our pantry, that there is space in our freezer, in our fridge, in our overflow, all of those kind of things in our drinks, cupboards, whatever that is, need to create space for potentially what's coming.

Ingrid: Create an inventory of what you have and use up some of this stuff to, you know, create, create space like Lesley said, but also to start saving at that bit of money as well. So, you know. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm budgeting this right? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm paring things down. And now is then the time that I can actually go, okay, now I have cut room everywhere to buy the larger packaging because I've got more people to host, et cetera. So using stuff up can be really helpful as well.

Lesley: Anything that we can do in terms of decluttering and tidying at this stage is massively going to help us at Christmas so we don't have this last minute frantic rush of things that we need to do. So think about doing the deep clean on your bathroom. Think about going through that spare bedroom at this moment in time so you can make it the best that it can be for guests. about pairing down your children's toes so that you can be ready for what's coming. All of these things are so important and get stuck in now. Really, really important. We just want things to be less chaotic so that you can enjoy yourself in December. Let's be more specific after the break, Ingrid. But for now, I think we need to pop to a break and come back and give you some more ideas about the types of things that you can do to prepare yourself for a stress-free Christmas.

Ingrid: Hi everyone. Welcome back. After your little break, we are talked about having less stress over Christmas, which in our opinion is of course always a very good idea and there are things you can do now to help you with that. So let's dive in, Lesley. What are things that people can do of course, besides working on their laundry and working on their weekly, daily resets and start to get that meal planning a little bit more under control?

What are other things we can do?

Lesley: I think it really is all gonna start with a list. You need to start. Writing lists, don't you, Ingrid, about all of the things about the meals, about the food, about the budgets, about the presents, all of those things need some kind of plan putting in place. So how, however you make your list, it might be digital, it might be notes on your phone, it might be written on the back of an envelope, whatever that is. Think about creating some kind of list. 'cause it's only then when you can get your thoughts and ideas out of your head and onto a list. That you can then start to do something with that list and start to put actions in place. So I think it's really important to think about those things. Make sure you've got your calendar sorted. Make sure that your budget is in place. Really important. This is the worst time of year for things to go completely out of control. And so think about what your budget is for gifts. Think about what your budget is for food, for drink, for social, all of those kind of things, and stick to it as best you can. So we almost need to create a sort of. A secondary Christmas command center almost, don't we? Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah, and I think what would be really helpful as well, if you are the type of person who loves to go out and shop and you still get your receipts in a paper form instead of a digital form, make sure that you maybe get a, a plastic wallet or something where all the Christmas receipts go in. If, if, if budgeting is something that's really important to you and you have to spend time on.

If you are somebody who gets their, receipts all electronically, create a folder in your inbox and where you can kind of put them all in so you can, you don't have to scramble around if you're suddenly going, oh. How much have I spent and what have I done and what did I buy for people and how is it equal?

Keep track of that a little bit and start maybe with that from the beginning instead of later going where have all my receipts gone, and then having a big job of sorting it all out. Just a plastic wallet or a folder in your email, and you are off to the right start.

Lesley: I think the receipts are really important as well. 'cause often there will be returns and I think in the, in the spirit of the way that we suggest decluttering, and giving gifts. You should be okay with somebody returning a gift if they want to. So if that's not fit for them, if it doesn't fit, then we don't want that kind of guilt that you may have had that for many, many years where, oh, I can't take that back 'cause somebody gave it to me. We need to kind of practice what we preach a little bit and. Open the doors for people to return things if they want. And to ask you for a gift

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: For a receipt. So that's another reason why you need to keep all those things together. think, you know, we did a podcast a couple of weeks ago all about intentional gifting.

and so go back, revisit that. 'cause that's, we're not gonna go into, into that too much. 'cause we, we talked about it at length a couple of weeks ago. Is this now the time for you to really pare down for you to think about experiences, not stuff and that kind of thing? Think about it. Plan your gifts. Be intentional.

Make sure you're not overspending on stuff that people absolutely don't need. 'cause all of that is really going to help you.

Ingrid: no, that's indeed, absolutely true, Lesley, that podcast is great to return to. So let's then talk a little bit about, the food preparation. Are you somebody who loves to create their own, mint spice or their own Christmas cake? Or do you have a recipe that you need to dig out?

Or do you maybe create something for Christmas that's a traditional thing and you're like, Ooh, I might have to do a bit of a, a, a a run on that, on that certain type of dish? Before it's Christmas day, let me do a trial on this. Have I got the ingredients? Have I got all the measurements right? Because you don't wanna leave it until Christmas days.

You go, I've actually forgot something that's really important. Or I actually should have put this in the oven three hours before the actual time that I've put it in, and now I'm stressing about if it's gonna be finished in time. So have a little think about that.

Lesley: You know what, Ingrid, we've spoken about financial budgeting, intentional gifting. we've talked about preparing your space. We've talked about planning your meals, but really need to come back to the fact that the most important thing that you need to prepare is yourself. You need to allow your. Space and time to, to enjoy the festive period. And what that might mean is setting real realistic expectations for other people, you know, telling people in advance how you would like them to help. You know, I said right at the beginning of this podcast, you know, Steve loves to shop, so it's a great thing for him to do the shopping for him to do the. You know, deciding, finding fantastic things if he wants to buy it or deciding on experiences or whatever that might be. 'cause he loves doing that. I don't love it that much. And so, but I'm quite happy to do the wrapping and do the practical stuff, do the food stuff, all of that kind of thing. So split, divide and conquer a little bit.

This is not all about you doing everything and if you, if you're coming into this guy dreading Christmas, because you always feel so overwhelmed with the amount of things you can do. this year, the year that you go, things are going to change this year and I'm gonna split the chores. I'm gonna, if people come to my house on Christmas Day, for example, if I'm hosting, I'm gonna make it clear in advance.

I'd really like a little bit of help with this bit of it. I'm fine with the food preparation. 'cause you might feel, oh, I don't really want anybody to get involved in that, but I'd love help with the washing up. This is the time of day that I want a little bit of help so I can enjoy myself. It might be like. I'm doing the food your family's doing, the washing. Or it could be even as simple as that. But it's really important not to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and struggle yourself. It's important for you to lay out what you want, really. 'cause we, we feel a little bit reticent to do that, don't we? Ingrid? And I think that people don't

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: unless you tell 'em if you've always done something, they might go, oh, they're happy doing that.

They've always done that. But if you're not happy doing that, make sure you tell them.

Ingrid: Yeah, I, I was thinking exactly the same thing when you were talking, Lesley, because I was like, it's so important to let other people help as well, because people do offer, but we're like, no, no, no, no. It's all, I'm fine. I'm fine. Fine. And then you are the one. Who sometimes can go, I'm absolutely exhausted.

Not only from the day itself, but also the whole runup because you feel that you've been doing everything. So let other, if people offer, can I bring something? Can I do something? Can I just go, actually, my inclination to say no because you know, but actually it would be nice if you could do the dessert.

For Christmas, or if you could, help me lay the table, or if you could, whatever it is, right? And the same within your own family. What can you delegate to other people? You don't have to do unless you're, you have tiny, tiny kids who can't, you know, who can't do anything, but. Even children can help as well, but with little things as well, they can maybe help you write the envelopes or your, the envelopes or your, for your Christmas cards.

They might be able to help you decorate a tree. They might wanna go with you to pick a tree. You know, they might be able to help you with getting stuff from the basement or the loft to get things down. When you're decorating the house. They might be able to help hoover the guest room or. Help you strip the beds.

If you're gonna have guests, it doesn't have to fall all onto you. And I think when you think ahead a little bit and put that planning into place and go, okay, what's happening here? What are we doing? Where are we going? and what are the tasks? And, and almost some of those chores that need to happen to make this all happen.

And what can other people do? You, you don't want it to fall all onto you.

Lesley: It is really made me laugh. Right? 'cause I think I, I think I probably misheard you. So I think, I think you said even if you've got little kids who can't do anything, maybe you need to get them to bring the stuff in the basement. Right? The Christmas cards. Choose the tree Hoover, the spare room. I'm like, just like a sort of slave labor scenario for young kids, but maybe I misheard. I dunno. I was like, really? Are they gonna help me with all those things? but anyway, so just a quick reminder then. So this is just, you know, what you need to do in your household. Every household is different. Every, you know, Ingrid's going off to Holland, she doesn't have to host. I will be hosting things.

Make us tick. Some of us like cooking, some of us like you're not touching my Christmas table. That brings me great joy every year. And so you do you, but have a little think about it. But the most important thing is if there's something that you don't wanna do, make sure you let other people know. think what we would love you to do this week, then if you, if you're like, oh, actually I do need to kind of start thinking about that, is start doing one thing that's maybe, you know, it's not, maybe not the Christmas, maybe not the Christmas shopping, but start to.

Put that load of laundry in, start to devote like half an hour or an hour on Sunday to try and get the ironing pile down a little bit. You know, start to go through some stuff. As you're doing that laundry to say, actually, I'm gonna let go of a little bit of decluttering. Start to look through your children's wardrobes to see whether or not they've already got an outfit and so you don't have to go and buy them something new. So start small. Commit to one thing. It's Friday today. If you listen to this on the day that podcast comes out. Think about one thing that you can do this weekend that's going to turn the dial a little bit for you on that Christmas preparation.

Ingrid: Yeah, and I think what might be really helpful, Lesley, is to remind our listeners as well that we have a countdown to Christmas. So if you're thinking, oh yeah, you've got lots of good ideas, Ingrid and Lesley, but I need to have a little bit more, advice. I need to have more information. We have a countdown to Christmas that, has videos about all these different topics and it can really help you.

It's got a fantastic checklist as well, kind of starting back, you know, this is what you need to do now and this is what you need to do eight weeks before and seven weeks and six weeks. So might be super helpful. So we'll put the link to that in the show notes as well if you want to, get that as well to help you.

Lesley: Yep. It's on offer as well from $49 down to 19 for the whole of October and November. So, but what we would advise is it isn't, it is kind of like a six to eight week. Doesn't mean to say that you can't condense it down 'cause you absolutely can, but we would love it to be done over a, a kind of eight week period.

So if you're thinking about doing that, jump on it straight away so you can get that head start. So yeah, countdown to Christmas course. declutterhub.com/countdown is where you need to go. And yeah, it's a great course. People buy it every year. People love it every year, don't they? Ingrid?

Ingrid: Definitely, definitely. So we hope this podcast has been helpful. We hope that you're not crossed that we talk about Christmas at the start of October, but it's really, really important and yeah, we hope to see you next week. But for now, thanks for listening and see you soon.

Lesley: Fantastic. So listeners, have a think over the weekend.

What would your book be? Have you got a book in you? What stories would you love to preserve? You might even wanna start this weekend by starting to record yourself, starting to record or write down some of those stories for yourself. And don't forget, of course we've got. All of the details of everything that we've spoken about today in the show notes declutterhub.com slash 3 7 4.

So thank you so much for listening and we will see you all next week.